Dr. Forbush Thinks

How do we know anything about God?

For this piece I am going to jump past the question of whether there is a God and assume that He exists. I know that there are many who read my blog that choose to believe that there is no God. Personally my belief that there is a God is tied tenuously to the thread of the mystery of free will and the wonder of the Universe itself. That being said I am a skeptic and I continue to question these mysteries.

Different religions give us many different ways in which we make our connection with God. Some religions place an enormous weight on the Bible or other religious writings. Some religions place more weight on prayer, tradition, or other divine revelation. So, how do we know anything at all about God if we assume that he exists?

As we think about this problem we can go back in history and look at how earlier generations dealt with this problem. We can assume that earlier generations must have had religious rituals like those that were witnessed by early explorers when they discovered the Native Americans, Australian Aborigines and others. All of these people had sought ways to “make contact” with their gods. Why did they do this? What moved them to make the effort? What were the results of these attempts? Were they valid, in that they were trying to connect with the one God that Christians recognize as the God? Or, is there something different happening here?

In ancient times people created tribal gods that were created out of fear for the want of protection from the unknown. One way to look at this is that people just made up stuff to make themselves feel better. Another way to look at it is that these guys didn’t know the One True God, so they ended up praying to and worshiping daemons, which were recognized as their real personal gods. Still another way to look at this is that these people felt the love of God, but they were too immature to know how to respond to that love.

These are not the only interpretations and I’m sure there are others that are not so extreme, but my point is that all humans tend to form similar religious foundations around the world. Basically gods are created to protect. And, as an extension to that, the more powerful the god then the more powerful the protection. Native Americans had personal gods or namesakes. Even modern Catholics have embraced a similar tradition when they name their children after the Holy Saints. Even without the details the human urge to build a relationship with God persists in similar ways.

This is certainly not the only way that humans try to make contact with God, whatever form the true God actually takes. The case is that if we assume that there is a God, we need to wonder if the urge to build a relationship with God is initiated by God, by man, or by both. I don’t believe that anyone will be able to answer that question definitively like many other religious questions. The only way to answer this question would be to raise a person completely out of any religious culture and monitor the person and God until the person has his first religious experience. Of course we can not monitor what is going on in the mind of God and it is extremely difficult to know what the person is thinking continuously either.

But, regardless of who initiates the relationship a relationship between a person and God generally emerge in most people, without the aid of organized religion of any sort. People who never go to church plead with God for mercy, help or protection. Fear often motivates people in this direction, but once that relationship is established, other interactions occur. People thank God for his gifts. And, people become inspired to seek deeper understanding and insight. But how do people get this inspiration? Is it God or something else? Is it Satan or other daemons? For that matter, does Satan even exist as a supernatural being, or is that some hypothetical religious idea created as man sought his relationship with God?

If we continue to think about religion as man’s response to develop a relationship with God, then it becomes clear that the evil in the world is due to man’s failure to respond to this relationship at all. Many Holy men have come from many areas of the world trying to tell us how to improve this relationship with God, but unfortunately they haven’t completely understood the relationship perfectly themselves. Or, maybe they did understand it, but they couldn’t communicate it to the population that they tried to communicate it to. The main problem tends to be a balancing act between what aspect of this relationship that has been discovered and the expectations of those want to know about it. Failure to listen or failure to explain are failures, but it doesn’t mean that nothing happened and nothing was tried.

Ancient Greeks discovered the power of inspiration when you weren’t seeking it. The Rite of Dionysis may have been an attempt to replicate that moment again and again. Drugs have been used to “see” spiritual revelations, and drugs have been used to avoid “seeing” anything. Religions have pushed the mind through meditation and prayer and religions have punished the minds of men because they thought to much. Each of these attempts to do the “right” thing may have been the “right” thing for that person, but it isn’t always the “right” thing for all people. The problem is that we each find a path to God in different ways. Not all paths work for all people. Some paths do not work for many people and other paths work for many. But one thing is certain, when one turns his back on seeking a relationship with God in favor of selfishness there is a problem. Assuming of course for a moment that there is a God.

So, the main point here is that we all seek a relationship with God. Or at least all of us that believe that there is a God are seeking this relationship. Those of us who are trying to find a connection with God do this through organized religion or a personal disorganized religion. This tends to imply evil comes from the lack of an effort to seek a relationship with God.

But, what about the atheists? OK, I can’t leave these guys out, because even if they don’t believe in God they are certainly awed by His creation, even if they deny an attribution to Him. This shouldn’t bother us, because a healthy respect for God’s creation, even if they don’t attribute it to Him is what an atheist does anyway. Atheists still have ethics and they still know in their heart what is right and wrong on a social scale. They want to help society improve, not destroy it. They want to preserve nature not destroy it. These are basic human ideas and feelings that everyone gets from being human and having emotions. Atheists are still disturbed by senseless violence. Atheists are still upset at the destruction of people’s homes. This empathy, regardless of their personal religious beliefs are in line with forming a relationship with God even if they don’t attribute it to Him.

Is it easier to build a relationship with God if you are trying to do it? I would guess that the answer is yes, because it makes logical sense. But, God is not a natural human being, He is supernatural by definition, therefore regardless of your belief in God you can never know Him. And when you don’t know a person the relationship is more difficult. But that goes for us all, not just any one religion.

We all just need to know that the Spirit Moves Us All and that is how we build our relationship with God whether we believe in Him or not. Be Thankful!






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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


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Religion