Okay. I'm going to level with you. Last week, when I picked this out as my topic for this week, I must have had an "angle in" to the topic, that I had in mind. That I was already all ready to go with, that felt somewhat pregnant and poised. Perhaps I should have written it then, then!
Well, elegant angle of entry or not, I'm sure I can do some small justice to the gist.
A universe that contained demonstrable proof of God's existence would fatally compromise free will. It would also compromise our ability to come to any sort of personal choice about God - whether to believe, or even to love. In a world where an omnipotent, omni-important God is eternally staring us right in the face, is love for God even a choice?
Seriously. What sort of God could be so insecure as to feel the need to set up and establish within the very fabric of the universe as it were, proofs? To convince us? Isn't the universe quite enough? I don't say "isn't the universe proof enough" - because the universe doesn't prove anything. The universe was set up perfectly, there is no smudge or thumbprint that betrays the hand of the artist. As would have to be the case, with a perfect creator. There would be no trace, unless the creator had some reason or purpose that would be served by slapping a big, gaudy signature in the corner.
Such a proof would not serve God's purpose, but would actively undermine it. And in any case, there is no such proof. There is no signature. There is no material clue that has been left behind, oops, at the infinite scene. There is not some object, some irrefutable evidence, some indisputable piece of the universe stickng out that everyone can see and point to and be forced to say, "oh, yes. The only possible way to interpret that is: God exists."
God would not allow such a thing to exist. God's purpose for us entails giving us a chance to believe. If God could be proved like gravity, like electromagnetism, if we by our scientific and detective efforts were capable of rendering God a mere matter-of-fact, then what do we have? Our chance is gone, God has made our choice made for us. And why would God do that? God has no need to force anything upon us. It is we humans who feel so desperate about proving things to each other - not God. God knows God's got the whole thing wrapped up, all the way down the line, pretty dang snug. God's not exactly sweating his street cred at this point. Do you really think God has anything to prove?
ON NEXT WEEK'S GOD BLOG SUNDAY: But What About Miracles, Though?
4 comments:
A really interesting dissertation!
The parameters for a place like earth to exist are tiny. Something like one to a numer with 24 zeros after it, but it is still possible, however miniscule, and there is an infinite amount of time for the results to happen. Evolution is proven. Everything comes from a few predominating elements that mixed to form new ones and eventually little critters that ate other critters turned into us and other species. However, we have the ability to create.
I believe in God, but as opposed to you, I do not believe he is perfect. Our notion of God has come with evolution and is the total of our thoughts. But since he is a creation, he cannot be perfect, since we are not. And there is nothing wrong with that. Of course, since nothing is perfect then every thing is imperfect, which is kind of like perfection itself. If that's the case then I would agree with you and your claim to God being perfect.
Our notion of God has indeed evolved! And our notion of God only exists in our thoughts. The same is true with our notion of any thing.
Our notion of a thing is not the thing. Our notion of a thing doesn't change the thing. Our thoughts are an attempt to encompass and process reality, but thought alone doesn't change reality (though of course it can direct reality-changers such as action or communication). Now, there are some things that are concept only - with no independent existence. To say God exists only as a concept, is one way of saying that God doesn't exist.
Which is a reasonable proposition! The universe is set up in a way that does not require God to explain it. And so it is possible that God does not exist.
But how we define God does not change God. Either God exists or God does not. As far as perfection - God's perfection isn't of any importance to me. I usually just run with the usual set of characteristics for the sake of simplicity. But if God exists, then God is independent of the characteristics we assign!
My main thrust with this post is simply this: if God exists, we wouldn't be able to prove it unless God chose to make it already proved for us: stamped across our foreheads, or stamped into the universe. A God that would need to do that...this is a Donald Trump sort of conception of God.
Good reading. Good thoughts. I like.
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