Abraham’s childlike faith separated him unto God from all the others of his generation.  God promised Abraham a son when he was nearly 100 years old, and Sarah, his wife, was 90.  When God made this promise to Abraham, he was not a follower of Mosaic Law, for Mosaic Law did not appear until over 400 years later.  Abraham was chosen by God while yet uncircumcised (the token of the covenent), for circumcision did not come until later.  Abraham did not ascend to the pinnacle of God’s excellence and promise by his works.  Instead, it was his childlike faith in the Words of God. 

Romans 4:19-21 speaks of faithful Abraham:

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah''s womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Have you been born again?  Are you ready to step out in the childlike faith of father Abraham and believe upon the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory?  Will today be your day of salvation where all sin and shame is erased and where a brand-new life—even eternal life—begins?  What are you waiting for?  Why live another day in sin’s bondage?  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Romans 12:3:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

GOD SAID, Psalm 14:1:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

GOD SAID, James 2:19-20:

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

MAN SAID: According to Richard Dawkins, abusing children sexually is not as bad as indoctrinating them in a religion.  (Why Science Does Not Disprove God, Amir D. Aczel)

Now THE RECORD.  Everything concerning man finally boils down to an issue of faith.  Jesus says in Mark 16:15-16:

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Mankind was created with a spiritual interconnect that we might, through faith, interface with and communicate with God, our Creator.  Hebrews 11:6:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Several GodSaidManSaid features address neuroscience’s recent discoveries that humanity is hardwired for faith, even as the Word of God declares thousands of years prior.  The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “The Measure of Faith:”

Could it be possible that science is beginning to catch a glimpse of God’s creative plan?  Is it possible that God, in the original design of man, hard-wired him to function spiritually via faith, or, as the Word of God records, “as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”?  All believers understand, at one level or another, that faith is the only currency in the Kingdom of God.  Beginning with initial salvation all the way to eternal life, faith is required.  Nothing good in the Kingdom of God can be obtained without faith. 

For years, academic unbelievers claimed that man created God and not the other way around.  Their position was that faith in any god was a societal crutch used to answer the hard questions of what lies beyond life, and that the IQ-challenged find the concept of God rewarding.  The headline of the October 25, 2004 issue of Time magazine reads, “The God Gene,” and the subhead reads, “Does our DNA compel us to seek a higher power?   Believe it or not, some scientists say yes.”  [End of quote]

Jeffrey Kluger authored the article in Time magazine titled “Is God in Our Genes?”  This is one excerpt:

“Even among people who regard spiritual life as wishful hocus-pocus, there is a growing sense that humans may not be able to survive without it.” 

Kluger continues:

Nowhere has that idea received a more intriguing going-over than in the recently published book The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes (Doubleday, 256 pages), by molecular biologist Dean Hamer.  Chief of Gene Structure at the National Cancer Institute, Hamer not only claims that human spirituality is an adaptive trait, but he also says he has located one of the genes responsible, a gene that just happens to also code for production of the neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. [End of quote]

Again Kluger writes:

Those religious believers who are comfortable with the idea that God genes are the work of God should have little trouble making the next leap: that not only are the genes there, but they are central to our survival, one of the hinges upon which the very evolution of the human species turned.  It’s an argument that’s not terribly hard to make.  For one thing, God is a concept that appears in human cultures all over the globe, regardless of how geographically isolated they are.  When tribes living in remote areas come up with a concept of God as readily as nations living shoulder to shoulder, it’s a fairly strong indication that the idea is preloaded in the genome rather than picked up on the fly.  If that’s the case, it’s an equally strong indication that there are very good reasons it’s there.  [End of quote]

Michael Persinger, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Laurentain University in Sudbury, Ontario, had this to say on the subject:  “Anticipation of our own demise is the price we pay for a highly-developed frontal lobe.  In many ways [a God experience is] a brilliant adaptation.  It’s a built-in pacifier.”  [End of quote]

God created man with the ability to communicate and function in the realm of faith.  It’s man’s choice whether he’ll participate.  Thousands of years before man begins to understand the reasons why, God declares it in His Word.  This is proof that God is.  Seek Him while He may be found. 

GOD SAID, Romans 12:3:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. 

