The wars which had been fought, the burnings and chicanery that religious dispute had facilitated, made me sick. I honestly doubted whether, on balance, the religions of mankind had done any good. Judging from what I had seen in Europe and since, the power of God in human affairs was negligible, the Brotherhood of Man a grim jest. If there was a Devil, he seemed the Boss Universal, and he certainly had me. (Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill's Story)
People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. (Alcoholics Anonymous, We Agnostics)
Sometimes people say that there can be no God, because the world is a mess.
If the kitchen is a mess, one cannot infer from the mess that there is no dining room, no one in the dining room, and no one in charge.
One cannot infer from the mess of the material world that there is no world of the spirit, that there is no one in it, and that Someone is not in charge.
Sometimes people say that there is no God, because the world is futile.
The kitchen does not exist for itself but for the dining room.
The world would indeed be futile if there were no world of the spirit.
The kitchen would indeed be futile if there were no dining room.
Is it possible the kitchen is in a mess not at the fault of the Someone in the dining room but at the fault of the kitchen workers?
Can the existence of the dining room not be inferred from the fact that the kitchen is a kitchen?
If it is not a kitchen, what is it? What is a kitchen if not to produce food for the dining room, to be enjoyed there by all?
Does the existence of instructions and commands from the dining room not prove the existence of the dining room, that there is Someone in the dining room, and that that Someone is in charge?
Are not all the means for clearing up, organising, and operating the kitchen available in the kitchen?
Whose job, then, is that?