Welcome to this course which is for you if you want to find out why believing in God makes sense to someone like me

Perhaps, you are an agnostic. You have come to the conclusion that in our scientific age there is no further need of a Creator God. You can get along well enough without some supernatural power dictating what you should or should not do. You cannot visualise a Governor in heaven meddling in our chaotic, fractured and unintelligible world. What need is there of God?

Perhaps, you are searching. You still cling to your cherished childhood beliefs and even attend the occasional Church service, but entertain nagging doubts. Are the traditional concepts of God still compatible with your pragmatic and secular way of living? Are your prayers really heard? Or do they just soothe some emotional need? What solid intellectual basis is there for what you would like to be true?

In this course I present my reasons for believing in God - though I too am agnostic in many ways, and a seeker.

Though I was baptised a Christian the day after I was born, faith has always been a search for me, and it continues to remain so.

From when I was a teenager I have felt a tension between my passionate hunger for God and my unconditional enthusiasm for modern values such as scientific truth. Much on these pages is personal.

I will not blame you for disagreeing with some of the arguments I put forward, or for laying a different emphasis than I have. In fact, when you take issue with my thoughts, and work out your own line of thinking, I feel I have achieved my purpose.

How to find your way through this course

The reflections I present move through five areas:

  • Religion - Do we need it?
  • Creation - Has the world been brought about by 'God', in spite of the undeniable fact of evolution?
  • Conscience - Does morality derive from 'God'?
  • Encounter - Does 'God' communicate with us?
  • and Love - With so much evil and suffering in the world, what is the ultimate meaning of life?

Though there is some logic in this sequence, you may want to zoom in first on questions that affect you more directly, like

To locate your priority questions, I suggest that you also study the drop down menu on all our documents.

John Wijngaards