But these are just pleasant musings. The main implication of the theistic way of thinking is more general and profound, so let’s now to return to it.

The universe is coherent, aware, and compassionate. Belief in each of these qualities of reality is a choice, a separate, free choice in each case. Modern atheists have long insisted that more evidence and weight of argument by far exists for the first than for the second or third. My contention is that this is no longer so. Once we see how values connect us to reality, the choice, though it still remains a choice, becomes an existential one. It defines who we are.

Therefore, belief in God emerges out of an epistemological choice, the same kind of choice we make when we choose to believe that the laws of the universe obtain. Choosing to believe, first, in the laws of science, second, in the findings of the various branches of science, notably the self-aware universe implied by quantum theory, and third, in the realness of the moral values that enable democratic living (and science itself) entails a further belief in a steadfast, aware, and compassionate universal consciousness.

                        

Belief in God follows logically from my choosing a specific way of viewing this universe and my integral role in it: the scientific way.

The problem for stubborn atheists who refuse to make this choice is that they, like every other human being, have to choose to believe in something. Each of us has to have to have a set of foundational beliefs in place in order to function effectively enough to just move through the day and stay sane. The Bayesian model rules all that I claim to know. I have to gamble on some general set of axiomatic assumptions in order to move through life. The only real question is: “What shall I gamble on?” Reason points to the theistic gamble as being not the only choice, but the wisest, of the epistemological choices before us.

The best gamble, in this gambling life, is theism. Reaching that conclusion grows out of analyzing the evidence. Following this realization up with the building of a personal relationship with God, one that makes sense to you as it also makes you a good, eternal friend—that, dear reader, is up to you.