To start my list of reasons for faith in Jesus the Messiah, I chose The Futility of Naturalism.
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Some time before I began my new life of faith, I was aware of the futility of life without God. I began to doubt the existence of God as a young teenager. Even though my parents were models of Christian behavior and raised me in a Presbyterian church, I could not accept the Christian faith in the face of what I was learning in school.
School taught me that I was a product of millions of years of evolutionary change that began in a swamp of protein activated by lightning or some random phenomenon. Society taught me that God was an invisible concept that had little bearing on people's everyday lives. It didn't require much for my inquisitive mind to conclude that there is no God, and around eighth grade I became a skeptic.
Being an adolescent skeptic caused me to spend hours contemplating the meaning and purpose of life. Some people use the term "God-shaped hole in your heart" to describe the emptiness you feel when you have no purpose. You see, the philosophy of Naturalism teaches that everything that happens in the physical world can be explained by the "laws of Nature", i.e. there is no Supernatural agent, and thus no existential purpose in life.
That "God-shaped hole" tends to get filled with something which ends up determining the destiny of your life. Like many adolescents I tried to fill it with alcohol and other hedonistic pursuits, but God had a different plan for my life. A friend on my high school golf team finally reached me with the gospel of Christ and helped me understand the "words of eternal life".
You can't fully comprehend the futility of Naturalism until you grasp the meaning of Eternity. In the words of a song the Lord inspired in me as a young man...
Post script
Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
1 Kings 4:30,33-34
For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;...
Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!”
The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
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