Why Read the Bible? (continued)

I believe that God (or at least some supreme being) made the world. When you really think about it there is no other logical conclusion. Every man made theory can just go so far. You can always ask the question, "where did that come from?" At some point, there is no answer other than "it just appeared." At that point, the logical conclusion is God.

I look at creation, at the wonders all around me and I can only conclude that some unbelievably powerful being did all of this. Just consider the size of the universe. Scientists estimate that the size of the visible edge of the universe is 13.7 billion light years away. Just how big is that? Consider some facts that I found:

• A lecture hall is approximately 10 meters across, and light travels across it in about 30 nanoseconds. (Scientists use light, which travels at 300,000,000 meters per second - that is, about 186,411 miles per second to Americans -to quantify distances).
• The earth is 6378 km in radius, and light would travel seven times around the earth in one second if itcould travel in a circle like this.
• It takes light about 1.25 seconds to travel from the earth to the moon.
  
• The sun is about 8 light-minutes away from the earth.
  
• Jupiter is about 40 light-minutes from the earth.
  
• Pluto is about 5.5 light-hours out from the earth.
  
• The brightest star in our solar system is 4.5 light-years away - take a moment to appreciate this big jump!
• The center of the Milky Way (our galaxy) is about 25,000 light-years away.
  
• The nearest external large galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy—about 2 million light-years away.
• The nearest large cluster of galaxies (Virgo Cluster) is about 50 million light-years away.
• The edge of the visible universe is about 13.7 billion light years away.

I have also heard that just as the edge of the universe seems to be infinite in dimension, it is also infinitely microscopic in dimension. The more powerful we build microscopes, the more levels of organisms we discover. There is no telling how small the smallest of matter exists.

My son watches the explorer channel of TV. I have seen several shows with him that show that humans have only explored a small percentage of the oceans in the world. One fact we just saw was:

Oceans cover 70 per cent of the earth's surface, yet less than 5 per cent of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail. In fact, there are better images of the moon and Mars than of much of the world's undersea topography.

Also, we heard that there is more life in the ocean that we do not know about than we know about!

Why did God (or the supreme being who created all of this) create the universe as he did? I don't know. I don't understand why anyone would create the world we live in - the universe we live in! It is beyond my little mind to understand.

There is someone who actually claims to have created all of this. That someone is described in the Bible. Whether you believe the Bible or not, the Bible is the only source we have that describes the being who claims to have made the universe. No other religious leader that I have ever heard about claims to have made the universe (not just the earth, but all creation that we know of).

So, why read the Bible? It is the only source that I know about (tell me if there is something else) that tells me something about the nature of God and gives me some clue about why all of this exists. It is the only source that I know about (tell me if there is something else) that tells me about the nature of man and about why man thinks and acts the way he does.

It seems only logical that I should read this book that claims to be from God. Perhaps it is a hoax. The only way to find out is to read it.

So, I plan to read the Bible to learn and to see if it will answer some of the many questions that I have. Maybe as I read it I will find what others have claimed - the book transformed their lives. For all of the years that I have read the Bible so far, I have always read to confirm beliefs that I already have. I am going to try to drop all of that and just read to learn. I want the Bible to teach me and I want to see if reading the Bible with an open mind, with a true desire to learn, with a hunger and with passion, will really change my life. If not, then what have I really lost? I read books all the time. I read about all kinds of goofy things in the paper, in magazines, online and in mystery, fantasy and murder books that I read. I am sure that I have read the number of pages in the Bible in books, magazines, newspapers, the internet, etc every year of my life. Now, I just choose to use my "reading" time to read the Bible. It is the book that I choose to read. So, if all I get is just a good read, so be it. If I also get to know and understand the God who made all that I see around me and if that or something else that I read changes my life for the better, than I gain much more than I spend.