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God Hides Out In The Open
by L Cruz
III2007
(latest update: 11OCT08)
Below the rocking waves of the ocean's weighty deep, upon mineral-rich mountains of their own design, there live colonies of tiny sea creatures called coral polyps. Despite their minuscule outlines, about 2 millimeters in all, when united they become a mighty force responsible for creating entire underwater ecosystems that have been known to stretch for thousands of miles. More than a quarter of the ocean's inhabitants owe their very existences to these tiny coral polyps.
However, in addition to their obvious importance, some corals are participants in a spectacular event that many believe is beyond explanation.
Annually, on one such reef in the Gulf of Mexico, just seven or eight days after August's full moon and one hour after sunset, great billowing clouds of tiny "somethings" depart from the reef. A smoky haze betrays their presence in MILLIONS. Their graceful glide through the dark Gulf waters signify the beginning of something inconceivable...the coral polyps have begun spawning all at once.
What makes this perfectly choreographed dance of life so startling is not necessarily the fact that they are animals, but rather not one of these coral creatures has a single eye to see, ear to hear or brain to think.
They are tiny creatures who follow an intellect beyond their own. A plan is their guide and life is the reason. They are the merest followers of a LAW.
THE ORIGIN OF FIRST POINT
In the article "Is God Real?" we lightly explored the premise that the "source" of the physical universe is God, and we accomplished this by means of simple logic. Now that the basics have been set, let us re-explore that premise through a slightly stronger microscope, then we will move on.
The source of any thing has to be something beyond itself. For example a grain of sand could not have been the source of its own existence any more than a bowl of Jell-O could have been the source of its own existence. Everything comes from something else. Apples come from trees, rain comes from clouds, babies come from parents and so on. It is a simple game of cause and effect where each effect is simultaneously a cause for the next effect and the next effect, etc. It is the overture to which the universe dances, but that leads us to another question...what exactly is the universe?
The universe is the all of physical existence. Everything from those spacey things we know nothing of, to the mundane ones we do. They are all vital players in creation. Even our bodies play a part in the dance. And, if the additional dimensions scientists claim to have found actually exist, the universe would include them as well.
Now, when considering the universe as a whole, and the law of cause and effect which governs it, we discover that we are living in the effects of yesterday's cause. Whether yesterday was a second or a century, we are here because of that moment...and then the moment before it...and so on.
But, what happens when we ramp up this backwards examination of the physical universe to dizzying speeds? Well, something incredible happens. We discover something...a first cause. A first physical thing…the first piece of all physical creation…the point at which it all began. For the purpose of this discussion, I will call this first physical thing, First Point.
Whether First Point was an atom, a quark, a cosmic string, a bang, or anything else makes little difference in this discussion. Nor does it matter how long it was alone in its physicality. All that matters is that First Point was the first and only physical thing anywhere. It was the point at which it all began. It was the very first cause.
Now ask yourself this obvious question. Keeping in mind that everything comes from something else, from where did First Point come? It could not have come from another physical thing because there weren't any. It had to have come from something, but what? The answer is unavoidable, singular and startling. The very first physical thing in existence could not have come from something physical, but rather something nonphysical.
And what do we call this "something nonphysical"?
God! God is the Creator of all and is the profound entity of endless possibility we worship.
And the nonphysical "somethings" we each possess are called souls. And the study, discussion and exploration of the whole nonphysical issue, including the bonds between our souls and God and even the physical world is called spirituality.
But, no matter which non-physical thing we consider, it all points to God when contemplating cause and effect in reverse. And, when we admire the perfect order of the universe, from perfectly spinning planets to brilliantly beating hearts, we see that this non-physical God had a plan or intent, and we are thankfully a part of it.
For centuries this brilliant cosmological
line of reasoning (where cause and effect is logically contemplated in reverse)
has been called the "argument from universal causation," the "argument from
first cause," and also the "uncaused cause" argument. However, you may have
heard of it by a different phrase..."All roads lead to God."
MAKING THE "HE" CONNECTION
The gifted C. S.
