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[jimwalton]

The other night I watched the movie "Mud" (Matthew McConaughey, 2013). I had this preconception going into the film about what is was going to be about, and my preconception was so suggestive that as the movie progressed, I missed what it was really about: A coming of age story of the character Ellis. I was looking for the wrong thing, and didn't see what was right in front of my eyes. The same thing happened to me when I watched "Warm Bodies." I thought it was going to be a comedy/horror/romance story, and only after watching it did the light go on and I had a eureka moment: Oh, that was Romeo and Juliet. Duh. I can be really dense sometimes, but with enough patience, I usually come around.

A lot of people ask for scientific proof for God, which is like asking for raspberries at a vegetable stand, or for a vanilla shake at a chocolate shop. It exists, all right, but it's not available HERE. Since God "up there," or even "down here," is not subject to the scientific method, there is no scientific proof of God. You won't find Milwaukee in Afghanistan, and you won't find God by looking through a telescope or beating the bushes in the woods. It's like missing the coming of age story, or the Romeo and Juliet story. Metaphysical existence and realities are not subject to empirical proof, but to the weight of evidence and reasonable doubt. You have to be looking for the right thing in the right places.

If you watch the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), you watch the protagonist sift through evidence, pursue it with passion, and find many credible "proofs." But when it comes right down to it, she can only say, I've never seen him, but I'm sure he's there. The line is spoken: "We don’t deal in certainty; we deal in probability.” The same idea shows up in the new movie "Emperor" (2013), with Tommy Lee Jones playing General MacArthur. We don't deal in certainty; we deal in probability, reasonable doubt, and rational logic.

So also with God. Though he is not subject to the scientific method, there are great arguments: Cosmology, Teleology, ontology, fine tuning, intelligent design, morality, and the reliability of the Scriptures. The weight of evidence speaks highly of God's existence, and though refutable, there is strength of logic, probability, and reason there. You just have to be looking for the right things in the right places. You don't use scientific experiments to prove the quadratic equation or the existence of God, but that doesn't mean they're not true.