A line used often in the battle to win souls goes as follows: There's a space in your heart that only God can fill.

The idea is that God made us each with a God-hole. It's an emotional and psychological emptiness inside us that we can feel, and it's an emptiness that can only be filled by a relationship with Him, or so goes the thinking behind it.

Of course, almost everyone, at some point in their life, will "feel" that something is missing. Back when people had to spend all day, everyday, focusing their energies on putting sufficient calories on the table to avoid starvation, the only emptiness they probably felt was physical hunger and perhaps fatigue. But today, with our scads of free time, we seek to be emotionally and psychologically fulfilled.

No wonder, then, that this appeal finds purchase.

At the ripe old age of 17, I was drawn by this line because I had not found a "meaning" or a "purpose" in my life. If only I had given it 6 more months! Then I would have been fine!

So, this is my advice to anyone who feels that they have a God-hole. Before you commit to religion, give it some time. Look into other ways to fill that emptiness. You may find that the hole can be filled by other things, and you may save yourself a whole lot of wasted time, money and energy.

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This question tends to be proffered by some Christians who sincerely wonder why I, and others like me, wouldn't choose to be Christians just to hedge against the possibility that the God described in the Bible actually exists. The question presupposes, wrongly I think, that the God of the Bible would even accept such provisional believers. What I would agree with is the proposition that, since the penalty for unbelief if this God is real is so steep, it would behoove us to look into the matter before . The thing is, I have. Now, after knowing what I know of the question, I see no reason to believe that such an unlikely being exists. Therefore, my answer:

It smacks of cowardice to subscribe to a system of belief that seems so highly unlikely, simply to cover my bases. And it smacks of a lack of integrity. It's as if you are saying, "This is totally bizarre, there's almost no evidence to support it, everything I know to be true about the world contradicts it, more and more so every day, but, I'll go along with it just in case." That's not going to happen. I might as well knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder, and pay lip service to every other major religion, just to be safe.

Suppose Mormonism is right? Suppose Seventh Day Adventists are right? Suppose Jehovah's Witnesses are right? What possible system of belief could encompass them all and so avoid going to hell if one of them is true? What if L. Ron Hubbard is right? Most Christians choose not to subscribe to the doctrines of most other denominations because they think they are untrue. That's what I'm doing with Christianity. I don't believe it is true.

You may say, what if I am wrong? Doesn't it make sense to adopt belief just in case?

I could do a lot of things to mitigate risk, but when I judge that risk to be so small as to be insignificant, and the price of mitigating it far too great, then, no. I don't consider that smart at all. There is a tiny but non-zero risk that I will be killed in a car wreck tomorrow. Should I stay off the streets to remove that risk? That would be irrational.

I invite your comments.

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