Lewis once wrote, "God loves matter; He invented it."
However, by referring to God as "He", I am getting somewhat ahead of myself. You see, we have yet to discuss the concept that God is a Being with an ongoing Nature; that there was not only an intelligent mind behind the creation of it all, but that this Mind remains perpetually involved with His creation.
What we will learn in this article is that the biblical writings that describe God as the single governing Intellect that exists beyond our own are not ancient misunderstandings, but rather profound truths that can actually be proven through experiential logic.
I pray that the weightiness of the matters we are about to explore in this article will move our lives, the Bible and our interpretations of each out of the darkness and closer into our fields of True vision.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen-not just because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." CS Lewis
HIS OWN IMAGE
The Bible has a lot to
say about God's Nature. Scripture states that God is not only the source of the
universe, but also a personable Being with Whom a relationship will bring
wonderful results. The Bible basically says that to honestly believe, honor and
worship Him is to enjoy an invitation to sip from His endless well of
rejuvenation, hope, possibility, wisdom and spiritual life. He is also described
as the deepest lover of all mankind as we are all children of His Divine
decision. In fact, forever etched in the first book of the Bible is this:
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."
(Genesis 1:27)
However, this concept leads many people to a theological crossroads, of sorts. They find themselves asking questions like, "If we were made in the Image of God, and God is the highest unchangeable Good, then why are we so wicked?"
While the wickedness of man's heart and how we get that way is a biblically covered truth that deserves further discussion, I will save that topic for later articles. What I would like for us to focus on now, however, is the notion that although our hearts are wicked, we were not originally designed to be that way. Instead, we were made (at least in part) in His Image. And, because God is non-physical, I believe our similarities would have to be of a non-physical nature.
Believe it or not, we can prove this to
be true.
THE OTHER "L" WORD
Let us
temporarily touch upon another concept; more specifically the concept of a
Divinely-designed Law.
What I believe the coral polyp spawning phenomenon
demonstrates is that not only does the law they follow guide them to life, but
the Law also gives them abilities (or talents) that reach beyond the reasoning
power of their own intellects...especially since neither one of them has a
brain. The plan they follow...the law...points to a single
mind.
What I find startling is that the
Bible says God burned similar laws onto the hearts of all humanity. So, does
that mean that, like the polyps, we too can be afforded opportunities to be part
of something bigger than ourselves; something life giving; something that may
help us see, create, understand and accomplish things that our own intellects
could have never produced?
The Bible says YES! And, it is the Law that makes this all
possible.
COULD YOU
IMAGINE IF...?
Could you imagine if we actually proved these things
to be true? Well, I am convinced that we can...and all without using the
Bible. In this article we will begin non-biblically
confirming:
1. The presence of a universal
Law.
2. The presence of a single Mind (God).
3.
An aspect of God's Nature.
4. We were made in the (nonphysical)
Image of God.
Yes this will hopefully be an exciting article! And, best of all, it could not only help prove the validity of the Bible, but it could also help clarify the lens through which we interpret its contents. Saint Thomas Aquinas once said that there are many, many examples of the Bible telling us things we should have already been able to figure out for ourselves because the bible is about God’s reality and we are surrounded by God’s reality.
I truly wish this was a topic covered more frequently in
churches.
The Law, the Plan, the Mind.
While we could
easily start our exploration in many places, I would like to begin in one of the
most unlikely of them all; atheism. Believe it or not, openly-atheistic people
often do more to prove the existence and Nature of God than do many
openly-theistic people. Why? It is because atheists are not afraid to ask
the tough questions.
Fortunately, the seemingly controversial answers they seek are usually within the questions themselves. We just have to know what to look for.
Here is an example.
Meet Alfred
As to not offend any real
atheists, let us have a little fun and create an imaginary one who we will call
Alfred...Alfred D. Atheist.
While there may be many nice, charitable and caring atheists around the world, Alfred is not one of them. He does not "play well" with other people, places or things, for that matter. He attributes much of his conflict with the rest of the world to his belief that he is infinitely smarter than everyone else. (Just don't ask that blinking twelve on his VCR.)
