The Search for God Page 4.1.1
College was an amazing time for me in many ways. I got to take almost any class and pass it off as a general education class. One such class was African History to 1800. Many of the sources were oral traditions written later or letters by colonists, which could embellish or prejudice information.
How would you pass down knowledge?
My learning curve
But what I really learned was, I was deficient in historical research methods and was relieved to get a 2.5. During this same trimester, I was also taking medieval and early modern philosophy.
I began to wonder if God spoke, would he speak in history, and not in just some religious context? In addition, if God is all-knowing and timeless, how would those attributes and communications manifest in history?
Let’s do a fun thought exercise:
If you were a rational, changeless, timeless, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good cause of the universe and human existence, how would you reveal yourself to humanity?
Basically, how would you prove you are God? Of course, there is the standard—I would talk to every single person. But then the question becomes what would you say, what is the purpose of speaking to every single person?
Would you say something like, “Be good. Don’t harm your neighbor.” Let’s say you can convince every person that you are God, what would it take? Maybe for Johnny, you would have to transport him to another planet.
Maybe for Susie, you use a loud scary voice. You make sure every single person believes you are God.
- Is that good?
- Did anyone have a choice?
- What about free will?
If that doesn’t matter, then you just want to be the scary father that everyone fears.
General concepts
What if someone falters and does not want to listen to what you said? Do you see the difficulty? This is one possibility of how God could reveal himself, but this is clearly not how history unfolded. So now we are left with so many possible ways you as God would try to convince people.
So rather than specifics, let’s think about a couple of general concepts. First, you are timeless, so you see all of human history past and future. If you act, you know there will be ripple effects. Since humans are locked in time, the ripple effects move forward in time.
So would you act early in human history or wait until the end? Well, this depends on your purpose. If you are good and want good things for your creation, then you are going to act early. Parents don’t wait until a child is 13 to begin correcting their behavior.
So if I was god, I would act early in human history, almost from the beginning, if not the beginning—remember, ripple effects. What is my (god’s) goal for communicating with humans?
That’s a good question; maybe to answer questions humans can’t answer, maybe instructions as the creator of humans. As God, I would know what humans worry about, so would my goal be to allay fears?
Communication from God Would Include the Following:
My first principle, as God, would be to speak early in human history.
Okay, so now I have given my message to a human, but that human is about to die.
- Maybe that human told 50 people my message, or 100, or 1,000?
- How many of those believed the message?
- Did I, as god, go and reinforce that information to other people?
I could. Maybe God wants to provide a sage or a guru for other people who recognize God should exist to search out wisdom and come to find God. You know, the “enlightened master on the mountain.”
But here are two questions, how would I prove myself to the first person or guru and to any more humans who come seeking? Would I have to be some magician performing for every child who comes looking for answers?
Second, would I allow my communication to die out on the earth? Let’s focus on the second question first, if you were God, would you allow your communication to die? As a parent, you know everything about your child.
You keep giving him or her instruction, but you get frustrated. How many ripples would it take to pass on the communication God is trying to instill in humanity? How many times would this take? God would know his effects upon the river of time.
Here we have two options:
Either God would allow his communication to die out or God would not allow his communication to die out. Either God would do something to ensure his communication continued forward for future human generations or God would say nothing more than one time to one person.
If the God we are searching for exists, one that is all-knowing, all-powerful, timeless, eternal, and the creator of humankind, then why would he let such communication die out? Therefore, I think and submit that communication from God is extant. That means communication from God still exists to this day.
Communication from God would be extant (still in existence).
Back to the first set of questions:
- How would you reveal yourself to humanity?
- How would you prove you are God?
- What form would the communication take?
I have a whole section devoted to this topic, which is somewhat related to history, but not really. However, I ask those questions in combination with the second principle and wonder, would God only speak to one person or would he speak to multiple people?
This combination of forms of communication and historical interaction has two huge implications. The first is:
- How is history transmitted?
- Written or oral?
This is how we pass information.
If you were God, how else would you make sure your communication survives? Dreams? Still, that person who had the dream would tell someone else or write it down. The propagation of information between humans only occurs in two ways: oral and written.
Whether we write down braille, Chinese, Greek, or whatever language God desires, maybe some godly language, the written word carries solidity. These days, we can add video evidence, but not in history.
So when reviewing history, which would you consider more reliable, written or oral? For a being who is unchanging and all-knowing, realizing humans die, a written transmission would be of vast importance. You can argue for oral, but why? Is that what you would do if you were God? Maybe if you were a trickster god.
Communication from God would be written.
Previously we discussed whether God might speak to every human and know that is not true. Now I just theorized that communication would be commanded or actually written by God.
I also mentioned that God would most likely not allow his communication to die out. So to ensure these issues, would God speak to only one person or to multiple people but just not everyone?
There are many people who claim to have communication with God, but a single person alone is easy to brush off. We know many people that have delusions or claim to have seen God or to have heard from God.
People who claim to have had visions, claim to have been to heaven, or to have seen the wonders of immortal souls. But how do we verify these claims? Well, one way is to have more than one person speak about the communication.
In fact, I would argue that multiple accounts from historical people are required for those of us who have never experienced or heard from God to believe the communication.
Communication would be with multiple humans.
So, by combining these two principles, not only would we see multiple communications to multiple people, but we should see a written communication that is somehow endorsed by God, which brings me to the final point.
- Would God say one thing to one person and something completely opposite to another person?
- Would God be contradictory?
- Would an all-knowing, timeless being contradict himself?
Communication from God would be consistent and noncontradictory.
Now some might realize the implications before others, but these were all thoughts I had before I made a decision about which religion was correct.
Therefore, how communication in history is received and transmitted plays a huge role in determining to which religions, if any, God might have communicated.
In addition, please point out the flaw in my reasoning. For those of you who wish to learn more or those who think this reasoning is somehow flawed, please read the next sections where I delve deeper into each of these topics.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Communication from God would be:
- Old – given early in human history
- Extant – would survive to this day
- Written
- Communicated to two or more people
- Consistent
- Why is that significant?
- We can narrow down which religions to consider before even doing an in-depth analysis.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.
References and Links
- Wikipedia – Early Modern Philosophy
- Blue Letter Bible – How Has God Revealed Himself to Humanity?