I have been around a mere 40 or so years and I have been thinking about the 'Is there a God?' question since about age 8. From then to now I have arrived upon and discarded hundreds of answers, but I have managed to keep a few. One of the fundamental reasons that I believe in God (an ultimate self aware and all powereful creator) is because I cannot believe in "nothing". "Nothing" is the only concept I cannot wrap my mind around. Nothing - no matter, no space, no time, no blackness, no whiteness, no thought. Puzzling this I have come to believe that "nothing" can not exist. It is the one impossibility, even for God.
I have had some conversations regarding holy creation vs. scientific creation (not mutually exclusive to my way of thinking but VERY mutually exclusive to most) with a few self-proclaimed atheists (who tend to be as rabid on the subject as the most fundamentalist born-again). The big-bang theory always comes up. It is patiently explained to me and I patiently listen. Then I ask this 3 part question, "So where did the matter come from before it exploded, where did the space come from to accomodate the expansion of the expanding universe, and finally where did the time come from in which this process occurs?" I have gotten many careful answers to these questions, in a nutshell the answer is usually that these three necessary elements all came to "be" as a direct result of one another (space was created when the matter exploded, time was created when the matter exploded, the matter was created from the intersect of space and time). All of these answers seem to me simply to beg the question. What was there before any of those three elements? The answer, invariably - nothing, in which I cannot believe.
Hence, since there can not be nothing, there must be something and something must have always been and always will be, outside of time, space, and matter. That "something", since it incorporates (literally in-corp-orates) all things, you and me included, it must at the very least be cognizant since you and I are (if I am not being too presumptuous) cognizant. Beyond this fundamental, I can only guess at the nature and scope of this "something". I do know that if I talk to "it" and I listen carefully not with my ears but with a deeper sense, this "something" always answers me. This "voice" seems to come from outside and from within myself all at the same time. It is not always kind, not always what I want to hear, but it does have an alpha omega ozzie and harriett God the mother/father feel to it. I choose to call "it" God. But that is my personal take.
I am always open minded and open eared about these thoughts of mine. I don't know the etiquette here as I am new at this. I don't want to start a new thread as I have never done such a thing before and don't intend to now. James has done a thorough job already. But I do like to hear other's thoughts on the matter...
THANKS!