One day, while mocking Christians for being Christian, Alfred declared in his loudest, most finely rehearsed heckling voice,
"There is no God! If God did exist, there would not be so much evil in the world!"
Then, as if facial expressions made comments true, he shot a sinister sneer!
You see, while at first glance Alfred's statement may have seemed like a devastating blow to theology...a blow that may have forced a Christian from a position of knowing God exists to a position of believing God exists...in reality something interesting happened.
Did you catch it? Did you see the fatal flaw in Alfred's logic? He actually strengthened the case for God's existence without even knowing it.
You see, in Alfred's comment he clearly demonstrated that he
knows there is evil in the world. This is significant and I will show you
why. But first we need to introduce another
character.
Meet Frankie.
Let us leave the
confines of our cozy land-based setting and plunge ourselves deep beneath the
surface of the ocean...past rising blooms of jellyfish and starving sea turtles
in hot pursuit.
Way deep down, swimming in lazy circles around a coral reef, smugly brandishing his pink, yellow and blue splendor, we find a majestic looking Spanish Hog Fish otherwise known as the Bodianus rufus.
But we will call him Frankie.
What I love about Frankie is that he is very, very good at being a fish; primarily because he has been at it for quite some time. One could even say he is a natural.
Our little scaly companion can do many things underwater; things we could never dream of (or WANT to dream of). However, despite his salty spirit and obvious aquatic talents, Frankie is missing, what we might consider to be one very valuable piece of information.
You see, Frankie, our little colorful comrade, does not know he is wet! He hasn't the foggiest idea. In fact, he doesn't even know what wet means.
Why?
Frankie is a fish. He has always been a fish. He will always be a fish. The all of his physical and intellectual existence, from the beginning of his little life until now, has never extended beyond what it means to be a fish. Instead, he spends his time thinking about things like moving in lazy circles around this particular reef, eating fish smaller than himself and hoping that the bigger fish behind the rock doesn't have the same idea…but none of his concerns involve wetness.
You see, it will not be until Frankie is plucked from the water and subjected to the harsh conditions of air that he will truly understand the difference between wet and dry.
Frankie the Fish will never understand one without also understanding the other.
Let me say that again; he will never understand wetness until
he first understands dryness.
Alfred and Frankie
Exactly like Frankie,
Alfred D. Atheist could never have had knowledge of evil without first having
knowledge of good. While this is indeed significant, there is more!
The Missing Puzzle Piece
In order for
accurate recognition of good and bad to take place, there would have to be a
third thing. It would have to be an unmovable "something" by which to
gauge the difference between the two.
CS Lewis once pointed out in his book Mere Christianity, that this third thing can be seen when people argue. That's right...argue!
People say things like, "That was my seat, I was there first!", or, "Leave him alone, he's not bothering you!", or "Come on, you promised!" What is fascinating about these arguments is that the offender rarely if ever questions the accuser's understanding of right and wrong. Rather he or she makes excuses for the offending behavior. What does this mean? This means that there is a third unspoken, non-physical thing or standard upon which they both agree. Without it they would never be able to identify fair and unfair, right and wrong or good and evil.
Now, when we stop to consider the fact that these types of arguments happen in every demographic, in every culture, on ever continent on the entire planet, we begin to see that this unspoken, non-physical standard is singular and universally understood by mankind.
It’s a law!!
It is burned within us all. One could say it is burned upon our hearts. Sound familiar? (Romans 2:15)
We have just identified the presence of the Moral Law. The moral law is a non-physical point of reference (a tool) that helps us differentiate between good and evil; right and wrong; fair and unfair.
Because it is a single universally understood Law, it points to
intent or a plan for the way things ought to be. This plan, in turn,
points to a single deciding intellect...or a plan maker. And, what do we
call this plan maker? God! Yes, the moral law points to the mind and
intent of God.
The Logical Breakdown
While this may seem
confusing at first, it really isn't once you break it down. To do this, let us
revisit Alfred's angry statement,
"There is no God! If God did exist, there wouldn't be so much evil in the world!"
