Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Thoughtful Challenges from Readers

In a May 9th comment Autumnal Harvest quoted me as saying: "That challenging fusion of belief with uncertainty is what makes faith a virtue." Then he asked: “Why is this a virtue? Normally holding a belief and acting on that belief, when there's insufficient evidence for it, is considered an error in judgment, not a virtue.”

In an April 28th comment P. Coyle said: “Here is a theological possibility for you to consider: What if the reason we don't know how God created the universe is not that we're too dumb to understand it, but because God does not want us to know? Would that not be consistent with your position, as the "believing agnostic," that we cannot know whether God exists? Doesn't your theology imply that, if we cannot know whether God exists, surely that must be because God doesn't want people to know that he exists?”

Both are thoughtful challenges. The following essay, which I wrote and posted before the questions were asked, explains why I see faith as a virtue and why I think God doesn't want people to know (be able to verify with certainty) that he exists.

How the Improbable God
Probably Works
A World View and a God Hypothesis

Shane Hayes

Here’s a world view in a thousand words – and it took me only fifty years to compose it. I offer it as a hypothesis – my effort to explain how God must think and act if we are to reconcile his existence with the world, and human life, as we find them. In part they are speculations about the mind, the values, and – to use a crude term for want of a better one – the personality of God. (If he is a person, must he not have a personality – “the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual”?) Assume each part is true till you get to the end. Then, when you view it whole, decide if it might possibly account for what we see and what may be behind it. For me it does.

The Personality of God

There is a cosmic intelligence, an all-powerful personal God who created the universe. The Big Bang, evolution, and natural selection may have been his modus operandi. His mind is infinite, and his methods are very subtle. A sense of humor is one of the finest aspects of human intelligence, so we should not suppose our creator is without one. Irony, and a predilection for the incongruous, the unexpected, the mysterious, and the imponderable are manifest in all his works.

He has made some of the greatest truths about his world – from the roundness of the earth, and the stillness of the sun, to his own invisible existence -- appear improbable. He reveals himself, but always under a cloak of ambiguity that lets us explain him away, if we want to. He does this not maliciously, but with a benevolent purpose that has something to do with freedom and what might be called soul making. His “heart” is as vast and limitless as his mind.

Man is the creature in whom he takes the greatest interest, because man is the most Godlike creature – the most able to reflect on his condition, and alter it by using his mind and his power of choice. Man is the only creature capable of knowing God and forming a relationship with him. The only creature with a sense of humor.

The Values of God

God loves all of his creation, especially man, and he has made man more capable of love than any other creature. He can love not only himself, his mate, and their offspring (as other mammals do), but a wide circle of other human beings – potentially all of them. And God made it possible for man to love him. He has made love crucial to a healthy human psyche. We are happiest when we love God and other people, but we are free not to.

Such choices are the essence of morality, and God constructed the universe around them. Despite the vast sweep of its galaxies, it is essentially a moral universe – designed to provide moral challenge and opportunity, to require moral striving, and to produce in every life a measurable degree of moral success and failure, which are of keen interest to God.

Our happiness is important, but must often be deferred. God is eternal – he takes the long view, and requires that we learn to. The long view includes both life, which is brief, and its Sequel, which is endless. Though the Sequel is infinitely larger than life, it’s as invisible as God, therefore easy to forget or not believe in.

Deceptive Appearances, Hidden Truths

God has filled his universe with ironies. The principal irony is that often things are not what they seem. Learning to deal with that is a great moral challenge. We must learn to “see” the invisible, to “hear” the inaudible, to grasp what we can’t touch, and to believe what we can’t prove. The most important reality is God, but he’s hidden from us. Deliberately, maddeningly, and distressingly hidden. The shining Sequel to life -- its fulfillment, point, and purpose -- is so out of sight as to be generally out of mind, even for those who expect it.

God has made it possible for man to know a great many things with certainty. We know obvious things by simple observation. Much that is hidden can be learned by study, experiment, and the exercise of reason. At its best, reason is so amazing that we’re tempted to think it’s the only human faculty that can lead us to truth. In fact, it can lead us to only certain kinds of truth: practical, theoretic, scientific. But the ultimate truth – interpersonal and mystical -- is quite beyond its reach. We can reason to the possibility of God, but he has strewn other possibilities in our path, so that certainty about his existence and our origin cannot be had.

