"On Proving God"

On Proving God

The skeptic demanded, “Prove to me that your God exists!”

What does “prove” mean?  Does it mean show a formal proof?  Does it mean to set up a control experiment?  Does it mean to gather a body of evidence, examine it closely, and then form some conclusion? 

Just what does it mean to “prove” that there is God?

Many Things Cannot Be Proven

Think about it.  There are many, many things that one cannot prove.   A person cannot touch, taste, feel, hear, see, or smell “love” yet who would argue that such does not exist?  The same is true of “gravity.”  Has anyone touched gravity?  Can you see it?  What does it taste like? Yet like love we know that it is very real.

The point is that there are many, many things that a person cannot experience with the five physical senses or prove with some theoretical calculation, and yet in the common body of knowledge we know that such things exist.  

How About One’s Thoughts?

If one applies the “experience criterion” to thoughts, they too are unprovable.  One’s thoughts though very real cannot be experienced by any of the five senses and yet who can legitimately argue that such are not real. 

Well sure, one certainly can measure electrical impulses and chemical reactions in the brain but are those thoughts?  Of course they are not!  They are simply electrons and molecules in relationship with one another etc.  That being so one would be hard pressed to prove the existence of consciousness by the existence of those physical observations.

So Can You Know For Sure?

Materialism is the notion that all is physical or as they say, "material" in some form or another.  This idea is the substance of arguments among philosophers but has little validity in the real world of most people.   

Most rational people know that there is much in life that cannot be known and experienced through the five senses.  Most know that there are elements in reality that are not indeed cannot be governed by the physical laws with which man is acquainted.  Even without the senses there is an inner awareness that there is more than the physical. 

In short there are many things that cannot be rationally explained without the existence of non-material and alternate realities.  So here are a few questions...

Questions

If one can agree that there is a non-material reality then there comes a question.  It is this.  What are the limits of that non-material world?   

Is it limited to that which functions in the mental processes of man?  The example referenced above is that of love.  There are others such as joy, fear, hope, kindness, etc.

Or…

Is it limited to that which functions in the mental process of man and as well that which functions in the physical world?  An example here is the aforementioned gravity.

Or…

Is there more?

In Summary

In sum, here are the points…

If you can accept that there is something beyond the material world…

If you can accept that there is something beyond the non-material part of man…

If you can accept that there is something beyond the non-material parts of the physical world

Then is it possible that existing in that non-material reality is God?

Jesus certainly said so when He said,

  “God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24, NASU

"god" Making

My Pseudo-Neighbor

I do not like my neighbor—never mind that he does not exist.

Let me tell you about that non-neighbor.  He is self serving, does not care who he inconveniences, parks his cars and boats all over the neighborhood, his dogs bark all hours of the day and night, and he is narcissistic, sociopathic, psychopathic, and much, much more.  He walks into my house all hours of the day and night, leaves his “stuff” all over my yard, and that is the good that he does.  The bad is far worse.  I simply do not like this neighbor that does not exist!

The God Who does Not Exist

The point is this.  How can I not dislike and not believe in a person that does not exist?  This is the logic of those who create a god out of their biases and misperceptions and then claim that such a god does not exist.  They are right!  He does not exist and that says nothing about the God who does exist. 

God Making

Each person is vested with the power to make choices.  That is anyone can choose to believe what they choose to believe.  Thus they can choose to believe that good is bad, light is dark, up is down, etc.  Of course, believing those things in no way makes them true.  So it is with formulating erroneous beliefs about God.  Just because one believes them in no way makes them valid or even logical.  In fact many of the claims such people make do not stand up under simple logical consideration!

God Making From Where?

From where does such originate?  These beliefs come of a mindset that has at its center the individual.  This is the notion that one’s belief system is valid because that person believes it.   Their own notions, ideas, and beliefs come to occupy center stage in their truth paradigm!  Such does not mean it is genuine, just that it is what they have come to believe.

Unintended Outcomes

There is an unintended consequence of such a thought process. 

What is the eventual end of such a mindset?  Well, there is no end to it!  However, owing to the very basic tenants of such a mindset there a continuing process.  Pushed out further and further, one arrives at the narcissistic, sociopathic, and even psychopathic individual.   This is the person who is insatiably preoccupied his their own pleasure without consideration of its effects upon others.

The reason for such is that the self has every potential of becoming ravenously selfish.  Such a person is selfish without there being some restraint.  The insatiable self leads to a greater and greater need for satisfaction.  Soon the individual becomes of such paramount importance, so self-centered that nothing nor anyone is of any importance.  All are there to meet the needs of the individual and any inconvenience or challenge must be discarded or ignored.

Refashioning God

In the process of what has just been describes there is another process that has been set in motion.  That is the individual begins to refashion God into a god who seldom is far above that persons moral proclivities.  Such a person humanizes God into being god. Instead of creating man in God's image, now we have a god created in a man's image.  Why?  Very simply the God who is has becomes very, very inconvenient.

