When the Russian cosmonauts stated that they didn’t see God out there, they were making a fundamental error. C.S. Lewis commented that such a statement was similar to Hamlet looking for Shakespeare in the attic of Elsinor Castle.
Once the existence of a Supreme Intelligence is accepted, the next question we face is whether that Supreme Intelligence has communicated with humankind. We can have no real knowledge of God without revelation. God must act in history and speak to us if we are to know anything about God.
In recent times, we have heard about pedophile priests, hypocritical church leaders, and swindling televangelists. When those who claim to be Christians lead double lives, manipulate others, or betray the values they profess to believe and live by, the disgust we feel for this hypocrisy indicates a recognition of the ethical standards that have been violated.
It is true that the problem of evil and suffering is a significant problem that is beyond our human ability to definitively answer. The problem is often stated as follows: "Evil is inconsistent with the notion of a loving, all-powerful God. Either God is not all good, or God is not all-powerful."
Ironically, some members of the scientific community seem to have concluded that God’s imprint can be seen in the universe. The most powerful arguments here come from the fact that the universe is so finely tuned—designed to such exacting specifications— that the idea of its coming into existence by chance seems extremely unlikely.
What if we Christians are deceived about Jesus? What if faith is an illusion?
Jesus’ words stand in opposition to any attempt to institute a theocracy or to set up the Kingdom of God on earth within our present historical process. The Kingdom will only be fully realized at the end of history when Christ returns. An often quoted quip goes something like, “Efforts to bring heaven down from above, end up bringing hell up from below.”
Faith is often seen as an irrational adherence to a belief apart from logic or evidence. Furthermore, religious faith is assumed to be subjective and disconnected from factual reality, which is informed by objective historical study and science. But this assumption about Christian faith is not accurate, for the New Testament writers were very concerned to emphasize the historical and factual foundation of the faith.
I would grant that no one can know truth exhaustively or with 100%, incontrovertible certainty. However, there is a truth to be known sufficiently.
Lately I have seen articles casting doubt that Jesus was an actual historical person. I guess there are still some atheists and extreme skeptics that are willing to claim he never really existed. However, no credible scholar or historian would agree.