Unprovable, but not Unreachable

Dealing with this uncertainty is another moral challenge. God has made himself not only hidden but unprovable. The only way to connect with him is by believing what we can’t know. Those are his terms and we must accept them or reject him. When reason brings us to God’s threshold (he is one possibility among several), other faculties must carry us across, and if we disdain them we’ll never reach him. They may work in this sequence. Hope says, “I wish there were a God; I want there to be a God; I hope there is a God.” Love says, “I find the idea of God wonderfully appealing; I love the idea of God; I love the possibility of God.” Then faith says, “I extend my hand into the darkness; I believe in God” -- and the divine connection is made!

Humility and Truth

The ancient mystic who wrote The Cloud of Unknowing said: “By love he may be gotten and holden, but by thought, never.” John said, “God is love.” The atheist Bertrand Russell said, “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence,” to justify his unbelief. Believing requires not only an act of faith but an act of humility. The prouder we are of our intellect, of its superiority to lesser minds, and of the dazzling science it produced, the harder it is to humble ourselves and believe. Yet the Designer of the Universe arranged it so that he, his ultimate truth, and life’s shining Sequel can be found only by the humble and believing.

We cannot accept his love unless we acknowledge his existence.  We can brush aside the outstretched hand.  He will neither compel faith, nor make it unnecessary. On those terms, we can take him or leave him. Receive his embrace or turn away.  Our decision is our fate.

8 comments:

  1. The following essay, which I wrote and posted before the questions were asked, explains ... why I think God doesn't want people to know (be able to verify with certainty) that he exists.

    Shane, you old tease, you promise, but you don't deliver.

    But, moving on: What's your theory as to why God apparently doesn't even care whether people believe that he exists?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shane,
    You stated that God apparently doesn't even care whether people believe that he exists, yet you are a Christian and Jesus talks about going to Hell for eternity if you don't follow God's laws, so that kind of nullifies your above statement.
    If God loves us so much, then why does he allow modern day slavery, as well as Jews owning slaves in the Old & New Testaments? Also, why does he allow woman today to be forced into slavery and young woman to have their clitoris' removed. Why was it OK for a father in the Old Testament to sell his daughter into slavery or Abraham to pretend his wife was his sister and then to allow her to be put into a harum? These are just a few questions that come to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. To P. Coyle and W. Dunlap,

    P. C.,

    I think he does care. The God I believe in, the God of my hypothesis, cares profoundly -- and reaches out to unbelievers in many ways, subtle and direct. He penetrated my defences when I was an atheist. He may even be reaching out to you through our interactions here. He's not above using humble instruments.

    W. D.,

    You say I "stated that God apparently doesn't even care whether people believe that he exists." I never said that, but I examined my last posting to see what might have given that unintended impression. I've revised the ending to make it even more clear that, as I said above, "God loves all of his creation, especially man," and wants that love requited -- but it can be requited only by one who believes.

    Shane

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shane:

    You may care, and you may reach out to unbelievers, but you are not God. Reaching out always seems to require human agency.

    When Saint Paul was making his missionary journeys, the love of the Christian God went unrequited by the Picts of Scotland and the tribes of ancient Germania. It went unrequited by the aboriginal inhabitants of all of North and South America and Australasia and almost all of Africa. It went unrequited by 58 million Han Chinese and by 50 million inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. For most of the people in those areas, it would continue to go unrequited for another millenium and a half, or more. It had gone unrequited by the paleolithic artists of the caves of Lascaux, and would go unrequited for more than 600 human generations thereafter before the ancient Hebrews decided that there was only one god, and that they were his chosen people.

