"The existence of God may be unprovable, but it is not unobservable." - A thing that was said.
There is a perpetual argument I have with an imaginary Atheist that lives in my head. To me, his arguments seem so self-absorbed, short sighted and inconsistent. He has no foundation, so he can only pull from whatever is out there and accessible to him. And then he has to cobble things together into a coherent world view. But I also know that he has valid points. I also know that he thinks me a fool, that I have forsaken my own intellect for belief. He thinks me the fool and sometimes I agree with him. The current argument is about proof. He will not consider believing in something unless it can be proven. I believe that he chooses this extreme criteria to avoid the influence of God or the unseen on his life. This takes quite a bit of energy to omit all he experiences in his day to day life: Love, Justice, Beauty, Existence itself. These are not things that are readily provable, but they are certainly observable. Indeed, how would I go about proving my own existence. Descartes gives us "I think, therefore I am.", but this is hardly proof and doesn't even intend to be. My friend would say that philosophy is good exercise, but it cannot replace the rigor of science. We both adhere to Descartes in this, "It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well." The real problem with my imaginary friend is that he is committed to the scientific method ONLY in the area of faith or belief. All his other decisions, big and small are influenced by fear, love, emotion as well as reason. But he puts a heavy burden on God. And well, I guess he should, especially since he considers himself an Atheist. (It can't be easy for an Atheist to live comfortably in the mind of a believer...especially a believer as emotional as myself.) Belief in God, I admit can feel like an impossible and ridiculous endeavor. However, considering all that we experience as a human, just by living: the complexity of the eye or the vastness of the universe or the intensity of bonding with a newborn or the power of fear or the intricacies of human networks or the capacity to reason, all of these and more leave us without answers. Our evolutionary explanations are compelling, but still require a great deal of faith, considering how little we actually know. The deeper layers presented by questions like: "Why is a sunset or music objectively beautiful?" or "Why a particular event feel so unfair/unjust?" or "Why do I care for my loved one more than myself?" Being a good and intelligent Atheist, these types of questions are easily dismissed as irrelevant or evolutionary chemical constructs. But what I hope lingers in his heart (which I guess is my heart) are the questions: "What if I'm wrong? What if i get all the answers and explanations and there is still something missing? Why does my heart ache so?" In these questions, evolution isn't any more of a comfort than Karma (Karma may satisfy a Justice requirement in the Cosmic, but doesn't do much for present and personal comfort).
The concept of morality is problematic for my inner friend. Without God, without some conscious force exerting it's will upon existence, there is no absolute truth. If existence is just Time+Matter+Chance then Good Morals are merely opinions based on consensus. Good and Evil, right and wrong fade away over time as ANY thing can become justifiable over time. Truth is subject to survival and fear and evolutionary impulses. There can be no absolutes without God. (Of course, even suggesting that an absolute cannot exist is problematic because this is an absolute statement...but that is another argument.) Without God, without Morals tethered to something eternal and unmovable, then all individual desires can be made justifiable and with enough consensus and normalization...with enough votes. Something that was formerly wrong can be made right and vice versa. If we can call something or someone Evil or less than, then we can justify their extermination or enslavement. Without God, this remains merely a matter of opinion as to whether it is right or wrong. Standing on the right side of history becomes a punchline with no context or sustainable foundations. Nationalism and protectionism make more sense in an evolutionary context than working for the greater good.
So I argue with my friend that it is God's truth that lives within us, working God's will through us, that perpetually moves existence forward, battling with fleshy passions to keep humankind a from destroying itself either by violence or desire. This of course is an argument that is irrelevant to him. It's not provable, so for him it's a non starter. He is as frustrated with me as I am with him. My only hope, the best hope is that God would intervene. The Creator of all, who lives outside of space and time, that sent himself into our reality in the form of a human, Jesus, who upon his very earthly death and subsequent extra-natural resurrection provided his presence to reside in the person of those who believe in him in order to achieve his will in these carriers and through these believers, all for the purpose of restoring a creation that was intended to be perfect, yet is undeniably broken. Me and my imaginary atheist friend and all my fellow humans are right in the middle of this fray, this struggle to reveal the true nature of reality in the hopes that ALL might be saved and restored right along with the rest of Creation. I can't prove it, but I can experience the reality of it, supernatural though it may be. It is my hope, it is THE hope.