There then comes the illogical part of the process.  It comes with the declaration that the god of one's creation does not exist.   Well, matter of fact, they are right.  How could any other conclusion be reached?  Simply stated, it is just like my non-existent neighbor in whom I do not believe.  Such a person has created a non-existent god and then set about disproving and disapproving of him.

However, such a mental exercise says absolutely nothing about the God who does exist!

Considering Standards of Progress

Pastor Timothy Keller in his book, The Reason for God asks a very interesting, if not challenging question.  It is this. “How can we use our time’s standard of ‘progressive’ as the plumbline by which we decide which parts of the Bible are valid and which are not?”*

Of course one might broaden the question out and ask the same of one’s notions of truth, progress, and a whole host of other assumptions.  Pastor Keller goes on to make the observation that just as people in our day look back and view the past as primitive, one day people will look back at us with the same label.  Yet one must ask, “Is this really so?” and “Are we really more advanced that those of years ago?”

The Benchmark of Progress

This notion that today is a legitimate “plumbline of progress” is a part of a greater question.  Is our benchmark for deciding progress based upon accurate truth or biased assumption?  For example one might offer the speed with which knowledge is expanding as evidence that man is no longer primitive and in fact advanced over what he was in past centuries.  Or perhaps offer that Western man is living longer as some mark of progress.

Again one does well to ask the question.  Are these legitimate marks of man’s progress?  If so, then they are accurate truth.  If not they are evidence that once again a flawed and biased assumption has been bandied about to the degree that it is accepted as truth. 

Assumptions about Intelligence

Look for example at man’s intelligence.  It is not uncommon for people to conclude that today’s man is more intelligent and accomplished than mankind of five, six, or even then thousands of years ago.  It is not uncommon to hear people refer to the Hebrews of 5,000 years ago as primitive goat herders. 

The assumption is that man has greater intelligence than ever before (Darwinian Theory).  But, is that really true?  The only way to test the validity of the theory is to read the writings of the time in the Jewish Scriptures and as well consult such archeological sources as are possible.  Such reveals a far different picture.

The Genesis Account

Do you know anyone who is capable of giving a name to every one of the 280 animals in the Species: Vertebrate, Class: Mammalian Masupialia?  Yet the first man of recorded history did so and more (Genesis 2:19-20)!  One may argue that he was unique but there again one assumption is as valid as the next and really there is no way to know beyond the Biblical text.  Of course there are those who when they find some aspect or another of the Biblical text inconvenient to their truth paradigm spare no intellectual and academic effort to refute the Scriptures.

The Egyptian Account

While the sons of Jacob (Israel) and their families were most certainly in the livestock business, at the outset of the 400 years they were in the Egyptian culture such did not remain so for many.  Archeologically in the vicinity of the Valley of the Kings there are discoveries that suggest it was Jewish artisans who carried on much of the construction in general and as well much of the aesthetic work on the Tombs. 

This discovery is in its infancy.  As more and more is discovered there is a strong possibility that more and more will be discovered that validates the initial discoveries.  However, when one reads of the construction of the Wilderness Tabernacle another picture is present.  Yes, there was the Divine giftedness present in those doing the actual work.  As well, there is a sense of those doing the work having some background in the trades.

The Land of Israel

More and more archeology is validating the narrative of the Scriptures and in those narratives one finds that the Kingdoms of David and of Solomon are rather advanced.  Though they existed some 3,000 year ago, they included written languages (Hebrew), international trade and commerce, systems for taxation, military organizations, judicial systems, and much more.  Bear in mind that this organization was in place less than 400 years after the Egyptian experience.

The Babylonian Experience

The Babylonian Empire was at the leading edge of progress in its day with a road system and a mail system that transited the Empire.  The government was advanced and in need of skilled civil servants to see to the administration of same.  It was not uncommon that such were found in and among the conquered peoples. 

So it was in 605 BCE, when Babylon conquered Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar the ruler over Babylon brought four Hebrew young me to be trained for court duties.  Such were anything but “goat herders” as is evidenced by the rise in power of one man, Daniel.  He was so well trained that when the Persians conquered Babylon he was retained in the royal court.

The Jewish Writings

Should one take the time to consider just when the Books found in the Jewish Bible were written and then consider the vocabulary, the text, the various constructions involved in the writing of the day there is a very legitimate conclusion to be drawn?  Such a study will show that the writers were not uneducated people of the fields butt a cross section of Jewish culture. 

All of these men were men of understanding, education, and skill in reading, writing, culture, and communication.  Such at the very least should begin the process of delegitimizing the notion that is most popular among many that present day man has progressed well beyond his predecessors.

Questionable Assumptions

In today’s culture assisted as one is with technology it is easy to miss the point that those of by gone days conducted the affairs of their lives right on up to those of state without such communication and travel aids as are present today.  The question of how they did so with capacities much lower than today’s man is certainly intriguing or is it?

For the reasons provided, it seems then that the assumption that today’s man had advanced in intellect and mental capacity beyond that of his forbearers must be called into question. More to follow in a subsequent posting.

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*Although it would appear that I take issue with Pastor Keller, may I say that this is a most excellent book that every Christian and Atheist should read.   Christians to bolster their faith, Atheists to challenge theirs.