Believing in God is a challenge.

Let’s face it. As human beings, believing in an invisible, all-powerful entity is difficult when we try to apply common logic and everyday experiences to the question.

A lot of our doubt has to do with numbers. From a pure, human, logical standpoint, they just don’t add up. Or perhaps they do, and that is the problem.

The category of numbers in human experience and lessons of science are in conflict from the first lines of the book of Genesis. The tale of creation would lead us to accept that God created the heavens, the earth, and all the living creatures in just a couple of days. That, of course, is clearly in conflict with today’s science which is more likely to describe the process in terms of millions of years.

That conflict is only the beginning. Next, we hear of Cain killing Abel and then being banished. He then runs off to another community and marries a woman from that neighborhood.

Oops. If Adam and Eve were the first humans, where did that other community come from?

Without getting too deep into the controversy, we might end with those extra-long lifespans. Again, the numbers don’t add up.

We might excuse some of these discrepancies as simple errors in interpretation or translation. Perhaps God’s “days” were simply periods of time that had no label other than “days,” and were actually much longer periods of time. Perhaps Adam and Eve produced a lot more children than recorded and some of them wandered off to form new communities.

Perhaps people of that era had a different standard that defines a “year.” That might help explain those incredibly long lifespans. We define a year as one trip around the sun, but maybe they had another unit of measurement.

At first glance, it would appear that the combination of science, logic, and particularly, mathematics does not support the overall lessons of the Bible, let alone the existence of God.

The hidden answer may be in the numbers.

With today’s technology, we are able to witness multiple examples of proof of existence far beyond the range of our normal human senses. We can hear testimony of near-death experiences, evidence of reincarnation, messages from those who have passed, and any number of indications that there is more to our existence than we are capable of experiencing or can ever imagine.

And here is where the numbers serve to prove the existence of God and His almighty power.

Why do we have a limited lifespan? Calculate the number of humans that have ever lived. Then try to imagine where we would physically live if all were alive today. And you thought traffic was bad now. Then, try to imagine how we would be able to feed all those masses. If we concede that God would have a master plan, and that the human spirit continues to exist beyond the moment of physical death, we might be able to grasp why we have a limited lifespan. We simply need to yield our physical shell in order to make room so that other souls can have the opportunity to have a human experience.

How could God possibly keep track of the activities, needs, and devotions of millions upon millions of people, alive and dead? Then peer through a large telescope at the unlimited number of galaxies and stars that He created and set upon their individual motions. Then, sharpen your pencil and try to convert all those light-year distances into miles.

Those numbers are just a hint of an answer. Those numbers quickly expand into a level of knowledge that is beyond human comprehension. Those numbers quickly overwhelm the doubts of Genesis.