Friends: Those who think they need evidence instead of faith to find God don’t quite get the real picture. See the column below ... Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1017

May 12, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Evidence of Faith

By Bob Walters

“… the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” – Psalm 14:1

All those years I spent not knowing Jesus, thinking back on them, I don’t remember thinking, “There is no God.”

To me, God seemed to be an easy “given.” Somebody or something must have created everything. “Nothing” couldn’t be the Creator. So … God? Sure. It was Jesus and the Bible that remained outside my belief or comprehension or whatever you call it when the most important component of life eludes one’s sense of being and purpose.

Modern political correctness – some would call it “restrictions on voicing sensible observations” – would argue it is not nice to call someone a “fool.” But it is perfectly okay to vociferously deny the existence of God, the truth of Jesus, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Bible. That denial, to me, now, is foolishness on parade.

This double standard, I think, has to do with a general, elite non-tolerance for accepting the existence of a higher, nay, “highest” authority. As our culture has leaned more and more toward the collective, i.e. socialism, Marx, etc., the more people in charge resist being supplanted by a God who has more authority than they do.

Those “in charge” are not only elected government officials and bureaucrats. They are educators and pundits who shape not just social views and public opinion but shape minds and souls.  It is so ironic to me that liberals striving for a collective, homogeneous, and obedient population first destroy, through fear of rejection, individual freedoms of speech and self-determination. It is the least liberal thing they could do.

Limit what people can say and do, and tribes will form around protecting common but flawed ideas. This tribalism leads to broad but intense social separation, which reduces the power and influence of the overall population. Control language, limit God, and keep power among those who feel they are enough like god not to need the real God.

Anyway, it’s not nice to call someone a fool even if one’s foolishness limits one’s embrace of life’s purpose and meaning.  That’s where Jesus comes into play.

After my youthful time as an Episcopal altar boy (acolyte), age 11-14, I definitely knew the Jesus story but definitely not Jesus himself and not the Bible. I really had no handle, then, on the divine meaning of anything I was doing in life other than what was good or bad in the moment, reaping rewards or punishment or fleeting satisfactions.

If Jesus or the Bible came up in conversation, I had developed my own unremarkable practical theology of Jesus being a good teacher and the Bible being a good book. And sure, some “spirit” had to be floating around animating thought and life.

My own lack of faith didn’t feel like emptiness because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I realize now a lot of people are like that, but I don’t want to call them fools. My own experience tells me that insults don’t work when it comes to Christian witness. My experience when faith came – and since – also introduced me to the God I never knew.

That truly is what Jesus did, and does. I understand not believing in Jesus …  because I didn’t, for 47 years. What Jesus delivered into my life was the enormity of God’s purpose, glory, and the meaning of our place in his eternal and glowing life. 

What gets me is that all his understanding and love came not by hard evidence, as the world needs, but by a faith so deeply embedded, implanted, or arrived at (I may never know how and why) that, I dare say, I find evidentiary arguments tiresome.

The best proof is in one’s heart and mind, and how Jesus introduced me to God.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is plenty curious, but mainly thankful.