Seeing Is Believing

“An agnostic is a man who thinks that it is impossible to know the truth in the matters such as God and a future life with which the Christian religion and other religions are concerned. Or, if not for ever impossible, at any rate impossible at present.”​—PHILOSOPHER BERTRAND RUSSELL, 1953.

THE man who coined the term “agnostic” was a zoologist by the name of Thomas Huxley. Born in 1825, Huxley was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and a champion of the teaching of evolution. In 1863, Huxley wrote that he could see no evidence that there was a God who “loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts.”

Many today would agree with the sentiments of those influential men, stating that they will believe only in what they can see. To have faith in someone or something for which there is no evidence is pure gullibility, they may say.

Does the Bible require that we blindly believe in God? Quite the contrary. The Bible shows that it is naive​—even foolish—​to put faith in claims that are not backed by evidence. “Anyone inexperienced puts faith in every word,” states the Bible, “but the shrewd one considers his steps.”​—Proverbs 14:15.

What, then, about belief in God? Is there really any evidence that God exists, let alone loves us and cares for us?

God’s Qualities Revealed

The Bible writer Paul, while speaking to a group of Athenian intellectuals, asserted that God “made the world and all the things in it.” Paul told his skeptical audience that God is interested in mankind and that, in fact, “he is not far off from each one of us.”​—Acts 17:24-27.

Why was Paul convinced that God exists and is interested in His human creation? Paul revealed one reason when writing to fellow Christians in the city of Rome. He said of God: “His invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made.”​—Romans 1:20.

The following pages present three attributes of God that can clearly be seen from the things he has created. As you examine these examples, ask yourself, ‘How does learning about these attributes of God affect me?’

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The Bible does not require that we blindly believe in God