Superman – Does Superman Illustrate the Existence of God?

I remember well, those days of yesteryear nearly five decades ago. It is hard to believe such time is passed. It feels only like a few days ago in my mind, and there I am at a local magazine rack. I fish deeply into my right pocket where boys my age keep their daily treasures that they dare not leave home without. I catch two coins and reel them to my side; I know exactly what I am going to do. I have in my left hand a rolled up magazine. I am not enamored with the art of reading. I am a 60's nerd when it comes to math and science but otherwise I avoid reading like my pet beagle running from his bath. However, this is different; this is a comic book, and not just any comic book, it is Superman!

I am about to enter another dimension, a place of make believe where an ordinary man is a man of steel, where a run of the mill reporter could out run a bullet, and where an average Clark Kent could leap buildings and mountains. With my mind's eye, I will flex my muscles and pretend, and I will leap into the air and soar!

Fifty years have passed since that day. This boy becomes a young man; this young man becomes a science and math teacher; this teacher becomes a pastor and now this pastor is retired. It is now upon the hindsight of my reflection, I conclude that that lad's obsession with Superman helped lead him to knowledge of the existence of God.

Inside of every person, deep within, are guiding forces and core values which determine how we engage the circumstances and events that make our lives. There is the ordinary which limits and binds us to average (whatever that is). However, just as real is our potential for greatness. I call this potential our Superman! I submit to you that the presence of this "Superman" is one of the greatest proofs for the existence of God! Let me demonstrate further.

Consider the Olympics. They are to be held soon, and I wonder how many old world records will be broken and new ones made. As long as I can remember there are records broken. Why does it happen this way? Could it be that the Superman inside some youth says, "You can do it!" You can run faster, jump higher, lift more, and swim farther than anyone else! You are a Superman!

A Scriptural principle comes to mind here:

Matthew 21:21 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, ... you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done".

Only Superman could move mountains! Jesus tells you that you can; you can, so you must have Superman in you! Now, you know the only thing that some can see from this passage is a kind of mystic earthquake by heaven's intervening with tectonic forces of differing, dazzling demonstrations of power. God can and has done such but most often He chooses to use simpler, easier to understand methods. He plants that ability inside of each of you!

You know, I like this kind of mountain moving best, for it is our story. In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. The book of Genesis says that He immediately began making and moving mountains. He moved big mountains; He placed the stars and the planets in the sky and tied them together with gravity and they have been moving ever since!

He made large mountains; he formed small mountains. From the dust of mountains he heaped two apparently insignificant mounds. These humps of leftover clay did not look like much compared to His other movings. However, it is then our Bible says, "God breathed." That is to say the Giver of life breathed and gave life. These molehills were birthed from mountain material, male and female He made, and they were imprinted with God's image. He placed a Superman in both of them. The very force that allows us to move every mountain is God!

Now what did this man and this woman, who each housed in their body a Superman or Superwoman, do with this newly acquired image of their life-giving Creator? Yes, they began moving mountains.

They moved mountains for one simple reason: they could. All they had to do was believe that it could be done and not doubt and not give up! This resilience of humanity is the God-part of our humanity. They moved mountains, they made new mountains; they tunneled through the peaks; they tied and separated mountain tops at will. Often it took time and sweat and resources but every mountain, they really wanted to move, fell to the will of these supermen!

The animals do not have it; this fact that we do reveals the existence of God. I have taught evolution in the government schools, but I always pointed out there are great unexplainable gaps in that theory. Much of it is real science, but most of it is pseudo-religion, calling faith in that theory as fact. If gradual evolution is true, why are we light years upon light years ahead of our "brother" chimpanzees?

I watch a news clip where a chimpanzee is taught to play a simple video game for a morsel of food. I muse in amazement at her intelligence! The M.C. points out that there are not that many differences between us and the chimp. It is here I nearly explode with belly laughter. This might be some sort of commentary on video game players, but it is certainly not true in any other arena!

When we want to build cities or make highways, we move mountains; the same is true of amusement parks and hospitals; the peaks do not stop us. We cast them into the sea and make new islands; we make levees out of them and behind them build metropolises in relative safety from the raging waters.

Once, in the sands of Egypt, we wanted a mountain as a tribute to our Superman status. Can you imagine how impossible that seemed to a lowly peasant of that day? However, inch by inch thousands of peasants driven by cruel taskmasters kept working and sweating and dying to erect mountains in the desert - the wonders of faith.

Faith is the force that links us to this Superman. This image of God reflects in every man. We see its reflection in the pyramids, in works of art, on the football fields and in the skyscrapers. We stand at the edge of some mountain, and it is no longer a question as to whether we can, but only how do we want to conquer it? Shall we doze it or blow it; shall we tunnel through it or leap over it in a single bound? All this points to the existence of God.

Faith works even if it is not in this God. God Himself acknowledges in Genesis that those at the tower of Babel could build their skyscraping tower if they set their united faith to it. God intervened and rebuked their wayward faith.

You may wonder why God asks us to believe in Him - "Why does God require us to have faith in Him?" The answer is one of relationship. The idea of faith is trust; real faith is absolute trust. Trust is the building block of relationship. God places Himself within you. He gives you His best as an act of trust. He trusts you with this power. His trust establishes an eternal relationship with you; it is called love. He gives unconditionally of Himself to you; he makes you a superman. Even before you realize any part of your great potential He loves you. Even though you do/did nothing to deserve it; even though you often abuse it, he loves you! Even if that trust is not returned, he loves you!

Your faith in Him returns that trust. The relationship is now trust for trust and love for love. Now when you move the mountains in your life, you witness more than conquering and overcoming. You see God in you, enabling you! This gives you hope for any future challenge because of this God in you! And, faith, hope and love outlast any mountain!

And faith, hope and love survive longer than the mountains!

Habakkuk 3:19 (God's Word Translation) The LORD Almighty is my strength. ...He makes me walk on the mountains.