We can now track his flawed reasoning more easily.
If there was no God, there would be no Moral law.
If there
was no Moral Law, we would never know good.
If we never knew good, we would
never know evil.
Therefore Alfred would never have been able to complain
about the existence of evil.
Alfred completely contradicted himself and
proved the existence of the Moral Law and a Moral Law maker...God.
Suddenly, the validity of Alfred's statement disappears into a
puff of smokeless logic as understanding loudly and proudly makes itself
known.
His Image, His Nature, Our Connection.
Although we now understand that God is the author of the Moral Law
and therefore a Moral God, up to this point we have yet to discover whether God
is morally good or morally bad. This is because, though intelligent, we
have only identified a point of moral reference devoid of moral oughts. In
other words, how ought we live; on the side of good or evil?
The Bible says that we were made in the Image of God. Therefore some insight into His moral nature should somehow be infused within us.
Right?
Right!
Back to Frankie and Alfred
To best answer
this question, let us begin by returning to the salty deep and Frankie the
fish.
When we first met our aquatic friend, he was completely unaware that he was wet. That was until we rudely removed him from the ocean, at which point he came to understand both concepts of wet and dry.
However, something else happened.
Something very, very interesting.
You see, in the presence of dryness (the absence of water), Frankie suffered! That's right...he suffered! And once we returned him to the water he was likely relieved beyond belief. This is because he cannot breathe without water. To drop him back into the ocean was to give him life again.
In addition to Frankie learning about wet and dry, the experience also taught him that water is his home because he is a fish, and fish were designed to be creatures of the water.
Similarly, by complaining about evil in the world, Alfred the atheist also demonstrated a very important thing.
He demonstrated that he understands, as we all subconsciously do, that he is human, and humans were designed to be creatures of the GOOD! In fact, we suffer in good's absence.
We were created with a single nonphysical goal in
mind...good!
A Quick Note on Evil
During Saint Augustine's search for
the origin of evil, he discovered that evil was not a force, but rather an
absence of God. He likened it to a hole in a shirt where the shirt (the
cloth) ought to be.
A Summary
The human race is a planet of varying intellects.
Nevertheless, the presence of a single moral law that helps us all differentiate
between good and evil points to a single plan designed by a single intellect
beyond our own.
That intellect is God.
We are also, despite our differences, united by our gravitation towards good. The fact that we suffer in the presence of evil means that evil is against our nature. Just like fish were designed to be creatures of water, we were designed to be creatures of good. Therefore, each of us is unified by a single universal order of good that exists beyond our own intellectual reach. Even people who do not believe in a universal good complain in its absence. This once again points to God.
And, because the Bible says we were made in the image of God, and because we can see the presence of a single moral law beyond ourselves, and because we thrive and live in the presence of good, we can rightly deduce that God is morally good.
And finally, consider these points.
God, by definition is infinite.
If, when we call God good, we mean that he is the possessor of good, we are actually making a fatal flaw in judgment. God cannot be the possessor of good because that would mean good is a standard that exists apart from Him, and He would therefore have to rise to meet that standard…making him no longer infinite. That means that God has to be the author of good. And because one cannot give what they do not possess, God Himself would have to actually be good. That means, that when we say “God is good”, we are not saying that God possesses good, but rather “God = Good.”
Of course, being an infinite being, he would have to be the highest level of good possible. And, what is the highest level of good?
Love!
"God is love."
1 John 4:8
We have just confirmed the validity of the Bible! What you will find exciting as you enjoy your first steps as a Christian is that these are only a few of the proofs you will personally enjoy in your new life.
Glory to God!
Thank You.
Thank you for reading this
theosophical exploration into the foundation of God's existence and his profound
relevance in our lives. The more and more people around the globe try
“fighting for joy” (a logical impossibility), the further they drift from the
truth of God’s goodness and the goodness God put within them. Therefore, I
invite you to share this article with as many people as you like.
Thank you again for reading this article!
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)