ARE ATHEISTS RIGHT?

Sorry, but I must start by saying I believe in God; I believe that He made us and all creation and that He loves us, His creation that He made in His image. (I believe God made and loves all creation.)

I also believe that God made us as He did - with free will, the ability to make our own decisions - for His own good reasons and that eventually we will see why God knows that us having free will, the ability to either accept or reject Him, is more important/essential than the pain and suffering and hatred that we people endure and inflict on each other. That last thing I wrote is the hardest to take - the hardest to believe. By faith I say that God is love. I believe that God is love. I have experienced God's love in many ways.

What I'm trying to say is that I can see why someone might come to believe that there is not any god who created us and all things. It is possible that someone believes NOT in God because they don't think that a god who loves and can do all things would allow our world to continue in such a way with people hurting people. Simply put, the state of the world sees inconsistent with a loving and just God.

I remember back in the 1960's hearing about people loudly saying "God is Dead" or carrying signs that said that. I was a child at that time and if I did think about it then, I thought those were just some smart-alecky, sharp, rebellious people who were saying that. It wasn't until years later that I realized that those thoughts were being expressed two decades after the Holocaust. People had endured horrible cruelty and perhaps a sense of their prayers being unanswered. If the jews were God's chosen people, how could He stand aside and let all those horrible things happen? I can see where it would be less painful to believe that there is no God than to believe that God wouldn't help you and save you or your loved ones.


I asked God about this a few years ago. (I was driving along a particularly beautiful stretch of South Braeswood in Houston between Atwell and Hillcroft at dusk.) I was crying. He knew that I love Him and believe He is good and loving and just. I believe He answered me by bringing to my mind a Bible verse I had heard a few times over the years:
"...He will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
I looked the verse up (in a concordance). It is in ISAIAH, the 25th chapter. Here are more of the faith-filled (and prophetic) words of Isaiah there:
. . . I must stop for now. I'll finish this later.