**Note from Jon: Sorry I have been missing lately, there has been much going on in our lives and I will (hopefully) update you soon on everything God has been teaching me and showing me.**

I’m not one to kill an animal if there is no reason (unless my wife request it).  Honestly, I hate killing just about anything if I don’t need to and I really don’t do well with death, it’s just not natural.  For example, when Heather and I were first married she had a beta fish named “Boaz” (a story for another day) that decided to die, but I digress.With fall upon us I have noticed the annual onslaught of bugs into our house seeking a warmer climate.  I hate this but I know it is natural so we try to prepare as much as we can.  I sprayed a “bug barrier” around our house, our landlord pays for a service that treats our yard, and when needed we with war face to face.

Over and over I run into this scenario.  The other night I was leaving work and while walking out through the security door I noticed something.  A small cricket was jumping up and hitting the door, repeatedly.  I stopped for a second and looked at the situation and decided that someone after me would kill this bug so I decided to just help him out.  I walked over to the door that lead to the outside and opened it.  As I opened the door the funniest thing happened… the cricket jumped the other way! “Seriously!”, I said out loud and watched the scared creature bound away, I was confused.  So I tried to pursue it and I honestly must have looked like an idiot, i mean a 250lb man chasing a fingernail sized creature trying to do what is best for it.  Finally, I caught the little booger and carried him outside and released it.  Did I get a thank you? Ha, nope! Actually, if it would have spoken I would have freaked out but I watch this scene happen over and over with bugs in all situations.  We’ve all tried to let the stupid buzzing fly out the window of your car while driving only to have it fly at you away from the open door.

I walked to my car and jumped in, through the keys in the ignition, took a deep breath…, and then had this message overwhelm me. “Jon, that scenario you were just in, I have doing that with you for years”.  It is so frustrating to know that God just used this tiny thing to teach me something about my unwillingness to submit to Him but He did and so I ask you what He asked me.

Why are you running from the open door that God opened?

A couple of weeks ago I was having coffee with a friend of mine.  It was a beautiful morning that reminded me of all the early morning coffees we have had over the years.  As we spoke we caught up on life, faith, and other various happenings in each others lives.  Towards the end of our conversation he handed me a book called “God’s Debris” written by Scott Adams the author of the Dilbert comic strips [my review is coming soon].  My friend said that this book asks many questions and because I love to ask questions this book might be good to jog my brain.  After he left I began to read the book and quickly realized that it posited a philosophical worldview that was immensely different than my own.  That being said there was a few statements that caught my attention and I wanted to get your opinion on one of them in particular.

“Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God, they would live every minute of their lives in support of that belief. Rich people would give their wealth to the needy. Everyone would be frantic to determine which religion was the true one. No one could be comfortable in the thought that they might have picked the wrong religion and blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation, or some other unthinkable consequence. People would dedicate their lives to converting others to their religions.  A belief in God would demand one hundred percent obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment of this brief life on earth. But your four billion so-called believers do not live their lives in that fashion, except for a few. The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs—an earthly and practical utility—but they do not believe in the underlying reality… They say that they believe because pretending to believe is necessary to get the benefits of religion. They tell other people that they believe and they do believer-like things, like praying and reading holy books. But they don’t do the things that a true believer would do, the things a true believer would have to do.  If you believe a truck is coming toward you, you will jump out of the way. That is belief in the reality of the truck. If you tell people you fear the truck but do nothing to get out of the way, that is not belief in the truck. Likewise, it is not belief to say God exists and then continue sinning and hoarding your wealth while innocent people die of starvation. When belief does not control your most important decisions, it is not belief in the underlying reality, it is belief in the usefulness of believing.”

Are you saying God doesn’t exist?” I asked, trying to get to the point.

I’m saying that people claim to believe in God, but most don’t literally believe. They only act as though they believe because there are earthly benefits in doing so. They create a delusion for themselves because it makes them happy.

So you think only the atheists believe their own belief?” I asked.

No. Atheists also prefer delusions,” he said… The best any human can do is to pick a delusion that helps him get through the day. This is why people of different religions can generally live in peace. At some level, we all suspect that other people don’t believe their own religion any more than we believe ours.”

So hear is a really simple question, what do you think about what you just read?  Please comment below.