[End of quotes]

The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Genetic Faith:”

Several years ago, GodSaidManSaid published information on how man is biologically and psychologically hardwired to God.  A new book, published in 2009 by neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and therapist and author Mark Waldman, titled How God Changes Your Brain, continues to pursue the concept of the God connection.  Newberg is the director, and Waldman an associate fellow, of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania.  Newberg is one of the founders of the new interdisciplinary field called neurotheology.  Did God deal every man a measure of faith?  The following excerpts are from the 349-page book How God Changes Your Brain:

As a neuroscientist, the more I delve into the nature of the human brain, the more I realize how mysterious we are.  But if I had to pick two things that I have learned—as a doctor, a teacher, a husband, and a father—I would first say that life is sacred.  Indeed, we are literally driven to live because every cell in our body fights to survive, and every neuron in our brain strives to become strong. 

The second thing I’ve learned is that behind our drive to survive, there is another force, and the best word to describe it is faith.  Faith not just in God, or in science or love, but faith in ourselves and each other.  Having faith in the human spirit is what drives us to survive and transcend.  It makes life worth living, and it gives meaning to our life.  Without such hope and optimism—synonyms for what I am calling faith—the mind can easily slip into depression or despair.  Faith is embedded in our neurons and in our genes, and it is one of the most important principles to honor in our lives.  [End of quote]

And again from the book:

Faith in an optimistic future may be a placebo, but it’s important to remember that placebos can cure, on average, 30 percent of most physical and emotional diseases.  Even an irrational belief in a cure that has been proven not to work can significantly boost the body’s immune system when dealing with a deadly disease. 

Recently, a team of National Institutes of Health researchers concluded that “a moderate optimistic illusion” appears to be neurologically essential for maintaining motivation and good mental health.  They also found that highly optimistic people had greater activation in the same parts of the anterior cingulate that are stimulated by meditation—the anterior cingulate plays a crucial role in controlling anxiety, depression, and rage, as well as fostering social awareness and compassion.

Even the medical researchers at the Mayo Clinic stress the importance of optimistic thinking for maintaining optimal health.  They found that positive thinking decreases stress, helps you resist catching the common cold, reduces your risk of coronary artery disease, eases breathing if you have certain respiratory diseases, and improves your coping skills during hardships.  An optimistic attitude specifically reduces the stress-eliciting cortisol levels in your body, and many other studies have demonstrated how optimism improves behavioral coping in a variety of physical illnesses.  In a forty-year follow-up conducted at Duke University, optimists had increased longevity compared to pessimistic individuals.  Indeed, the role of optimism is so important in maintaining psychological health that the University of Pennsylvania has an entire institute—the Positive Psychology Center, headed by Martin Seligman—dedicated to this research. 

Faith is essential for maintaining a healthy brain.  [End of quotes]

In this human experience, faith is it’s most valuable possession.  With faith, all things become possible.  The Word of God teaches us how to build and grow this most powerful resource.  Romans 10:17:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Jude 1:20-21:

20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Faith in God opens the door to all of His everlasting promises.  A handful of verses have been selected for your consideration:

• Matthew 17:20:  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
  
  
• Mark 11:22-26: 

22And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

• John 14:12-14:

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

In spite of the obvious hand of God in the creation of man and his universe, “the heathens rage.”  Psalm 2:1-5:

1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

The headline from the May 8, 2014 issue of The New York Daily News reads, “Atheists to launch the first TV channel dedicated to godlessness.”  The following excerpts are from that feature:

Believe it. 

A New Jersey-based atheist group is starting the first on-demand TV channel dedicated to godlessness. 

AtheistTV will be launching this summer with big plans to reach out to atheists, humanists, free-thinkers, and folks who are looking for a way out of faith.

David Levenson/Getty Images American Atheists will partner with the Richard Dawkins Foundation to provide on-demand content.

Since they’re first on the scene, American Atheists will face the challenge of defining what exactly godless programming will look like. 

“We’ll have shows about philosophy, science, history,” Muscato said.  “A critical examination of the facts.” 

Muscato also hopes the channel will encourage people who are doubting their faith to come out as atheist. 

“When somebody leaves their religion, they don’t necessarily know everything about the Big Bang,” Muscato said.  “This will fill in the gaps in knowledge that pastors have left behind.”  [End of quotes]

The goal of this foolish undertaking is to help people find their “way out of faith.”  They must have missed the memo that man is irreversibly hardwired for faith. 

