I was having a discussion with an atheist who went about trying to show how ridiculous it was that I believed in God. He questioned me on many such things, but the one question that really struck me as worthy of comment was when he said, “OK, I will show you that belief in God is ridiculous. You say you are a believer in God, right?” “Yes,” I answered. “Well, then, are you a believer in Zeus?” And before I had a chance to answer he went on to say, “You see, it is so stupid to say you believe in God, because Zeus is a god, isn’t he? How do you know that Zeus isn’t God?” “Well,” I finally got a chance to answer, “I do believe in Zeus.” He was confused.
His question was an attempt to catch me in some hypocrisy, or to demonstrate that because the Greeks called Zeus a god, and no one any longer builds temples to Zeus to honor and worship him, it will some day come to pass that whatever god I believe in, Yahweh, or Jesus, or whatever, that this god will some day cease to be worshipped. His argument was that gods come and go, and every society everywhere has had some god or gods. Apparently, according to this atheist, I was as stupid as the Greeks for believing in God. But the funny thing is, I don’t think the Greeks were stupid, certainly they were not for believing in Zeus.
For who else dominates the world? Who else is responsible for the fate of the Greek? Who else is above the other spiritual powers, the other gods of the heavens? Who else controls the ebb and flow of history, which turns on the pivot point of the spiritual sacrifice of a Greek citizen? Of course, from the Greek perspective, it is Zeus.
You see, the fact that one of the greatest civilizations of mankind had room in their outlook of the world for the divine is a testament to their intelligence, not to their stupidity. Of course, atheist disagree, for the atheist doctrine must be that there is no God, and therefore any belief in a god puts the believer in a lower intelligence bracket than the enlightened atheist. So in their re-examination of history, those who had a belief in the divine are stupid, or at least, unenlightened.
But the Greeks were smart. They achieved architectural achievements which still amaze us. They knew much about the stars and the movement of the planets. They established governments, trade, and economic prosperity. Their sculptures and artistic artifacts are still considered some of the best mankind has created. They knew the mathematics we teach in our schools. They gave us insights into the great philosophical concepts that are still discussed today – justice, love, friendship, republics. They had medicines. They had olympics before there were Olympics. They gave us gymnasiums. The list is hardly exhausted. But one last one needs to be mentioned. They knew about the divine.
And among the others, their god was Zeus. Their answer to the religious question, that is, the question that is within every human being, was a powerful guy who could throw lightning bolts. This sounds absurd, but only because our understanding of God has developed, as has our understanding of mathematics, and justice, and the Olympics. But we owe a certain sort of gratitude, certainly respect, to the Greek outlook of the divine. Zeus is not a story. He is history. He had characteristics that were not unlike the characteristics of the Christian God. And so, without having the benefit of subsequent history, from the perspective of the Greek, I do believe in Zeus. I certainly think Zeus is a more plausible explanation of the universe and mankind than the randomness and meaninglessness of the atheist explanation. That ‘there is no god’ doesn’t explain anything, in fact, it leaves everything unexplained. The fact that Zeus is god gives me at least a reason to be more charitable, if not because I fear a lightning bolt up my rear.
For in the height of the ancient world, there emerged the Greek civilization. That sentence alone is enough evidence to speak of a divine cause. The fact that the Greeks were, that we are, that there is, this whole business of being. Combine that with the fact that we have this strange ability to civilize ourselves – that is – to develop civilizations, and what you begin to have is a case for God. You at least have a case for Zeus.
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