Why God? (Part 2)

In the previous post, we outlined the reasons we might want to question the existence of God.  The post discussed arguments from authority and then listed four fundamental methods for God's existence: from design, from being, from cause, from morality.  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

This post will explore the arguments from design and from being.

Each proof will be stated from the “Pro” case and the “Con” case. The Pro case will discuss the basic idea behind the argument. The Con case will describe why some find the case for God's existence to not hold up. Some cases are more complex than others and take longer to explain. Please do not let word count sway your mind, rather consider the ideas that are contained within the words.

Again, I do not hope to change your mind, rather to help us clarify why it is we believe what we believe.

Clocks un-cared for rust.

From Design

Pro: A clock is complex. A clock has an intricate mechanism. It could not be a result of mere chance, therefore it must be designed. 

The designer of all things must be God. Everything fits together so perfectly to create us and all that is. 

That we exists and that the universe exists shows God must also exist.

Randomly possible dice.

Con: That things can be random suggests things are not designed. Rolling a half dozen dice can have more than 46000 different outcomes. The dice landed one way or another at random. Because there is randomness no designer is required to have any particular result of our dice roll.

The universe is based on randomness at the quantum level. The universe may be very large, with many 'dice' in it, but the way it came out was random. While our existence is improbable, it is not impossible without a God. We are only lucky that it came out the way that it did. Given how big the universe is, it actually becomes probable that we would be here now. God is not required to have the universe be the way it is if the universe is all randomness.

From Being

God is perfect.

Pro: This thought is based on the idea that God is the perfect being. If God lacked existence he would not be perfect.

God is perfect so he must exist. The mere idea that we can imagine God and his perfection, means he must exist and be perfect. That we can imagine perfection at all requires there be a perfect being. 

This argument is based on reason alone. It needs no facts to prove it. 

Thoughts of purity, infinity, of absolute morality make them real. If these thoughts are real, then they must be God.

Alice in Wonderland.

Con: We can imagine things that are not real. Alice in Wonderland is not real. The idea of Alice is real, but she is not. Thus some do not think God is real just because we imagine him.

Can we not imagine something greater than God? 

Does God have a God? 

Did God create himself ? 

Did we create the idea of God?

The next post will explain the ideas behind cause and morality for proofs of the existence of God.

Why God? (Part 1) - Why God? (Part 3)

Why God? (Part 1)

Many of us believe in God. We are taught by our parents and culture that there is a supreme being who is the cause, designer, maker, and moral force for all of us. Rarely do we stop to consider on what basis we believe this is so.  Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

To ask the question “Why do we believe in God?” and many will answer from the power of authority “Because the good book told us to.” We may use other authorities like “God told us.” or “my Sunday school teacher said so”.

As a child, my dad said “Take out the garbage.”

"Take out the Garbage!"

Being curious by nature I innocently asked “Why?”

“Because I said so.” was his initial answer.

Being unsatisfied with an argument based purely on the power of his authority, I pressed on “But why do you say so?”

The intent never was to challenge his parental prerogative, rather to come to understand. Eventually he helped me realize that living in garbage was not good for my health, so taking the garbage away was a small effort in order to help myself. Knowing why we do something helps us to be motivated to do it better.

We grow up taking arguments from authority for granted.

Is the argument from authority sufficient for a mature, thinking person? Can we really stop with the use of authority as our basis for the belief in God?

 If a person in authority has made an error, then accepting their word is not enough. If a person in authority can not explain their reasons, then perhaps they are not an authority at all.

 By not exploring further, we may too make an error.

To me a part of faith is trying to understand why I believe what I do. Wisdom can grow from questioning one's self. A deeper understanding and appreciation of my faith merits its further consideration.

Ignorance, although it can be blissful, is never a virtue. With such an important question, we are called to do better, know more, to test ourselves and become stronger.

Getting closer to heaven.

I do not hope to change your mind, rather to help clarify why it is we believe what we believe. Many people may believe that one can not even ask the question about the existence of God. That the very question itself should not be argued. You may be one of those people. If so, you probably do not want to read further.

If you do not wish to challenge your belief and wish to only consider “because you were told so”, stop now. Read no more. If, however, you wish to understand yourself and your belief better, go forward, read on with an open mind.

There appear to be four basic arguments for the existence of God, from design, from being, from cause, and from morality. There have been many attempts to prove and refute these basic approaches.

These attempts have engaged more people that we can know. Their arguments for and against often vary with their culture and wisdom.

In the next two posts, I will try to summarize each of these arguments for the existence of God in simple modern terms, giving briefly an outline of the arguments for and against. May they test your faith and move you forward renewed.

Why God? (Part 2) - Why God? (Part 3)

Redeeming the Future

Fires of hell.

When the tent preacher comes to town, he spreads a message of fire and damnation.  He leads us to think that we are all sinners who need to turn from our evil ways.  His use of fear of suffering attracts our attention.  He pulls on our mistakes, errors, and sins with his angry speech playing on our anxiety of not being worthy.  You can smell the sulfur in his thoughts.

