Tainted Wisdom

Does God exist? Isn’t this a question we’ve been trying to answer for at least 10,000 years? I have a number of problems with this question, though in my opinion, I don’t think it can be properly asked in the first place. We don’t yet have enough tangible evidence to properly form the question. Asking, “Does God exist,” is to make too many bold assumptions.

Why don’t we ask, “Does a god or a number of gods exist?” Granted paganism has fallen to the wayside in modern times, but paganism assumed multiple deities, not just one. However, whenever I make this argument among my Christian friends, they scoff at me. They ask how I can be so silly. Of course there is one God, and only one. It only makes sense. Why? It is in the Bible. Skipping over the problems with tautologies, I’ll just say that in asking of God in the first place, we have a problem with numbers. How many gods are we talking about? Where is the certain proof there is only one? I won’t even get into the issue of whether we are thinking of God as a woman or man, or as a black or a white skinned entity when we ask the question. Must the gods be anthropomorphic?

There are believers that agree with what I have argued so far, but still they believe. For them, we can ask the question, “Does God exist?” because they don’t have a problem with plurality or anthropomorphism. God, for them, is the supreme power and creative force in the Universe. God is everything and everywhere. To see God as an old man with a beard, a Santa-type figure, or as a pantheon of beings, is just a metaphor that allows us to better relate to the heavens. Do you see the slippery slope? Now we are asking whether an all powerful, creative force exists. From where does gravity come? What keeps the Earth spinning and revolving around the Sun? There is order here. There has to be! But then I must ask how we know there really is order? I’ve never seen another world or universe to which we might compare this one. So where is the proof of order? The answer might be Geometry! This is proof of order. With imaginary triangles and circles we can compare the real world with the ideal world! O.k. Maybe this kind of argument works for some of us, especially if we are ancient Greeks. However, how do we traverse the gap between geometric proofs and the question of God? I do suppose it is fair to ask, “What is the origin of our ability to conceptualize a triangle?”

We can go on, and on, and on. Not even the real scholars can agree on the nature of God(s) and haven’t been able to for 10,000 years, so why assume we can do it now? My answer is to just admit the absolute complexity of it all. Admit we don’t know enough to ask the question in the first place.

All you can do to convince me otherwise is to make a bold claim of faith. “In my heart I know God is real, for I have had a revelation!” O.k. I can buy it. I’m not pompous enough to assume that just because I’ve not had a true conversion experience they don’t exist and aren’t real. I try to keep my heart and mind open. On this note, I think I’ve suddenly changed my mind. We can ask, “Does God exist?” if we can speak these words from faith rather than logic.