Belief in God
February 21, 2008We recently had a lectureship series at school on the “New Atheism”. One of the devlopments traced is as follows:
Pre-Reformation: Implausible to not believe in God
Post-Reformation: Possible to not believe in God, though rare
Modernism: Implausible to believe in God
This reminded me of a reflection (this is unedited, unrefined, and not exhaustive) I wrote on one of my Trinitarianism class lectures. It is as follows:
“Do you believe in God?”
“No!”
“Why not?”
“Because you cannot prove him to me.”
In a sense, I wish conversations with the World were as simple as the one above. These conversations occur very frequently, but too often the real issue is cloaked in fancy words and rabbit trails, so the Christian misunderstands the underlying issue. And yet, even if the fluff of arguments were swept away, I think that Christians today still make a serious error: we take the responsibility to try and PROVE the existence of God. Why do we, Christians, think that we need to prove God, when He himself never wrote that proof?
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the beginning of God’s interaction with the earth and world that we live in. It is interesting to note that there is no account of where God came from. God was…and then He created, starting everything. Let us look, then, in the New Testament to see how the apostle’s understood the beginning, a look back. In John 1:1-2 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Again, concerning ourselves simply with investigating the existence of God, we see that God was in the beginning and so was the Word, who we know to be Jesus, the Son. So even an apostle, when looking back to the very beginning, having the same revelation that we do today, makes no case for proving God. There is an assumption that God is and therefore no need to prove that He is.
Why is it then, that today Christians battle the challenges to prove that God exists? Clearly it is because science has become the standard by which man measures all that is around him. But, the issue actually descends deeper into man than this. Man was created to rule over all else on this earth. Man has achieved this position today using science. So science is really a means to an end that man seeks. The problem, though, is that man is seeking to place under his rule God. Man is attempting to apply his created standard of measure to God, the Creator who is. This cannot work, and it does not work. Instead of understanding that man’s measure cannot be usable on his creator, God, man chooses to reject God because his belief is that his measure is faultless and all encompassing.
The result is that man does not want to accept the existence of God because he cannot define Him, grasp Him…ultimately, control Him. By God’s design, the earth has been put under man’s rule, but man is reaching out for more to rule over. That which man cannot rule, he rejects.
Christians, therefore, should not be caught up in the arguments for God’s existence. The Scriptures teach us about God, but they are written with the assumption that God exists. I think we, as Christians, should take the same approach. It is not ours to prove God’s existence, though we can indeed offer insights here.
Nice post. Yes it is a ridiculous and impossible task, or the easiest thing ever to prove God. The very fact that we all call ourselves ‘I’ is a direct pointer to the truth of one universal creative intelligence, or God. This is, of course, all too obvious and simple for the scientific mind that is always looking for the truth ‘out there’. But hey, its all a bit of fun as long as nobody takes themselves too seriously.
Thanks for the comment! I agree to the extent that science cannot take “I” and reproduce it in a laboratory, which is the measure science demands, and therefore they miss this. It seems you are alluding to the idea that truth is found within a person and not “out there,” where science looks. I believe truth is in fact external to the individual.
Truth is internal and external, but it is dangerous to use the “look within yourself” because that makes it emotional, and while we’re all wired to have a void that longs to be filled, our external upbringing may jade us to the idea of God existing. “How can there be a God that loves me and allowed me to be abused?” etc…
And I agree with you, jon, its not our place to prove God, he does so on his own. It’s our place to show Jesus and to show God’s grace, love and forgiveness.
But i’m not sure I agree with the widely popular notion that atheism is rampant. It is certianly acceptable, but I do not personally know one outspoken atheist… i know a lot of really faithless “christians” and a lot of dualistic minded people.. .I know a lot of muslims, catholics, and those dang baptist (j/k)… I know a lot of people who “believe in God” but do not live like they care anything about his existance… if anything, i’d say more people lean towards an agnostic view of things.
I think our celebrity culture (which is all we see in the media) is widely atheistic, and our corporate marketing tries to push atheism / agnosticism… but not the common man. If this was the case, we wouldn’t have every presidential candidate pushing for the evangelical vote.
Our culture may be heading that way, and its something we should be prepared for, but I still believe in the lowest common denominator… Love. People long to be loved and accepted. We long to have a purpose and to be a part of something bigger than we are… It may be trendy to be atheistic, but get someone one on one with no external pressure, show them Jesus and let the Holy Spirit do the work…
OK so this blew me away at first, but that is why I read your blog! I love the line “That which man cannot rule, he rejects.” A truer statement cannot be made, in my opinion. This transcends God into relationships with others, our jobs, over everyday life. To me this statement boils down the human condition to what it is, sinful. What a blessing it is to mature in your relationship with Christ/Spirit/Father to work (albeit sometime unsuccessfully) at allowing a demanding and loving God to rule in our lives.
Jaybrams: obviously this is not a fully detailed discussion, so there is a lot that is inferred without being explicitly stated. With that said and in response to your comments, I am leery of saying that there is truth internal to the individual. This puts emphasis on individuals, and quite frankly I do not have much hope for the individual alone. However, if you are inferring that individuals are able to know truth, then I agree. This idea is somewhat difficult to detail in writing, and I don’t have it all thought out. Therefore please continue to share your idea so I may more fully understand.
I agree with you completely that atheism is not a rampant belief…rather some sort of agnosticism is. I think the fertile field for atheistic type beliefs is science/academia. I haven’t finished listening to the lecturship series, so I will let you know where the speaker takes it.
Justin:
“What a blessing it is to mature in your relationship with Christ/Spirit/Father to work (albeit sometime unsuccessfully) at allowing a demanding and loving God to rule in our lives.”
It is truly amazing, as you say, the process of Christian maturation…Christ becoming Lord of our lives (Rom 12)