#STRask - How Could One Person Trust Another Person on the Topic of God?

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Questions about how one person could trust another person on the topic of God, how STR obtained information about God that others haven’t obtained, and whether God only matters for the purpose of the afterlife.   How could one person trust another person on the topic of God, and how did you obtain information about God that I haven’t obtained? Aside from Heaven and Hell, does God matter? Atheists and Muslims experience the same world you do.

Thanks so much for joining me, Amy Hall and Greg Kokel on today's episode. Welcome, Greg. Morning, Amy. This first question comes from Maurice. How could and why would a person trust another person on the topic of God? How did you attain information from God? I have not. Sometimes I pause at these questions because they strike me as odd.

and odd in a sense that people ask questions about the legitimacy of spiritual claims that they would never ask about anything else that's really important to them. And so why would I trust what anybody says about God? Why would you trust what anybody says about anything? Well, for a couple of reasons. first of all, maybe their point of view or their comments or what they're offering for you to consider make sense, all things considered. It just seems to fit. There's a certain coherence to it.

And by the way, I'm not talking here about spiritual things. I'm just talking about things in general, you know, that, well, okay, that makes sense, you know, kind of thing. And then, I mean, I had, I watched a special on the Kennedy assassination, a kind of review. And a lot of issues have come up over the years about that. And I listened to this guy explained this particular thing. And he said, this is one claim. But why would anybody do that what they claim when there are other opportunities or other alternatives? And he lays these things out.

And you say, well, that makes sense. The claim that was being offered didn't seem to fit the facts in. general, it just didn't make any common sense, and it wasn't reason to think otherwise. So there's at one point. You believe things that seem to make sense. Other times you need to get information from an insider, somebody who's got an inside track on the information, and they say, well, I know a thing or two about that, and here's A, B, C, D, and you say, well, that sounds pretty good.

That seems to fit, and you trust their source or their capabilities. and so that adds up more in favor of that particular view. Now, most of the time, we're not doing this in a very conscious fashion unless the claim is really controversial. And then we ought to be trying to think more carefully through these particular points, like, for example, the Kennedy assassination. But most of the time, it's just fairly natural because it's a natural process of learning or discovering what the world is like in some particular area by examining information that comes to us.

Sometimes it comes to us directly. We experience it. We're exposed to it. Sometimes it comes to us through another person. And that other person may persuade us because they've helped us to see from a perspective that just seems to make sense all things considered. and or they may have some inside information that they bring to the table because of their expertise and their development. So all of these things are ordinary.

The way we operate on a daily basis with regards to claims that come our way that we have to assess. And the same kind of process applies to spiritual things. Why should we believe in God? Oh, well, do you believe there's evil? of course there's evil. Well, how could there be evil if there is no God to determine what good is? Now, I just said in a thumbnail sketch what the moral argument for God is, but that has a certain ring of truth to it, especially if you try to think through the alternatives, what it means for there to be evil in the world, what kind of world it would have to be for there to be evil or good,

for that matter. So there's a line of argument. And it doesn't require that I have a degree in philosophy or theology, or that I'm particularly bright. It just requires that I offer a valid response that seems to point legitimately to the existence of God. And most spiritual things are like that. Some things God has revealed to us about himself. We don't discover it outside, outside the text. We discover it inside the text. We discover it inside the text. And then it's just a matter of reading what it says. And then basic rules of grammar and vocabulary and stuff apply. It's not tricky, although sometimes we need a little help.

And then someone can say, hey, as we apply, the rule, never read a Bible verse. Look what's going on above and below. And then all of a sudden it comes to us. Oh, yeah, I can see that flow of thought in how it answers my question. So that's the process. In one sense, well, let me back up, I was going to say it's not tricky. What I really mean is it's not unusual. But sometimes it can be tricky because we're dealing with things that are maybe way outside of our experience or very refined or very, very morally significant.

And therefore, we need to be really careful. we get it right. And so we have to look more carefully. And that's when we think through the process a little bit more diligently. Unfortunately, most people are not very skilled at that. And what we do, one of the things we do at STR is to help people to think more clearly about the convictions they actually have, whether they're sound or not. And if they're not sound, maybe making some alterations and get better ideas, better justified ideas. In one sense, I would say, you know, the beginning of the question, how could and why would a person trust another person on the topic of God? In one sense, I agree with that.