The headline from the July 19, 2014 feature published on WND.com reads, “Scientists:  Atheists might not exist.”  The subhead reads, “Metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes it cannot be expunged.”  A few paragraphs follow: 

But now a Hong Kong-based science writer has posted an article on the Science20 blog under the headline “Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke.” 

Writer Nury Vittachi, who explains he is based at a creativity research lab there and is “fascinated by metaphysics” and their theories of the universe, said he has written a lot of books, has been published by Scholastic and once was shortlisted for a prize for a children’s book on relativity. 

On the Science20 site, which was set up to “modernize science communication, publishing, collaboration and public participation,” he posts articles that are not filtered for size, and there are no political or cultural agendas. 

Vittachi writes, provocatively, that God, “if he is around, may be amused to find that atheists might not exist.” 

He cites several reasons for his suggestion, including that scientists are becoming more and more aware “that a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged.” 

He suggests something that would be concerning to atheists, that “what you actually believe is not a decision you make for yourself.” 

“Your fundamental beliefs are decided by much deeper levels of consciousness, and some may well be more or less set in stone,” he said. 

He quotes Graham Lawton in the New Scientist, who wrote: “Atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think. … They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul. 

And Vittachi quotes Pascal Boyer, from Nature, saying, “A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith.”  [End of quote]

Evolutionist Amir D. Aczel stirred the ire of the camp of the atheists in his new book, Why Science Does Not Disprove God.  On page 13 of his book, you’ll find the following:

Along the way, Dawkins shares some of his unscientific beliefs, such as that Hitler was not nearly as evil as Caligula (how does he know?) and that abusing children sexually is not as bad as indoctrinating them in a religion.  With respect to this last assertion, he claims to be speaking from personal experience, saying that he was abused as a child but that it amounted to only an “embarrassment,” while being exposed to religious ideas caused far more damage.  One wonders if the many adults now coming forward with revelations of having been raped or molested as children would agree with this view. 

Dawkins’s thrust throughout his book is that religion is not only bad but also stupid.  Religious people deserve no respect from the rest of society, he says.  (In chapter 1 of The God Delusion, Dawkins has an entire section titled “Undeserved Respect,” referring to his view that religious people are not deserving of respect for their beliefs.)  Yet after his impassioned, all-out attack on the folly of religion, Dawkins rates himself only a 6 on an atheism scale he has designed in which 1 stands for absolute belief in God and 7 indicates a 100-percent sureness that there is no God.  Why does the world’s most prominent atheist suddenly hedge? [End of quote]

Mr. Dawkins is not an atheist after all.  He would be better defined as an agnostic. 

Israeli Col. Ofer Winter, who was in the midst of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, weighs in on the atheist issue.  The following excerpt is from WND.com, from an article written by Joe Kovacs:

In his interview with Mischpacha, Winter defended his message, saying everyone finds God when in combat.

“Anyone who attacked me for the letter apparently has only seen weapons in pictures, was never in combat, and doesn’t know what fighting spirit is,” he said, revealing that before going into action, his custom was to recite the blessing with which the ancient Israelite priests would bless the army before it went to war.

“When a person is in a life-threatening situation, he connects with his deepest internal truths, and when that happens, even the biggest atheist meets God,” he said, claiming soldiers see so many miracles, “it is hard not to believe [in God].”  [End of quote]

God has preprogrammed man to believe—even the devil believes and trembles.  Have faith in God and nothing shall be impossible to you.

GOD SAID, Romans 12:3:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

GOD SAID, Psalm 14:1:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

GOD SAID, James 2:19-20:

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

MAN SAID: According to Richard Dawkins, abusing children sexually is not as bad as indoctrinating them in a religion.  (Why Science Does Not Disprove God, Amir D. Aczel)

Now you have THE RECORD. 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Aczel, A., Why Science Does Not Disprove God, Harper Collins, 2014

GodSaidManSaid, “Genetic Faith”

GodSaidManSaid, “The Measure of Faith”

Kovacs, J., “Hand of God Sent Missile into Sea,” WND.com, August 5, 2014

Kuruvilla, C., “Atheists to Launch the First TV Channel Dedicated to Godlessness,” New York Daily News, May 8, 2014

Unruh, B., “Scientists: Atheists Might Not Exist,” WND.com, July 19, 2014