Why doesn't God maintain direct communications with humanity?

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BornInMarch

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I was having a polite conversation with an agnostic person regarding religion, and he raised a point I don’t really have an answer to - why is it so unclear to an outside observer which religion and denomination is true? On the face of it this question makes sense; if God wants humanity to worship Him in the proper way then regularly communicating with humans to settle theological problems would be conducive to that goal, and a being unbound by time or space could do so easily. Not to mention that in the past God did just this, telling Moses explicitly how the chosen people were expected to live.

Does anyone have answers for this concern?
 
Maybe Gd is not as concerned as we humans about how we worship Him and according to which religion. Maybe He is no longer communicating this because He already did through many historical figures: Moses, Jesus, Muhummad, Buddha, and so on, and since He has given us so much guidance in the past, He expects us to make moral decisions based on what He has already communicated to us.
 
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If God spoon fed us religion, how could faith develop in human beings?
Christ walked the earth in person, and we still don’t follow.
The responsibility for living faith is on human beings not God.
 
He would certainly suffer with all the trash talk that would happen - Good move by him.
 
BornInMarch said:
Not to mention that in the past God did just this, telling Moses explicitly how the chosen people were expected to live.

Does anyone have answers for this concern?
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In the past, most people failed to recognize or acknowledge the prophets. Even with Jesus, the religious authorities of His time claimed He cast out demons in the name of the prince of demons (cf. Matthew 12:24). Very few of them were able to see that He was from God.

If people were unable to recognize even the Son of God, what makes you think they would recognize any other prophet?

God could be communicating directly with humanity even today, and if thousands of years of history are any indication, we would be completely ignorant of it.
 
BornInMarch said:
why is it so unclear to an outside observer which religion and denomination is true?
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I think the short answer is pride. As in, most people think that their religion is the right one.

Some Religions have more truth to their beliefs than others. I think different religions also fill different roles, and they can work together. It’s difficult to test everything and then retain what is good. I think a lot of people do their best at finding what’s true and what’s not.
 
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TheLittleLady said:
God provides communication through His Church.
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and the Holy Spirit with-in us… we just don’t listen as well as we should, or ignore what we don’t want to hear.

He even speaks to those who don’t believe in Him, when they ask are you real.
 
An even more important question for believers is why, given that God does communicate with humans, that he does so in such an obscure way: scriptures with unclear meanings, accumulation of tradition, visions with messages, personal revelations… why not a clear weekly briefing by an incontrovertibly supernatural source?
 
He does, it’s called the Holy Spirit. God gives to all the sufficient means to know the truth and be saved.

He just doesn’t necessarily give to each person all at once or to each person at the same time. Why is this?

I think the parable of the worker’s in the vineyard is illustrative, among other scriptural references. He exercises and shows forth His mercy both by inspiring lifelong Saints and by forgiving others after a life times of sin. The diversity of ways in which human beings come to know, love, and serve God in the one faith shows forth his broadness of his justice, love, mercy, and glory.
 
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BornInMarch said:
if God wants humanity to worship Him in the proper way then regularly communicating with humans to settle theological problems would be conducive to that goal
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Good question - He regularly communicated with humans for 33 years when He walked the earth. He opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead. They still crucified Him - shows how much they were willing to listen!
 
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How supernatural could a force be if it were to communicate so plainly and clearly. Mystery is an essential feature of the supernatural. Another feature is poetry rather than direct expository prose, which can often be so common and tedious.
 
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FiveLinden said:
An even more important question for believers is why, given that God does communicate with humans, that he does so in such an obscure way: scriptures with unclear meanings, accumulation of tradition, visions with messages, personal revelations… why not a clear weekly briefing by an incontrovertibly supernatural source?
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There are two reasons for this.

The first is that the way we have developed language and the intellect is centered on the natural, sensory world, and the message God has for us is necessarily about that which is beyond nature and the senses.

So we have no reason to expect that God’s message should be clear to people who have developed their entire frame of reference in a world that is vastly more limited than the truths that God is sharing. If God’s message were not “obscure” (to use your word), then it would be wrong, and it would not be Truth.

The second reason is related. Although our mind was formed in the natural world, it has the capacity to understand divine things. But like any mental capacity, you do not acquire it unless you work to develop it.

For example, the mind has the capacity to understand advanced mathematics, but to those who have never worked to develop that capacity, the principles of high math will seem mysterious and obscure.

If we are to be participants in God’s Kingdom, it seems reasonable to expect that we should develop an understanding of the nature of that Kingdom. But we do not do so if we never work to develop that understanding. By teaching us the way He does, God provides training in how to elevate our minds to that level, so we may come to know Him as He is, rather than as how our limited human minds would imagine Him to be.
 
White_Tree said:
Although our mind was formed in the natural world, it has the capacity to understand divine things.
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If our mind can ‘understand divine things’ then we should be able to express such things clearly. And God should, too. Some things are hard to express clearly. The theory of relativity is difficult to express. Some are easy. The theory of evolution is easy to express. Similarly with claimed ‘divine’ things. ‘There is a God’ who made everything’ is easy to express. ‘At Mass, transubstantiation occurs’ is hard to explain.

God could at least explain the easy bits in incontrovertible ways.
 
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FiveLinden said:
An even more important question for believers is why, given that God does communicate with humans, that he does so in such an obscure way: scriptures with unclear meanings, accumulation of tradition, visions with messages, personal revelations… why not a clear weekly briefing by an incontrovertibly supernatural source?
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Because human beings aren’t supernatural?
 
When you read Shakespeare or any other of the great works of literature, do you expect everything to be spelled out for you clearly and plainly, or do you expect you will have to work hard to understand what is written, its meaning, its poetry? The same for great music, great painting, great architecture, film, dance, and so on. These works are not easy to understand at a deep level and they require the active participation of the reader, the viewer, or the listener. And they were all composed by MORTALS. Imagine then how much more active participation is required by an IMMORTAL being presenting His law to you in the form of Holy Scripture. The supernatural demands more than casual activity on the part of the reader, the viewer, or the listener, and this is exactly the way it should be.
 
meltzerboy2 said:
The supernatural demands more than casual activity on the part of the reader, the viewer, or the listener, and this is exactly the way it should be.
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I have always imagined that should there be a God and should one be in communication with the God that all things would seem simple, and clear, and beyond dispute. Maybe I am missing something about what it is people believe. Tell me more.
 
The answer is, because we are created with free will. You would be forced to believe if God was in your face. Jesus said blessed are those who believe without seeing and that his kingdom is not of this world.
 
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