So someone comes up to me and says, I have a revelation. Here it is. I have reason to be skeptical of that because there are all sorts of things that could cause someone to think that they heard from God or they could be. manipulating you or whatever. But we aren't claiming to have some special knowledge that no one else has. We're not claiming that God told us something by ourselves and that we're just sharing that with everybody. What we're talking about is an objective revelation over thousands of years from many different people that's cohesive. It all works together. You can follow the train of how it happened over time. It was done publicly.

through history, through events, there are prophecies that you can look at, and then they're fulfilled. Everything all works together. The objective revelation, even though it comes through individuals over time, but not just through individuals, because, again, God is working in history so we can look at events. It's not just people saying, I have this idea about God. Let's add this to what we think about them. Here's what happened out there in the objective realm, not just the subjective. Which is why God said all these things he's doing so that we can know him. He did that on purpose, so we wouldn't have to depend on someone's random idea that we could never test or know if it was true. So we're talking about an objective revelation outside of ourselves. Now, I don't know why

anyone would expect God to reveal himself over and over and over to individuals. And in fact, he couldn't do it that way because his revelation has been more than just, here are a list of facts about me. That's not how he did it. He did it over time so that we could experience him and see him in action. So we know his words. We know what they mean. We understand how this works. If I were to take a novel that you loved and I just put it in 10 propositions, well, sure, you'd get the points. You know, you'd get the propositional points of the book, but you wouldn't have a knowledge and an understanding of the book like you would going through that whole book. And this is why God revealed himself through history over time so that we could know him better. Because it's not just information. It's information that we glean in the context of God acting and moving and relating to people.

Yes. And I would trust that much more. than receiving some sort of a subjective feeling about God or expecting him to do it that way. I don't know how you could trust that. I think you need that long revelation over time to look back and to have something to hang on to that you know is objectively outside of yourself. So I don't know why you would trust your own subjective feeling over that. This reminds me of when people ask a question, what if aliens came and communicated to us and they told us that God didn't exist? What then? You know, it's so – I've heard this question quite a number of times over the years, and there's more of an interest nowadays in ETs, etc. And my answer is always the same because just simply because some really smart dude, presumably ET, the really, really smart one, which I'll concede if they make it here and do those things, and that's the stipulation, they're really, really smart. Why would they, their word, be more authoritative, be authoritative on its own because they're really smart? There's lots of really smart people nowadays who don't believe in God and lots of really smart people who do believe in God.

It all comes down not to who's smart and who isn't smart. It comes down to the reasons. So my question of the alien would be, oh, you think there's no God? Why not? And then all the classical challenges would be imposed upon the alien to solve and resolve. Oh, no, because it just isn't. We know better. Okay, tell me.

explain that to me. We don't just take somebody's word for it. It's the reasons that matter, ultimately. It comes down to the reasons. And the nice thing is that every person in this country, at least, can go to the store, can go to Amazon and order a Bible and have the same information that we have. It is available to everyone. So if you don't have the information that we have, then And that is my suggestion that you go to Amazon and you order yourself a Bible and then you can have all the information that we have. All right, let's go to a question from Brian. Okay. Aside from heaven and hell, does God matter?

Atheists and Muslims experience the same world you do. And how do I know your podcast will keep me from getting burned? Well, there is a kinship between this question and the last one. I'm trying to – I mean, there's a couple of things going on here. And one of them is, reminds me of the atheist who's called a number of times. I can't keep track of the atheist, but he's a fairly well-known Internet atheist. Doug. Doug.

There you go. And he was dismissive of Christianity as a carrots and stick religion. You got the reward heaven or you got the punishment hell. And that's what it's all about. Okay. Now, of course, this isn't the view of those who are Christians. And so it, I mean, I thought of a kind of coarse illustration or parallel. That's like saying that marriage is all about you get married and you can have sex,

and if you don't get married, you can't have sex. That's what it's all about. Well, of course, I think no thoughtful person would reduce such an important relationship. relationship to that. It's so much more. Marriage does entail certain liberties that one at least not would not legitimately have outside of marriage. That's true enough. But that doesn't mean that's what marriage is all about. That is an outgrowth of the relationship one has in marriage, or it's a part of it. As I describe it in the story of reality, the world is in trouble, which is not news. Everybody knows this.

And God has initiated a rescue operation to rescue us. Of course, the problem, in one sense, is us. And what he rescues us from is ourselves, that is the crimes that we've committed setting up a circumstance of guilt and a retribution. that is deserved. So in another sense, the problem is with God, but only because of the problem we have. And so God is rescuing us. So it's, it's, I carrot and stick. Well, there is a carrot, there is a stick. But to put it in those terms is to put it in the most uncharitable way and to remove all of the, all the personal elements that make this a noble enterprise, and not only a noble enterprise, but a necessary enterprise, because this is the way the world is.

It isn't just a promise and a threat to get people to act in a certain way, to control them or something like that. Anybody who sees it that way and characterizes it that way is not either not understanding or not being honest with the message. they haven't paid attention. And we had a number of conversations, Doug and I, on the air, about this very thing. And part of this challenge was, look at if, let's see, how do he put it, if, if there wasn't any forgiveness for sins available or threat of hell, something like that, would you still be, I wrote it all down, but I can't, don't have it in front of me right now, would you still be a Christian?

