God and Her Existence

Tomorrow’s class is about our search for God. That, of course, presumes the existence of God, which leads to the question: How do you know that God exists? I will be the first to concede that I can’t prove it.

I can’t prove the existence of God in any scientific or mathematical way. A scientist does not seek to prove anything. Rather, the scientist seeks to formulate disprovable hypotheses. It is through experimentation and observation that the hypothesis is discarded or evolves into theory. The existence or non-existence of God is not subject to such inquiry because you can’t establish a control. If God exists, you cannot create a little corner of the universe or a test tube in which God does not exist. If God does exist, you can’t create a setting in which God does not exist.

This is where the great "fail" of the creationists and their thinly veiled colleagues, the Intelligent Design folks, fall short in their discussions. They seem to have no knowledge of what scientists do, or what certain terms mean to a scientist. Evolution is a theory. Creationism has never gotten that far. There's no possibility of comparison. es, evolution is only theory. So is gravity.

How, then, do you come to any conclusion about whether or not there is a God? As Kierkegaard observed, we compile all the evidence we can, pro and con, but the evidence we can compile is not, in the end, conclusive. Thus, the decision of faith is just that – a decision. The term “leap of faith” is a Kierkegaard term. With all available evidence in hand, one takes the leap. One who has decided that there is no God has taken a leap of faith because they also cannot present compelling evidence for their position. One who has decided that there is a God has taken a leap of faith, but we (and I make no secret about which side of this divide I am on) do so without complete, compelling evidence.

If there is, then, a possibility of the existence of God, then it would seem incumbent on us to seek. Seek answers. Seek the right questions. Seek. . .seek. . .Tomorrow’s session is about the journey that never in this life arrives at its end – about the seeking that we are always doing.

And, about the God that we can only seek because She has already found us.