Is there a God?

My parents are Christians. They go to church, they read the bible, and they often pray for me to do the same. Unfortunately, even when I was a child I found churches to be boring and I never felt a sense of community or belonging that the other attendees seemed to gather from the singing and praying. I just felt uncomfortable. Being an atheist came more naturally to me.

I would never go as far as Hitchens did to say “religion poisons everything”, but I do find it irritating when people try to push their beliefs onto me. However, every now and then I’ll read something or meet someone that makes me question my own beliefs. It’s easy to dismiss religion if your average example of a religious person is a bible bashing, homophobic lunatic from Westboro Baptist Church. But when I meet an intelligent, thoughtful person who can reconcile their religion with science, who is rational but has this unwavering faith, sometimes I find myself a little envious.

I guess I’m just interested to hear both sides of the argument, and like young C. S. Lewis, part of me is very angry with God for not existing. Maybe like Lewis I’ll also be kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting my eyes in every direction for a chance to escape conversion. In the meantime, this video is probably the best thing I’ve ever seen from the religious side, and if you have the time to watch it, please comment and let me know what you think.

P.S. Sometimes when I read G.K. Chesterton I accidentally become Christian for a few minutes –

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.