    The number of people to whom the Christian God failed to reach out runs into the tens of billions. Why? I have my theory -- there was no God to do the reaching out. What's your theory? Why did the Christian God, who supposedly cares so profoundly that people believe that he exists, never bother to make known to so many the possibility of his existence?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shane,
    The Jews believed that God would protect them from their enemies. When he didn’t, it was believed that it was because they didn’t follow his laws and sinned. However, even when the Israelites kept God’s laws, they still were defeated by their enemies. Why is that? Why did God turn his back on them? Or was it that the enemies’ Gods were more powerful? God made a pact with David stating that his line would rule for ever. It didn’t happen. One of the enemies removed the Davidic leader and replaced him with a nonDavidic leader.

    P.Coyle, though, eventually, the Jews believed in the existence of just one God, for some time, they believed that more than one God existed. They simply made a contract with Yahweh as the only God they would worship. Even though David worshipped Yahweh, he also worshipped the god of his ancestors.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shane,
    I spent some time over Jame's Randi's blog. I argued that a creator might be necessary for a first cause. I presented it as a hypothesis. That got shot down because an hypothesis has to be based on some sort of evidence, which there is none for a creator. I believe you started out saying this was your hypothesis, but like me, it really is nothing more than speculating. There is not evidence of a creator. I remember looking down on the ancient Egyptian gods such as the sun god dragging a flaming chariot across the sky and every night going into Hades to explain the darkness. Science of course has shown that this is, in reality, a natural occurrence. So far, every man-made god has been disprovened, including the Christian God. If a creator god actually exists, we have no way of proving it, because, if a creator does exist and wishes to be worshipped, it has not shown itself and made that clear. This is quite evident in that there are so many different religions and many different sects within each religion.

    "Yet the Designer of the Universe arranged it so that he, his ultimate truth, and life’s shining Sequel can be found only by the humble and believing. "

    This is pure speculation and self congratulations, i.e., since I believe, I have evidence of the existence of God, and you nonbelievers don't. Once again, you are merely basing your belief on faith and most likely hope. Still, I do understand that the belief that you can pray for help and guidance from this creator, whether it exists or not, can prove to be a comfort. So, why not. My main problem with religion is the belief by a group of people that their religion is the orthodox religion and, therefore, it is A-OK to murder those who do not believe as they do. The ancient Catholic church comes to mind when they were burning people at the stake because they dared to interpret the Bible differently than they did. Another is the Taliban murdering those who try to convert others to Christianity, and who would like to force everyone to believe as they do.

    "We cannot accept his love unless we acknowledge his existence."

    You are simply blowing smoke here because there is no evidence that God is loving and waiting for us to acknowledge his existence, or even that one exists.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shane,Pt1 of 2.
    I spent some time over Jame's Randi's blog. I argued that a creator might be necessary for a first cause. I presented it as a hypothesis. That got shot down because an hypothesis has to be based on some sort of evidence, which there is none for a creator. I believe you started out saying this was your hypothesis, but like me, it really is nothing more than speculating. There is not evidence of a creator. I remember looking down on the ancient Egyptian gods such as the sun god dragging a flaming chariot across the sky and every night going into Hades to explain the darkness. Science of course has shown that this is, in reality, a natural occurrence. So far, every man-made god has been disprovened, including the Christian God. If a creator god actually exists, we have no way of proving it, because, if a creator does exist and wishes to be worshipped, it has not shown itself and made that clear. This is quite evident in that there are so many different religions and many different sects within each religion.
    "Yet the Designer of the Universe arranged it so that he, his ultimate truth, and life’s shining Sequel can be found only by the humble and believing. "

    This is pure speculation and self congratulations, i.e., since I believe, I have evidence of the existence of God, and you nonbelievers don't. Once again, you are merely basing your belief on faith and most likely hope. Still, I do understand that the belief that you can pray for help and guidance from this creator, whether it exists or not, can prove to be a comfort. So, why not. My main problem with religion is the belief by a group of people that their religion is the orthodox religion and, therefore, it is A-OK to murder those who do not believe as they do. The ancient Catholic church comes to mind when they were burning people at the stake because they dared to interpret the Bible differently than they did. Another is the Taliban murdering those who try to convert others to Christianity, and who would like to force everyone to believe as they do.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shane, pt2of2
    "We cannot accept his love unless we acknowledge his existence."

    You are simply blowing smoke here because there is no evidence that God is loving and waiting for us to acknowledge his existence, or even that one exists.

    ReplyDelete