I said, well, if there, if there was no threat of hell, that's because there is no sin. There'd be no justice because there was no crime. And if there was no crime, then there wouldn't be that particular stick. So I wouldn't be a Christian, but that's because the circumstances, as you stipulated, have so radically changed. The concept doesn't even apply. Jesus wouldn't have come and died on a cross if there was no sin. But would I still want to be in relationship with the creator, of course?

Why wouldn't anybody want that, especially if we were made for that? So that's the first part. Somebody asked the question. The other part of the question was, how do we know you're right? And maybe I'm wasting my life or something. How does that go? He says, atheists and Muslims experience the same world you do, and how do I know your podcast will keep me from getting burned.

It's not atheists and Muslims. It's everybody experienced. is the same worldview. Everybody, the same world. Everybody does. We all live in reality. And so the question is, are our assessments of the nature of reality true to reality? Do they match up?

The atheist doesn't. It's not even close. It's the, I call it the nothing philosophy or worldview. Not to be disparaging, but to be descriptive. There's no meaning. there's no value, I mean in the ultimate sense, there's no value, there's no purpose, there's no teleology, we're not going anywhere, we haven't been somewhere, there's nothing after death, there's, it's just molecules in motion. It's the simplest way to put it. So to all of the deep questions and concerns that human beings raised as humans, understandably, there are no answers that atheism can. give that are satisfying.

There's nothing there. It's the nothing religion, nealistic, nothingism. Okay, so now competing religions, Islam, for example, or Hinduism, or any competing religions, attempt to make a different sense out of the nature of reality that includes something transcendent. Okay, well, you're back to what we were talking about before. What are the claims and what are the reasons to take them seriously? And if somebody's worried that we're going to, again, what was the phrase here?

How do I know your podcast will keep me from getting burned? From getting burned. You open your eyes, you pay attention, you listen, and you assess. Whenever you – what are you do when you go on Amazon? You want to buy something, right? you might get burned. Well, they got reviews. Five star, four star, three, two, one.

When I see a lot of fives, I always go to the one. I want to see what people are complaining about, you know. So now there's feedback. There's descriptions of the product. You feel a need. That's why you're looking at it. You can decide whether that meets the need that you're talking about. I mean, duh, this is not really tricky.

we're not, I mean, I guess, we're not trying to deceive anybody, but I guess deceivers would say the same thing. So you have to assess. Both of these questions. Elkavidemptor, right? Let the buyer be aware. Both of these questions make it sound like we're just coming out here and saying, here's how everything is. And that's all we're doing, which there's a place for that, obviously. A pastor will go up there.

He doesn't always make a case for what he's saying. but our whole website is filled with reasons why you should think what we're saying is true. It's not that we're just coming out here and making all these claims without backing them up. So obviously, pay attention to the arguments that we're making and listen to them and see what you think. But to some of what you were saying, Greg, because I agree with what you were saying. But it's not that God matters because, you're saying. because of heaven and hell. It's that heaven and hell matter because of God. This is all about being with God. We're with God now. We will be with God later. We need to be reconciled to God now.

And when we are, we live in a way that is in communion with him and we're able to talk to him. we're able to read about who he is, we're able to develop that relationship. We have the Holy Spirit who enables us to put our sin to death. There are all sorts of ways that we are now living with God and that we're glad to be doing. And we would rather be doing that than not. So it's not just that we are all living the same way. And he says, do we all experience the same world? Well, we all experience it in the sense that we are living in it.

But I don't think our experience of that world is all the same because of what you were explaining, Greg, we have a different view of it. So we think our duties are different. We think morality maybe is different. We don't understand what the purpose of life is. And you described what the atheist worldview is. Now imagine living thinking there's no purpose and no meaning. And all you have to do is go look at the lives of the famous atheist of the past. See how. they experienced life. Right. And then read books by the famous Christians of the past and see how they experience life. It is quite different. It is quite different. There is a joy being with God and there's a despair that many have had not being with God and their lives are wrecks. I mean, again, go back and look at their lives. Pick any one of the famous ones and start reading about them and see what you find. We experience the world very differently, even though we're experiencing the same world. And that's because those of us who know how the world truly is

and our relationship with God have a joy that others who either think they have to earn their way to pay for the sins that they've done or to earn their way to God, they don't have that piece of grace. So either they're working and they're in despair that way or there's nothing to work towards and they're in despair that way. Or they just don't think about it at all, and then maybe their lives, you know, aren't that deep. I don't know. But it's not that we all experience the world the same way.

Anything to add to that, Greg, before I close us up? Well, thank you so much, Maurice and Brian. We appreciate hearing from you. And we would love to hear your questions. So all you need to do is go to X and use the hashtag SDR ask. Or you can go to our website at sDR.org. And all you have to do there is just look for our hashtag. STRSk podcast page, and you'll find a link there. We really do look forward to hearing from you.

This is Amy Hall and Greg Koko for Stand to Reason.