Meanwhile, our local ministers continue to preach of salvation.  They quietly talk to us about grace and forgiveness.  Trying to remind us that we are redeemable, even lifting us to aspire to be better.  Their soft message of hope proclaims a sense of forward purpose, re-igniting the light in our souls of what we could be if we only try.

Angry preacher spreading fear

Eventually, people turn away from the hell fire revivalist and return to the comfort and hope of their local church.  Human beings cannot long live in fear without becoming depressed and run forth from the pain it engenders.

In the past two decades, the Republican party has become more like the tent preacher than the local minister.  We hear angry rhetoric that our country is becoming corrupt.  We are told that we will fail.  We are led to fear and even hate many things.  America is sinning.  We risk fire and damnation.

We become tired of fear

No gun control. No funds for storm victims.  No controls on health care.  No taxes.  No security net.  No gays.  No banking regulation.  No immigration reform.  No new civil rights.  No climate change.  No women combat soldiers.  No minimum wage.  No abortion.  No to unions.  No to even the federal nation itself, proclaiming doom.   Some even screaming for the states start to secede; tearing us apart from one and another.

Ike stood for good

I am not advocating or denying any one of these political positions. I am  instead trying to highlight the fear and negativity that are used in trying to guide our policies.  Having a desire to make us better is not the same as saying no, being negative, and resisting change just because it is change.

I became a Republican because of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  He was a pragmatic leader of men with a vision of direction that celebrated what the United States could be.  His leadership in war gave us hope we could campaign for better lives in peace.  I left my party and became an independent when it became clear that people like him would no longer be accepted in it.

For the loyal opposition, as the Republican party has become, to succeed it must leave behind the hell fire and damnation, the fear and angry words and start preaching a message of hope for our future.  Looking upward not backward: that is how my grand old party can find salvation again.

Ronald Reagan urged us on to “the shining city on the hill”.  His positive outlook reached into human's hearts triggered us to strive.  He pointed to the future, to a new beginning.  We, the people, responded with landslides of votes.  We, the people, built better lives.

Please, oh please; my Republican brothers and sisters, leave off this foreboding depression and begin to lead us upward again.  Find goals we can strive for.  Find motion that moves us on.  Reclaim your place with visions of the future that bring peace, progress, and prosperity to us all.

Sizing Sacrifice

Parental altruism.

I have met few parents who would not sacrifice their lives for those of their children. This basic act of altruism or selflessness is at the heart of our family unit and the survival of our species. It is a transforming moment for the adult when they feel that the welfare of their children is more important than their own welfare.

  

When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, we honor him for his sacrifice for us all. This too is a selfless act, although it is less likely to be born of love for the city.

Life for country

Soldiers at war serve the nation when they give their lives, but would more likely to tell you they did it for their band of brothers rather than good of country.

This generous act of giving one's life to others has a paradox in it that challenges our sense of morality.

Others city for our country

Would we sacrifice our family to save the city?

Would we sacrifice our city to save the nation?

Would we sacrifice our nation to save the planet?

We instinctively answer “no” to such questions, wishing to believe “there must be some other way”. We betray our own morality and live then in a cognitive dissonance assuming only our local sacrifice has value worth giving.

Morality does not scale.

How can we then say the needs of the many over weigh the needs of the few or one? We must not then believe its implications.

Flowers of the Field

Many kinds of blooms. 

Most humans, it would appear, seem to think they have found “the one true answer to meaning, life, and the universe”. Perhaps this is a part of the love of self we need in order to be mentally healthy.  We may all be wrong, we may all be right; most probably the answer lays in the middle where no one of us can see clearly.

Each of us is a product of nature and nurture that has grown into its environment from our genetic starting point, influenced by family and culture to become what we are. These two factors, nature and nurture, define a kind of limit of what each of us can be. It is difficult for a Utah Mormon to become a Southern Baptist, or a Sunni Pakistani to become an Iranian Shiite.

Human beings' beliefs can be thought of as a field of many flowers. Each plant breeds its own kind and prospers or not in the ground it finds itself. It is very difficult for any plant to become another kind, although it rarely does happen.

When we argue about the merits of being a rose versus an orchid, a Hindu versus a Buddhist, we are re-affirming ourselves. A rose may wish to convert the orchid into another rose, but it is improbable and very difficult as it challenges the orchid to disavowed being an orchid.

Perhaps it better for all flowers to understand the beauty of diversity of flowers in the field, to embrace the awesome nature of it all, and allow us each to grow and flourish.

Those who would by force, by reason, by coercion, or by destruction, attempt to change one kind of flower into another work against the good of the whole, like some disease upon the land. Does this make them then like a type of parasite?

Another view would be that even parasites add to the diversity of beauty of the whole, challenging each plant to become stronger. Then even the parasite has value to the whole, but not the individual.

Those who would make us all the same type of flower, damaging many, are hurting the great beauty of diversity that we all represent. In our diversity we unite to struggle against the mono-culture of the field becoming just one kind of plant.

As a daisy, I resist the parasites and try to remain a daisy.

