God's Silence
Two key related questions for many skeptics are, “If God
exists, why is he/she silent?” A related question is, “Why faith?”
For many atheists, the question of God’s silence is the
clincher in their rejection of faith. God is just not there, they say, and
there’s no way to get around it. If he/she were, you’d hear from him/her. So
grow up, get over it, get on with it. Learn to live your life without God and
you’ll be much happier.
For me, an important similar question is, “Why faith?” Why would
God design things in a way that requires human beings to believe in him/her instead of knowing
him/her directly? Why require an intellectual and emotional struggle about
faith? If he/she is so smart, couldn’t he/she have come up with a better
design?
For believers, of course, God is not silent. They see him
and “hear” him in others, in nature, in the Bible, in their work, in science,
literature and art.
But for the skeptical searcher for God, I have no entirely satisfactory
answers for either of the above questions. Rather than answering them
satisfactorily for myself, I’ve made a calculated accommodation after
considering the benefits versus drawbacks to believing. I believe that
rationally, belief versus unbelief is a wash. There are good reasons on both
sides. I choose to believe, but part of that belief is the conviction, though
accompanied by doubt, that God has given me the gift of faith. (So, why hasn’t
he/she provided that gift to everyone? That has to await another blog post. I
have a list.)
If God exists, anything is possible
Oddly, once I get past the question of belief in the
existence of God, I have no problem believing the rest – in my case, that Jesus
is God and that he indirectly founded the church to which I belong. After all,
if God exists, anything is possible. Of course, the choosing thing is important
here, too. I choose to believe in Jesus and in my church, just as others choose
differently.If God exists, anything is possible
None of this is to say that I don’t simultaneously have
doubts. On some days – usually because of some media report of man’s continuous
inhumanity to man – those doubts are grave. On most days, I’m a happy,
believing camper.
Still, I should give you the best answers to the above
questions that I have been able to come up with. As mentioned, these answers
aren’t entirely satisfactory. But I find that answers to lots of my questions,
about God and religion or not, don’t come with satisfactory answers.
Regarding the silent God, I can imagine what human existence
might be like if God were not silent. We would lose our freedom. We would find
it impossible to say “no,” to decline to live lives that reflect what we know
about him/her. No matter how benign a God, it would by necessity be a relationship
of dictator and dictated to.
My answer to the “why faith?” question is the basically the
same. Requiring faith gives us the freedom to reject God.
Part of the reason these answers are not satisfactory is that
they leave a lot of related questions unanswered, such as the question about
people with no opportunity to accept or reject God.
What about reason?
Others include the question of people from whose culture or
upbringing God is not a factor. And what about people who can’t accept God
because accepting him/her would contradict what they know from reason, which
like faith, is said to be God-given? There are lots of other such questions,
and as a skeptical believer, I must say I simply don’t know. I have to leave
them to God.
One thing I can say about all this to the skeptic who is
genuinely searching for God: the search requires effort. We all are so
influenced by our culture, we have to get beyond what may have become
comfortable. We may have for some time substituted career, sports, music, food
and drink, sex, exercise and “stuff” for God. I’m not saying any of these are
bad, just that their attraction is so great and the absence of God in some
lives so pervasive, we may have to go out of our way to seek answers.
Some may believe religion has an exaggerated influence on
American politics and social mores in ways that may not appeal to them. That
may discourage them from making the effort. Personally, I believe the effort is
worth it, and many studies have shown that people of faith are happier than
those who have none.
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