I thought I’d give a new twist to the God-question:
It seems that God, if He exists, and if He cares at all about humans, has made us rational creatures capable or at least some moral agency. Yet He has not made Himself or His nature clear to us. In fact, if He exists, He has created the world in such a way that He is not obvious in any real sense of the word.
So it is not posible that God wants us to exercise our reason and our moral agency without Him? Afterall, even if God does exist - we’re stuck here on earth and should do our duty here.
It might be that God wants us to create ideas about Him to relate to; but He certainly hasn’t told us precisely anything about Himself (since human language cannot speak really about the Divine: we can only speak of God negatively or analogically).
Of course if you want to play the revelation card; you have to also justify that your claimed revelation of religious tradition is true - which I’m not even sure is possible.
a. “God has not made Himself or His nature clear to us.”
I disagree. From the use of the rational faculty alone we can see clearly in nature that God is infinitely intelligent, has a sense of order and purpose, is beautiful, is infinitely large, and above all, that he exists (see St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Five Proofs”), among many other things. And by looking within, we can see from our conscience and general human experience that the “right order” of things is for us to do “right” rather than “wrong”. We don’t control our conscience, it influences us rather. And the purpose of the conscience is not explainable only by the theory that we developed these instincts for survival, because much of the moral law in our hearts has nothing to do with primitive survival (don’t commit adultery, treat friends with respect out of love, don’t make fun of disabled persons, etc.). Also, the beauty of the soul is a clear reflection of the divine imprint we bear from our Creator. Art, poetry, romance, and appreciation for a pristine sunset have nothing to do with animal nature or survival instinct. Where are these things from? They are not “utilitarian”, they are not made for some kind of practical material purpose… They are from God, and the fingerprints of His design. Why do we laugh and cry? Because we have beautiful, individual souls begotten of God - there would be no reason for us to evolve such functions as these.
b. “So it is not posible that God wants us to exercise our reason and our moral agency without Him?”
That would be close to Deism, the same worldview of many of our founding fathers here in America. It is the belief that God created the universe and then “let it be”, as if He wound it up like a watch and then let go so it would run all on its own. This is a logical fallacy because the same God who created the universe from the outside must remain actively involved in maintaining it. If God ever “let the world go” then we would simply cease to exist; every moment of every day can only happen because God still
actively wills it, and if He ever stopped, time, space, all of it would simply cease to be. We rely on God for our very existence, since He is true being and the source of our being. The effect direcly relies on its cause, and God is not a Cause that is “used up” or that ever ceases to exist. Thus, how much more so do we rely on Him for daily providence and help in living “rightly”? God would not create us to do everything without Him, because that would be pointless. Why? Not simply to watch us (which is all He could do in that case), because a complete God has no need of entertainment.
Also, how would we know that our moral agency is worth anything without God? He is the Ultimate Good, and we judge everything else in relation to Him. Without God we would not know whether anything else was “good” or “bad”, or “right” or “wrong”, or what. We would not have objective law without a Lawgiver.
c. “It might be that God wants us to create ideas about Him to relate to; but He certainly hasn’t told us precisely anything about Himself (since human language cannot speak really about the Divine: we can only speak of God negatively or analogically). Of course if you want to play the revelation card; you have to also justify that your claimed revelation of religious tradition is true - which I’m not even sure is possible.”
True, we cannot do God justice with words or mental concepts, which is exactly why divine revelation is necessary to know
anything about Him. I can say with certainty that God doesn’t want us to “create” ideas about Him, for then how would we know if those concepts were accurate? The only way for somebody to truly know me is for me to introduce myself, or for them to find out information about me from some viable source (a close friend or something I wrote down about myself or something else in the world I influenced, for example). This is why God gave us Divine Revelation through the Prophets, the Law, and above all, Christ - His
most personal introduction of Himself.
I also say that it’s very possible to bring someone to a definitive conclusion about the Christian God just through the overwhelming evidence He gives us. This is related to the content of the Revelation itself. The uniqueness of Christ, God’s unity (by philosophical logic), the probability of the fulfillment of so many prophecies, and simply the moral goodness of the Faith are just a few out of very, very many indicators that our Revelation is real and True. After all, if God sought to show us Himself, we should assume that He would do it well and with impact - the type of impact created by a Man rising from the dead and establishing the world’s longest-lasting and most fruitful religious institution.
Just a little food for thought. Hope this helps!
Peace, and have a blessed Easter Sunday… Alleluia, Alleluia, He is risen!!
