Someone has said - ‘The trouble with being an atheist is that there’s No-One to Thank!’

Some are quite sure about all of this, that there’s a God - while others claim that they don’t know - and they don’t see how anybody could know: - agnostics, we call them. But let’s be honest - It’s not easy for some people to believe that there is a God. Neither is it easy for others to believe that there isn’t.

And then, there’s author Frederick Buechner who writes:  "An agnostic is somebody who doesn't know for sure whether there is a God - (That is some peple all of the time and all people some of the time…) — that all they can see when they climb to the other side of the mountain... the faint glimmer on the far horizon - could have been just Disneyland."

Often we spend days and days not thinking about this at all, and at other times we are quite taken up with the question - 'Is there a God?’ And if so, ‘What is God like?' - and ‘Can this God be in any way known?'

Without a belief in God, horrors are unleashed upon the world. — We become our own ultimate authority. People with power and money and influence, inflict upon us their own prejudices and perspectives, ultimately removing liberty from the very ones to whom them pander and pontificate. Without God, anything may be permitted.

That can be scary. But for some, it just leads to a life of no meaning, no purpose. They are simply bored — trapped in boring lives. Others mask their frustrations, failures and fears in pursuits of pleasures that do not satisfy; that may often - and usually I think do, leads to self-harm and the exploitive harm of others.

Just as we can know nothing about what it means to find ourselves swimming without getting into deep enough water, (better over -our heads even), to do so, so also we cannot know much about God without faith - without plunging as best we can (God help us) into the vast ocean of belief.

Some scientists have ruled out the possibility of there being a God. Others are quite certain that there must be - for their discoveries lead them to conclusions that would even astonish most theologians.

We will not understand unless we have faith, and we will not have faith without somehow putting ourselves into the place, the situation, the imagination of trust in the God who may be there - and Who, I believe, IS there.

Scripture says that faith itself is a gift - a gift of God. I suppose we could ask God for it - humbly, openly, hoping it is so - that it’s all true.

Perhaps one way forward is to get alone in the quiet of some place and simply to pray: "O God, if You are there - reveal Yourself to me."

It may be helpful to buy a Bible and start reading it. I suggest starting with the New Testament part of that collection of Books - praying the same prayer. "O God, please reveal Yourself to me."