The Search for God Page 3.1.4
I love my five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Have you ever played the game, “Which of your five senses would you give up?” I always choose hearing. I love food too much and I pretty much don’t listen to anyone anyways.
We learn so much about the world and the cosmos through our five senses.
The senses are limited
However, we recognize that our five senses give us enough information about the world we live in, but our senses are also limited so that we do not perceive everything. So we use our reason and thought process to solve problems, and we use creativity to come up with solutions to those problems.
We build microscopes, the wheel, carts, and buggies; we develop language and the written word to communicate thoughts and ideas to future generations; we perform experiments using our five senses then extrapolate and glean information to gather information about the world we can’t see or hear.
Have you used a cellphone today or a microwave? Everyone understands this. We have two ways to find god. Humans can find god or god can find humans.
In the first instance, man can use all his faculties of sense, reason, and creativity to find god. In fact, we have been doing this for millennia. We write whispers of supernatural beings, we develop theories of what the heavens are like.
Until recently we were unable to leave our planet other than simply gazing at the stars with our own unassisted eyes. Now we have powerful computer processors, space-faring telescopes, and supercolliders that detect subatomic particles.
Who has been able to prove with reproducible results that they have found god? Philosophy is really no help. We cannot think god into existence or reason god into existence. God either exists or he doesn’t exist (law of the excluded middle).
Does God exist Yes/False?
If god does not exist, can we ever prove that statement true? Based on our definition, unless we explore every place in the universe and outside of the universe we can never, ever prove this statement true.
We can believe that god does not exist and is true, but we cannot prove it true. On the flip side, can we prove the statement false? Yes, by finding god. So let’s use all our resources and abilities to see if we can find god. Then we take the statement, “God exists.”
If we want to prove the statement false, then we have the same problem of knowledge and ability. We cannot travel to every corner of the universe or outside the universe and falsify the statement “God exists.” So how could a human prove that this statement is true?
Same problem
We have our senses and reason, but here we encounter the exact same problem. We experience all this evidence through our senses and our rational mind through the laws of reality and theorize god should exist, but have we found him?
So let us build a scope, a monitor, let us discover dark matter and every quark. Maybe if we can manipulate subatomic particles and travel between galaxies, or send out explorers who travel the cosmos, so that we identify more evidence and finally declare, “this substance is god.”
What is the problem? We have defined god as a being, someone with a rational mind. What if that new discovery we call god never speaks? Can god be a material or immaterial substance without a mind? The greatest conceivable being must have a mind. Without such the universal god substance would be nothing more than a wooden mute idol.
Let’s say you are an orphan looking for your mother. You find someone that everyone says is her. You find pictures that look like her. You walk up to this person and say, “You are my mother, Jane Smith.” She says…nothing. Absolutely nothing.
You continue to accost her, demanding she confirms your suspicions, but still, she says nothing. She turns away and leaves. You pursue her, and every time you are in her presence she says nothing, doesn’t even acknowledge your existence.
Is that the orphan’s mother?
All information says she is, you think she is. You are 99% certain she is, and now you have found this being, but you receive no confirmation from a clearly intelligent being. You need that last piece of the puzzle. You need this woman to say, “I am Jane Smith, your mother.”
What do we learn from this? Two things: first, god must inform us of who he is. God must confirm all the evidence that we have collected. Second, that would make god relational. He acknowledges us. The relationship could be limited or vast, at this point we don’t know.
But as soon as god confirms who he is, a relationship develops. Therefore, we can philosophize all we want, but in the end, god must confirm our suspicions to affirm the premise that god exists.
God Can Find Humans
So we might be 99% or 85% certain god exists, but we need him to say, “I am god.” So if god is all-knowing, then he would understand humans intimately. How would god communicate with humankind?
This calls for speculation. Our rational mind can come up with theories that satisfy us, but in the end, this communication, if it does occur, would be left entirely up to this supreme being.
What I can say is that, during my search, I never had a moment where a being came to me and said, “I am god.” However, does that mean he has not spoken?
Well, to find that out, we will have to examine instances where people claim god spoke directly to them.
- What do you think would happen if god spoke to you?
- What would your response be?
- Skepticism?
- Elation?
- Would you tell everyone?
- Would you keep the information secret?
I guess it depends on what god said.
This is the difference between knowing god exists and knowing god exists. The difference between head knowledge where we are almost certain god exists but don’t have relational knowledge of who god is; and both head and relational knowledge that god exists in a real personal sense rather than as an abstract set of attributes is astronomically huge.
So if you agree and want to begin your search for a relational god, then jump to the section on history or religions. If you want to explore the attributes that we expect god to have, or you want to see if science can provide any answers, then continue in this philosophy section or move to the science section.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- For humans to find god, god must communicate with us.
- Why is that significant?
- If god communicates that means he wants some type of relationship.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.
References and Links
Is reality real?
- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews – The greatest conceivable being
- Ligonier – Defending Your Faith: Reliability-of-sense-perception
- Reasons to Believe – Reality Is More Than Sense Perception
- Brill – Introduction Sense Perception in Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition
- Open Text BC – Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception