By Jeremiah Schroeder
“Man needs religion like a fish needs a bicycle.”
This, and other similar statements were written around campus with chalk. At first glance, they appear to refute belief in God, but in reality, they are pure propaganda with no basis in logical argumentation meant only to harden people’s hearts. If you desire reasons to believe God exists and would like to see serious argumentation on a higher level than sidewalk chalk, I suggest you head to reasonablefaith.org. It should be obvious to people that slogans on poster boards don’t refute the eyewitness testimony of the Gospels (2 Peter 1:16).
We need God simply to exist. He created us. In fact, nothing except God, would exist if it wasn’t God’s will to bring it into existence (John 1:3). God’s purpose in creating us was that we would glorify him and enjoy a relationship with him (Matthew 22:37-38). What an incredibly serious offense it would be to turn from our purpose and deny God — who we are indebted to for our very existence — the honor he deserves.
Sadly, we have all done this. We have spat in God’s face, saying, “I’m going to do this my way.” In pride and selfishness, we turn from God’s intention for us (Ephesians 2:2-3, Romans 3:23). This puts us between a rock and a hard place. Since God is a perfectly just God, he cannot let evil go unpunished. “The wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23). Why must we die for our sins? God is perfectly good. There is absolutely nothing evil about him. To allow us in his presence would be to allow evil into his presence. We deserve eternal separation from God.
We need God because of his mercy. Why hasn’t God punished us? He hasn’t because he loves us. Everyone, regardless of the depth of their sin, is loved by God. Therefore, the Father sent his Son to accept the punishment of death for us. In other words, God carried out the justice our sins deserve on himself on the cross at Calvary. He died, even though he was perfect. That’s how much he loves us. We have no condemnation now because he bore our sins on the cross, and he promises eternal life with him to all who will believe (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 8:1).
We need God to have hope. In this world, we are surrounded by struggle, sadness and evil. What wonderful joy we can have when we know that all we must do is trust in Jesus to have eternal life with him. To live forever in the glory of God as we were intended to. The trials of this life will pale in comparison to the “riches of our glorious inheritance” (Ephesians 1:18, Romans 8:18-25).
We need God to give us meaning and purpose. If we try to find ultimate meaning in anything of this world, we will always be disappointed in the futility of it (Ecclesiastes). We will never be satisfied by school, our careers, our social lives or even our spouses. That is because every person has a strong desire for something more, which can only be satisfied through a relationship with our Creator, Lord and Savior. Our true purpose (to glorify God) makes everything we chase after each day insignificant. Thinking eternally, our life is only a tool that should be used to glorify God until we meet God face to face (Mathew 6:19-21).
We need God to be good. Sin is a nasty part of us. We really can’t break free of it. We’re slaves to sin (Romans 7:7-25). No matter how hard we try or how much we want to, we can’t rid ourselves of the evil within us. Thankfully, God sent his spirit to dwell in us as believers. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we break free from the slavery of sin, and become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18, Romans 8:1-18). Through the spirit we will live in a way that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-26).
I’m not sure what fish and bicycles have to do with it, but it is clear to me that there is nothing we need more than a relationship with God.
Skywalker, lea
It is appalling that something like this is even allowed on any internet platform. The content is extreme and beyond offensive. I have never read the assertion of unfounded and unproven myth in this way. This is nothing more that outright lying. It assumes that the reader is without any education or intellect of any kind or any experience in life whatsoever. Anytime you assert anything unproven and make the effort to present it as factual, your are committing a lie. Worse, you are being deceitful, and dishonest. With such an important subject matter as this, the way in which the potential is there to alter a life, it represents the peak of immorality. It is this very thing that is at the core of what keeps humanity from coming together in harmony. You are most certainly entitled to believe the same things that the ancient people from the first century believed, but to make the assertion that people living in 2023 ought to do the same or else, is way over your pay grade. Offensively so. Keep in mind, those same people from the first century, the people that you share beliefs with, had no clue about the universe in which they live, had no clue what a virus is, or why their crops failed. Just that maybe if they sacrifice another child it might make it rain. This is the kind of belief that is best kept to yourself because whether you know it or not, it is extremism and anti progress. It is also merely a subjective take on events that most likely did not take place with characters that most likely where not real. Realize that nobody has any more information than anyone else. You have no more factual information that has lead you to conclude what is written here than an article of the exact opposite. The point is, you are not doing anyone the favor you think you are. You are actually making things worse. Simply because society knows that in effect, what you are saying is a lie a priori to the content. Because you believe it is true does not make it so and it is not right for you to assert in public that it is. There is a moral issue here before a belief issue.