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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection vii
Does God exist II? ...
Thursday, April 9, 2015. Does God exist? We have started this discussion yesterday. How do we tell? What is the image we have of God? And what tools of thought or experiment would we have available to say something about God? Before we continue to discuss this, let us start with two passages, which jump right into the core of the questions. The apostle Paul writes to the Colossians and to Timothy:
Invisible, immortal God …
Col 1:15 He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. and 1Tim 1:17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
God is invisible. He is immortal. He is above all creation - not a part of it. That is what the biblical books teach about God. If this is so, it basically tells us that God is not accessible easily within creation - not by touching him or by observing him. It is just not possible to see him there.
We might read the “invisible” as hidden to our eyes. But it could also be interpreted in a more general sense: he is not visible to our methods of perception. He is not visible to any of our senses. We cannot find him by experiment, by touching him, by doing something and then observe the response. He is above creation. Of course, the text we cited tells us much more. But let us stay with the question of perception for the moment.
What about Reason? …
If we cannot observe God, smell him, touch him, hear him … what about our reason? What about logic? What about arguments? Can we be sure about him by reason, perhaps even by pure reason? Or by reason based on observations (which would link us back into our first thoughts today). I have my sincere doubt that pure reason can find God. I do not see where we could start to know: here he is. Pure reason is a difficult subject anyway. As soon as we bring content into reason (without which it is merely a logical construct), we need to solve very difficult questions of language, of words, of the concept of what a thing is and what its attributes can be.
The bible teaches that God himself cannot be found in creation, but creation is an expression of God. God is the creator, thus creation is reflecting his glory, his eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1,20). When we look at creation, we look at a reflection of God. In this sense, we can observe God indirectly, by what we see day by day around us.
The bible is even stronger in its statements: It is not possible to avoid to see God's power and divinity. Every human looking at other humans and looking at all the different parts of creation sees the glory of God. There is no excuse, we could not have seen or realized. We all see great things, day by day, very close to us as well as far away, heaven and stars, son and moon, our horizon with mountains, forests - and with many fantastic beings around us, or fellow humans, made in the image of God. (RWEP) ... more texts