For each of us to celebrate our own belief system is generally a good thing. As long as we do not threaten the whole field. To step outside what we are, even for a brief moment, allows us to see the great beauty of the field we all grow in.

Self Evident

Happiness's charm

The pursuits to which we all desire,
proclaimed so many years ago.
Life.
Liberty.
Happiness.

We need but eat to maintain life.
We need but family to partake happiness.
We need but serve to preserve liberty.
We need but exert to obtain and sustain them.

Life's joy

Sometimes storms give struggle to conserve life.
Sometimes unhappy events require our aid.
Sometimes liberty threatened engages us in conflict.
Often challenges un-required, allow us to be at our ease.

What then labor for money?
We strive in our desire to earn more.
We give that most precious asset time in its pursuit.
Obsessed with wealth's accumulation as if it alone were some great good.

Liberty's ring

We have known moneyed men.
Few have gained happiness
Most forget liberty.
Chunks of lives given to its' collection.

We have limited hours on the face of the planet.
We wish for meaning and value transcending our impermanence.
We build monuments to the future requiring great toil.
Yet in their construction, lose result's sight and are caught in cause.

Family's loved

Work for work's sake is not our object.
Work can bring joy in performance of good.
Work's process will stay the troubled mind.
The result of the labor used by many.

The rewards of life are simple indeed.
Life to be lived as best we can.
Liberty to be embraced as a shared vision.
Happiness coming from within and be given away.

Holy Foxes

When you're told to dig a foxhole the first thing that comes to your mind is the simple joy that you won't be marching anymore that day. Then the realization that you have hours of a different kind of manual labor sinks in as small shovelfuls of dirt begin to pile up. That was my perspective because, thankfully, I never had to dig one under enemy fire.

In movies, you rarely see the actual process. In movies you may see a few shovel fulls of dirt representing what can be an hours long process. In some ways it feels like digging your own grave while at the same time trying to make a way to save your skin.

Foxholes are defensive positions where you use the ground itself as protection from enemy sight and weapons. There are lots of rules about digging them. Simple holes they are not. If you have time to consider the terrain you are in and where the potential enemy fire might be coming from, you think in terms of intersecting lines of fire, placing each hole in your unit at tactically important locations allowing you to see and protect each other.

Foxholes are not all dug at once. Depending upon the conditions, the hole may be just deep enough to cover your body while you are lying down. If you plan to stay awhile, you dig deeper until your whole body can be under the surface of the earth. Room for grenade sumps at the bottom, slopes to allow water to drain, stones and sticks placed to give you a firm footing and avoid wet feet are just a few of the features one can add. For longer stays, you may even dig trenches to connect holes together allowing movement. Sandbags can add some height. Local fauna can provide camouflage to hide from prying eyes.

In modern warfare you need to be aware of body heat from infrared signatures; both by line of site on the ground and from aircraft and satellites looking down on your position. You must attempt to break up patterns formed by heat and shape so that eyes can not sense your presence. Finding ways to comfortably locate weapons for stable, secure and accurate firing positions becomes a temporary obsession of the foxhole maker.

Often there are only two or three of you in any given hole. If you are lucky you only spend a few hours in the hole as you take turns sitting farther away from the front line. If you are unlucky you remain in the hole for days, with breaks only to relieve your bodily functions or fetch some chow. Never being able to lay down, sleep is rare treasure.

Spending hours in a hole in the ground with other men gives plenty of time to talk. Conversation passes the time. You get to know each other very well in such close quarters. Body odors, physical quirks, and breathing patterns are the least of the intimacies shared. Quiet whispers are the sweet relief that keep you alert to what is going on in the world outside your hole. You share things about yourself no lover or parent will ever know. This time of bonding can be crucial to building mutual trust.

From personal experience, I can say there are many myths about these inglorious holes. I've spent nights talking with atheists in foxholes. Anyone who tells you it doesn't happen hasn't been in one. Members of my platoon were gay, but that didn't matter to any of us. We all knew each other and the idea that sexual politics of any kind mattered seems silly. Questions of religion, race, creed, sexuality, were meaningless for those who must have trust. We had to trust each other. We had to have each other's back. And we did.

One thing I did notice in foxholes. There were no corporations. I knew no rich man's son there, only us middle class and poor. We were volunteers slammed together at random. Some of us hoped to get college degrees with money provided by the government after service. Others were making a career of the army and this was just part of the job. A few where running away from bad homes or lives. One man from a foreign land had volunteered so he could become a citizen and move his family to our fair land. I even know one private who had a choice of joining the army or going to jail. While I guess we were all patriotic, we didn't talk about that much.

Any soldier who has been in a foxhole, knows of dirt. He knows of “hurry up and wait”. Of filthy hands and sweaty feet. Of frozen cold fingers and sweat streaming down his back. Of hours upon endless hours of boredom. Foxholes are unpleasant.

Whenever I see a soldier now, so many years on, the first thing I see is who they might be in a hole next to me. A kind of special respect, of brotherly love fills my soul. For this, I always try to make sure I tell them “thank you”. Thank you for digging the holes where none of us want to go. Thank you for your service where no one can see. Thank you for making me be in the land of the free.