Post 1: Proof of the Existence of God

It's Holy Week in the West. I decided to write some posts that include the term "god." I am thinking of a doing a series of posts on this controversial topic.

I have confession: I cringe every-time I see the word "god" or any reference to a deity online.

The problem, of course, is that I keep on encountering people use the term "god" in inane arguments or to justify negative actions. A person might yell the name "God!" then declare the "The Earth is Flat!" Anyone who disagrees with flat earth nonsense is Satan!

Zealots will yell "God!" then declare that the Universe is only 6000 years old. Anyone who disagrees is Satan!

In the political world, one might hear a pundit yell the term "God!" then launch into a scathing attack on his opponents.

We see people using the term "God!" to justify genocide and other atrocities. People used variations of the term "God!" in the genocide of October 7, 2023. People used variations of "God!" in the counter attacks.

Sadly, when politicians get the term "God" clutched in their craw they become unreasonable and entrenched. The zealots use the term "God" to divide the community so that they can gain power.

I live in Utah. Many people here hold that the General Authorities of their church have a monopoly on "God."

They then use the term "God" as a tool of oppression.

Seriously, is it the intent of God to exalt one group and to suppress the rest?

When I hear people say the term "God." I cringe because the term shuts down the ability of people to engage in rational discourse. Shouldn't discussions about the creator open discourse?

I cringe when I hear the word. My cringing isn't due to hatred of God. It is due to the way people use the term.

I don't think that I am alone.

I've noticed that the vast majority of people in the US have stopped using the term "god" in public discourse.

Unfortunately, the avoidance of the term surrenders control of an important aspect of our lives to the zealots.

Non-zealots need to be able to use the term. So, I decided to write a quick series of articles about the term "god." It probably will make people angry.

Proof of the Existence of God

This first post has the click-bait title: "Proof of the Existence of God."

I know a huge number of atheists who would be triggered by the title of the post and jump into attack mode at the title.

To be kind, I will cut to the chase and state that, before one can make any truth claims about "god," one must be able to define the term "god."

I can create definitions of "god" that ring true and many that are clearly false.

For example, I could say that "God is a dancing clown that wants me to have dominion over the girls at the High School." That definition is self serving and makes a mockery of the divine. It is clearly wrong.

I knew a guy named "Brian David Mitchell" who convinced himself that he was a Prophet of God. His mistaken beliefs led him to kidnap a girl named Elizabeth Smart.

This creep had a truly cringe worthy definition of "god" swimming around in his cranium.

I've met atheists who've done cringe worthy things. I don't blame God for the negative things done in the name of "god."

I recognize that people need a better approach to defining "god."

Descarte's Method

I think that René Descartes (1596-1650) started a great discussion in his "Meditations on First Philosophy" and his "Discours de la Méthode."

In this work Descartes realized that he was often deceived by his senses so he developed a method of radical skepticism in which he doubted everything that he believed or perceived.

He then concluded that the only thing that he could know for certain was that he existed. He expressed this idea with the statement: "Je pense, donc je suis" or "I think, therefore I am." Latin speakers say: "Cogito ergo summa."

NOTE: The method was clearly influenced by the allegory of the cave in Plato's Republic written in 375 BC. Plato's dialogs occurred a century before the Greek translation of the Bible.

Descartes declared that the existence of our mind is the only thing that we can know with certainty.

It seems to me that the step after acknowledging the existence one's mind is to acknowledge that one's mind is not the only thing that exists.

It appears to me that that my mind is minuscule compared to the total of all minds.

My understanding of God starts with the recognition that I am not the only thing that exists.

Having acknowledged the existence of things outside my mind, I can start the process of defining God.

As I launch the process, I run into the problem that plagues all of mankind.

The definition of God that I create in my mind is not God!

A definition, by definition, exists in my mind.

The term "definition" means "to set bounds to." When I attempt to define God, I am attempting to set bounds to something that is boundless.

The assumption that "my definition of God" is God is the ultimate act of hubris.

If the definition of God that exists in my mind was God; then I would be God because it was my mind that created God.

This problem applies to all definitions. My definition of the term "cat" is not a cat.

So, "my definition of God" and God are different things.

I would now like to take a really bold step which will make pundits and zealots quake.

Just as the definition of God that exists in my mind is not God, I contend that the definition of God that exists in our various religious traditions is not God.

This will come as a shock to many, but the things people say about God is not God. The Bible is not God, the Koran is not God. The Book of Mormon is not God. God exists outside our understanding of God!

So, my proof that God exists starts with the acknowledgement that I am not the only thing that exists. I see God as both the source and organizing principles of the things around me.

The realization that God is greater than my mind helps pull me from the constraints of my limited existence.

The realization that God is greater than our religious traditions can help draw people out of the constraints of regressive cultural traditions.

I wrote this web post because I wanted to use the term "God" in a post.

Every religious zealot that I know would start clawing at my eyeballs for using the term "god" in a post.

The conservative I know would quake in anger at my use of the term. The atheists I know would spit in my face engaging in god-speak.

But, the sad truth is that if people keep surrendering the term "God" to the people who want to use the term to divide us, then we will end up with a fractured and oppressive culture.

The Pictures

For the picture I simply asked Night Cafe to produce an image of a man on a mountaintop confronting a deity. I asked Night Cafe for a picture of an angry preacher for the bottom picture.