Where did the idea of a perfect God come from?

If the universe is so bad… how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?

- CS Lewis, quoted in The Case For Faith, Lee Strobel

Counter-Question:
If human beings are not really organic batteries for giant super-intelligent computers, and are actually living a dream that has been designed to keep them inert (aka The Matrix), then where on earth did such an idea come from?

Why faith is called faith; or why faith is difficult

Only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist. I don't have faith in two plus two equals four or in the noonday sun. Those are beyond question. But Scripture describes God as a hidden God. You have to make an effort of faith to find him. There are clues you can follow.

And if that weren't so, if there were something more or less than clues, it's difficult for me to understand how we could really be free to make a choice about him. If we had absolute proof instead of clues, then you could no more deny God than you could deny the sun. If we had no evidence at all, you could never get there. God gives us just enough evidence so that those who want him can have him. Those who want to follow the clues will.

The Bible says, "Seek and you shall find." It doesn't say everybody will find him; it doesn't say nobody will find him. Some will find. Who? Those who seek. Those whose hearts are set on finding him and who follow the clues.

- Peter John Kreeft in The Case For Faith, Lee Strobel

Counter-Question:
Why must God be found this way? Is it for his fun?

Atheists in foxholes

"There are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises," Dr Bernanke told officials during the weeks they were scrambling to put together some measures save the market from collapsing.

The Source of Strength

A journalist in Malaysia was detained for making some comments, and she wrote about her experience after that in an article:

'My 18 hours under the ISA

What intrigued me was her mention of what sustained her through her ordeal. She wrote:

"Calls, messages, well wishes, and visits from readers and friends. To all of them, I have to express my deepest gratitude. During that 18 hours which was filled with a lot of uncertainties, I felt that there is some unknown strength that has supported me throughout, I knew it must be from you all, those whom I knew or have not met!"

What she acknowledges as the source of strength that sustained her is the source of strength that she recognizes. If she says it is the thought of her friends, or some kind of psychological link that poured mental energy from her friends to her, then that must be it. What matters is what she believes is making her strong, 'cos it's her mind that is making her strong. Or is it?

It is widely said that only 10% of our brain is used. That leaves 90% of untapped power. Perhaps that 90% is powerful beyond imagination, able to tap into energies hitherto unknown. Perhaps that's where our strength comes from, but some of us have to tap it through certain formulae, called prayer by some, and meditation by others.

If God is omnipresent, and sustains everything, so that "apart from Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5), then what sustains her must be God, whatever she thinks it is. Or is that how it works?

If I pray to a deity for deliverance, and I am delivered, who do I thank? The deity, who might not exist? Or God, who does all things?

What we believe in

Believers know what they believe in; non-believers do not know what they do not believe in.

Can the presence of physical elements prove a higher entity?

We cannot see language, we cannot hear language, yet we do not doubt that language exists. Don't get mixed up between language and the elements of language. We can hear individual sounds and words, but that is not language. They are only sounds and words. Language is the system that people tap on, through the use of sounds and words, to convey meaning.

A simple way to look at this puzzling situation is to look at the relation between trees, rocks, waterfalls and a National Park. We can see trees, waterfalls and rocks up close, but we can see a National Park only when we are able to rise above the ground and see everything in its entirety.

So, while we can only see and hear the individual sounds and words of a language, we're able to perceive that these discrete parts are related to one another in a system. It is the relationship between these linguistic elements that create a meaningful system, a meaningful entity that we call language.

Similarly, do the different things in the world relate to one another? Does anything connect them together?

This does not prove God exists as the entity that connects all things together, but at the very least, it leaves the issue undecided. Because we can perceive the existence of language just by recognising how the connection between sounds and words creates a meaning greater than the simple sum of individual sounds and words, we cannot rule out the possibility that God exists, because we can recognise that the different elements of the natural world connect together to form a real world, a reality that we live in.

What God is

Some people try to reason out what God is, as if by logic we can define God. I am one of those, and I am on a new bout of figuring out. I don't want to spend mental effort figuring out why I try to figure out what God is, instead of just accepting what the bible says. But it probably has something to do with pride.

If God is an impersonal Force that simply pervades the entire universe, then it has no character, it is not alive, and it has no volition. We should not attribute person-hood to this entity, and call it our Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Doing that would be submitting to a delusion. And I do not want to be one of the people in the world who are logically inferior, and cannot mentally figure out the truth for themselves.

They would think that the Christian approach to God would amount to a kind of mental (delusionary) formula, a framework by which the mind can tap onto the "power" of God, and use it for their own purposes. That is what Christians do with prayer, isn't it? They tap onto the power of God and "ask" God to do things for them. They might as well try to develop the more efficient way of mentally tapping onto this Force and manipulate it through their superior mental powers. It's more direct this way.

But I digress. Sometimes I think like this. But what if it isn't true? What if God is not a Force that is there to be tapped?

The truth is, God is beyond understanding. We will never know whether God is live or inanimate. We can only try to define Him in the ways that He reveals Himself to us, as well as how we react to what we perceive of Him. or It. Anxiety is real. If I think like an agnostic and try to figure out the "more intelligent" way to understand God, and it gives me a sense of anxiety, then to me, it isn't a good way to understand God. If seeing God as a Person is the only way I can experience any sense of peace, then perhaps it is my destiny to perceive God in that way.

This might be what Christians describe "God's call". I exist in such manner that I have to perceive God as a living Being, intelligent, volitional; my mind exists such that it is wired to think in this way. And perhaps I have to accept it this way. I cannot think against what my brain is built to think. Some other people might be able to perceive God as a Force. Good for them. Their minds are tuned in that way. Mine might not be, and it could be counter-productive to try to think in that way.