Assignment 4 - Pedersen

    Growing up, we have similar if not the same beliefs and ideas of our immediate family, this was the case with me until about the 7th or 8th grade. As a young kid, my family and I went to church every Sunday, building a relationship with God and the Bible. This instantly became a truth to me, that everything said or done in the Bible was fact and that God's way was "the" way. In my 7th grade science class, I began to question this belief when given the hard evidence for evolution. At this point I was conflicted. I had to choose between the indisputable evidence for evolution or the belief that God created Adam and Eve (which I had been brought up on). I tried to come up with a way in my head to somehow make them both true, but no such thing was possible. I eventually came to the conclusion that evolution couldn't be overlooked and was the reason we are here today. With this choice, I began to question the rest of the Bible as well. Could everything that had been taught to me as a younger child be a lie? After days of contemplation and research, I came to a consensus with myself - the Bible is more about teaching a lesson than historical facts. I did (and still do) believe that there's a God, but began to challenge and rethink all the lessons and teachings that I had taken for granted. My reasoning for continuing to believe in God has nothing to do with my upbringing. I now believe in God because of the perfection of the Universe. So many things have to fit and work perfectly for a tiny weed to grow. The sheer magnitude of the universe and the countless possibilities  that are held within. The moving parts which allow each and every one of the 7 billion people on the planet to live and interact with each other. For these reasons, which I have thought about for countless hours (or days), I do believe there is a God, not because of my upbringing.