17. Is There a God?
Scientists have determined that life on our planet has existed for four billion years. The unearthing of our past has relied on cause and effect, the scientific method, great tools used to uncover truth. Is cause and effect adequate to uncover all truth?
During the four billion years, scientists have discovered five extinction events that occurred; each event extinguished 75% to 98% of all life on the planet at that time (Natural History Museum). The era of the Dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period ended when a meteor struck Earth 65 million years ago, but the reign of the dinosaurs lasted for 165 million years! More importantly, our empiricists, using cause and effect and the scientific method, have determined that life existed on our earth almost three billion seven hundred fifty million years before the dinosaurs.
Early shamanic beliefs, in powers greater than man, and an afterlife were presented in a cave drawing in present-day Czech Republic dating back to 30,000 BC (Bradshaw Foundation). Recently published on June 5, 2023, by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, Homo Naledi, a predecessor to Homo Sapiens with a brain one-third the size, was discovered in a cave in Johannesburg, South Africa, burying its members dating back to 335,000 BC to 241,000 BC. Two other known paleontologists, Chris Stringer and John Hawks, supported Berger's burial theory by Homo Naledi, a practice until now only thought to be practiced by Homo Sapiens—an early awareness of burial as the proper way to dispose of human remains.
Over thousands of years, as intellect grew, along with it came an understanding that life was finite and the concept of the infinite. Early burials and later shamanic drawings were signs of an early understanding of a power greater than man. Rudimentary evidence of an ethical social system being honored by early man. Freud once said we are each imbued with an instinct for life and an instinct for death (Death Drive Oxford Reference). Every molecule that makes us a person has a beginning and an end. Something these earliest forms of humans realized as they started to contemplate the infinite.
Is it true that truth can only be derived through empiricism, cause and effect, and the scientific method, then God’s existence is in trouble? Is there another way to determine truth? Do we have free will? Or is our consciousness merely a sequence of subtle cause and effects that govern our whole existence? It is true that cause and effect are hugely determinant, that heredity and environment are often limiting or enabling. Does that mean every action is governed by cause and effect? Every thought has been predetermined?
In order for there to be a God, there must be human actions that are the result of free will, even though causality is influential. Otherwise, all actions and thoughts are predetermined, absolving us of any personal responsibility. If human acts are determined solely by cause and effect, they are beyond our control. In a fully determined world, we are not responsible for what we do or say or even think; it has all been predetermined by our heredity and our environment. Saint Thomas Aquinas said that if only one action can be consciously chosen, then free will exists. When we are free to choose, we become responsible for the consequence as well as the benefit of our choice. Moral individual behavior and ethical societal behavior were based on our freedom to choose will develop.
Over many thousands of years, as our intellect improved, so did our understanding of the infinite. Metaphysics is defined as “of or relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceivable to the senses.” Metaphysics is the study of the infinite by finite human beings who are surrounded by finite material. The need for a metaphysical understanding of existence parallels our need for an understanding of an infinite God. As our intellect has evolved, our understanding of God has evolved over more than 300,000 years.
Today there are eight billion eighty million people on our planet, of which 84% believe in God and 16% are atheists, agnostics, or just don’t affiliate with a particular religion. Christians compose 31% at 2,173,180,000, Muslims compose 23% at 1,598,510,000, Hindis and Buddhists compose 22%. The Jewish population is only 0.2% or 13,850,000 in the world (Statista).
The God deniers, the atheists, and the “I don’t know crowd,” the agnostics, cling to the scientific method, empiricism, cause and effect to determine truth. The greatest evidence of God’s existence lies in the biological makeup of mankind, our humble efforts to delve into metaphysics, to recognize our ignorance of infinity. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, through primitive burials and symbols on cave walls, we began to recognize our finite nature and attempt to form an understanding of what lay beyond it. This biological need to understand over time became formulated in a power greater than man.
This biological need within humans evolved into a number of monotheistic beliefs in God that had various degrees of anthropomorphic traits planted within the deity and produced purposeful ethical belief systems that have defined the day-to-day morality we learned to live by and were instrumental in the development of our codified laws, all to repress evil.
Yes, there is a God! A metaphysical infinite power greater than man. Although there is a human element, 16%, that denies it, they are the bean counters among us who rely totally on cause and effect, empiricism, and the scientific method to determine truth. As we developed over 300,000 years, give or take, so have our definitions of an infinite power, God, as well as our biological dependence on this power existence. Just as Homo sapiens require caloric nourishment to exist, their finite spirit requires a sense of peace and purpose that defines our ethical behaviors.
In a future podcast, we will talk about how spiritualism translates into today’s religions. There is no doubt that a belief in God is true.
Have a blessed week!
Tony Christ