In contrast to other mothers, her family is made up of every race, colour, gender and age, embracing the poor and the rich, the “ugly” and the gorgeous, sinners and saints. She has established innumerable hospitals and other medical institutions to care for the sick, and countless orphanages to help the homeless and the poor. She is the greatest philanthropist and the leading charitable body on earth bringing relief and comfort to those in need.

She is the brain behind the college system, and educates more people than any other religious or scholarly institution in the world, developing scientific methods and various ways of establishing evidence. She defends the dignity of all human life (including the unborn baby), upholding marriage and the family. Countries, cities, towns and villages are named after her revered holy children who navigated the sacred path before us.

Guided by the Holy Spirit, she compiles sacred and other nourishing documents that guide humankind in our journey towards righteousness and perfection. She is transformed by Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition which have consistently guided her for over two millennia. She is, the CATHOLIC CHURCH, the epitome of orderliness and the model par excellence of hierarchized institutions; a church led not only by spiritually strong people, but upper echelons of academia.

With over 1.1 billion people in her family sharing in the sacrament and plenitude of the Christian faith, the Catholic Church is the world’s largest Christian church forming almost 18% of the total population of the world.

Any professed Christian religious group that is not for God (or genuine) survives not, says the Holy Book; and the Catholic Church has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that she is not only for God but from God. She is the Church that has never been dismantled, and remains rock-solid despite being the direct victim of the greatest persecutions of all time; she is the only Church that has effortlessly stood and continues to stand the fierce and damaging punches of both Christian “rivals” and the tormentors of the Christian religion.

Christ himself laid the foundation for her faith when he said to Peter (the first Pope), you are ‘pietra’ (rock) and upon this rock I will build my church. For over twenty centuries, the Church has had unbroken line of shepherds (Popes) guiding her and her big family with love, truth, dedication and compassion, in a chaotic, deceptive and colossally wounded world.

In a world filled with wolfs in sheep’s skins, deceit, sham religious denominations, pain, hardship, despair, frustrations and inconsistencies, and in which all are crying for refuge or succour, consolation and reassurance; a world in which many are being compelled by the numerous dubious activities of bogus men of God to relinquish their Christian faith, it is comforting to know that some things remain constant, true, and unshakeable – the Catholic Faith and the Eternal Love that God has for all humankind.

If you have considered leaving or been away from the Catholic Church, you are invited to diligently rethink your decision, remembering the aphorism: the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. So brethren, decide today the Christian church that you want stick to, whether the orthodox (traditional churches), the Pentecostals, the Aladuras, or the Mushroom churches. As for me and my family, we will hold on to the Roman Catholic Faith and continue to remain a part of the vibrant and ever growing Catholic Family.

If you belong to any of the various groups of people that for some reasons do not believe or do not want to believe in the existence of God, and have thus decided to live ungodly life, then you are advised to carefully reflect on the proposition of the celebrated French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, Blaise Pascal, summarized below in simple language:

In note 233 of his ‘Pensées’, a posthumously published collection of notes on Christian apologetics, he formulates practical argument for belief in God; a theory commonly known as Pascal’s Wager.

He maintains that neither the existence of God nor the non-existence of God can be convincingly established by human reason; either He is, or He is not. Believing in the existence of God and not believing in the existence of God, is thus a wager (gamble) in which the chances of winning and losing are equal (50 – 50); there cannot be a draw (it is either a win or a loss); and one cannot refuse to wager – it is a must. It is also not possible to gamble on both – you are either here or there.

It must be pointed out that not all academics share Pascal’s opinion that the existence of God cannot be proven by reason; Anselm of Canterbury’s Monologium and Proslogium for instance use logical and cosmological arguments respectively to almost convincingly demonstrate God’s existence.

Pascal emphasizes that he who bets on ‘God is’ and believes in him, gains all if he wins the bet (i.e. if he dies and there is God), and forfeits very little or nothing if he loses the gamble (i.e. if he dies and there is no God). But he who bets on ‘God is not’ and does not believe in him gains little if he wins (i.e. if he dies and there is no God), and forfeits almost all if he loses (i.e. if he dies and there is a God).

In other words, the only reward for the latter (the ‘God is not’ bettor) for wining (if he wins), is the transient uncontrollable earthly pleasure that he enjoyed while on earth, but the loss for him (if he loses the bet), is everlasting bliss (which also means that he will suffer in hell). For the former (the ‘God exists’ gambler), the forfeiture for losing the bet (if he loses), is the transient earthly pleasures that he chose to forgo for the sake of the kingdom when he was on earth, but the reward for winning (if he wins), is eternal happiness and of course the avoidance of hell.

Based on these propositions, he pronounces that wagering that God exists, is the better option as one has all to gain and nothing to lose. Besides, there is inherent happiness in living as though there is a Supreme Being; in other words, even if the hope of a future eternal reward is put aside, living a Christ-like life, naturally gives one considerable joy and satisfaction. It would thus be unreasonable and in fact foolhardy of a person to wager against God’s existence, since the reward for winning such a stake or bet is literally insignificant, and the forfeiture for losing, massive.

I am wagering that God exists. So what are you wagering on; ‘God is’ or ‘God is not’? The choice is yours.

Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu-Ansah

Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu-Ansah (Black Power) is a lecturer and an investigative journalist in London, UK. He is the author of ‘Fourth Phase of Enslavement: unveiling the plight of African immigrants in the West’. He may be contacted via email (andypower2002@yahoo.it).