Atheism – No Proof of God
Rev. Dr. Erik E. Sandstrom
November 2008
Editorial
New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Atheism
supposedly exists now also among some young people of New Church
upbringing, those who have been educated in our system! We do not wish
to insult anyone's intelligence by claiming how wrong they are, or how
they are burying their heads in the sand, because they are of course
absolutely right! There never was, never has been, any proof of God's
existence. Why should they believe what cannot be proved? There is
however a childishly simple proof of God's existence. More of that
later.
Just think for a moment, how infinitely clever, indeed wise, God
is for not leaving any witnesses for His existence. He created the
universe so there is no signature! Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) called this thunderous absence
of a "signature" a sign of the "anonymous author cunningly concealing
himself" and no one can be "more carefully withdrawn from direct
relationship [to people] than God." Just look, he says in other words,
how carefully He has concealed Himself! To the conclusion of this lack
of a signature, Kierkegaard concedes that God "is not there." But the
proof, he continued in another direction, consisted in turning to
one's "inner self, and once only in the inwardness of self-activity,
does he have his attention aroused, and is enable to see God." (Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific
Postscript).
This inner self is also fallacious, however. This however has to
avoid Ludwig Feuerbach's (1804-1872) denial of God as worthy of
discussion, since only "man himself, and nature" are proper objects of
"philosophical study," not God, a subject that "transcends human
experience." Here he is similar to his predecessor David Hume
(1711-1776). The next generation from Swedenborg, Hume was an
empiricist thinly disguised as a Deist. The mind alone was real, said
Hume, but a miniature of God's mind. We must therefore trust human
reason. This however led to doubting that even the world was the way
we saw it, a skepticism which lent fire to later naturalistic
arguments, doubting God also. Biblical criticism had with Hume's
contemporaries, Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694 - 1768), and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
(1729-1781) already used this approach to cast doubt on the historical
existence of Jesus, Moses and Muhammad. There was a "ditch" between
faith and history. The Bible could not be trusted as a source or
description of any truth, let alone that of God. The Gospels were
hence irrelevant as history because of the lack of miracles verifying
the same truths today. Jesus himself was doubted as an historical
figure, but was more the enthusiastic or kerygmatic projection of
faith in some ancient outstanding individual.
These are just a few strands of the arguments paving the way for
atheism. Only faith has maintained the Bible as the all time best
seller for all centuries. That says something about the persistent
clarity of truth, both concealed in scripture, but self-evident here
and there as well. Astoundingly enough, it was in this Age of Reason
era of final doubt in the Word of God, that all the self-evident truth
was drawn out and published for all to witness, if they willed.
Atheism today is easily read out of existence in the Heavenly
Doctrines (1749-1771).
So it was up to around 1800 that everyone thought of God or the
gods as controlling everything, from wind to thunder, to war and
disease, to the stars in the sky. God caused everything, and His ways
were often mysterious. But God was now relegated to a "god of the
gaps" argued "from ignorance." There are other explanations of
everything today, and science provides them! Science has left only a
few "gaps" where God might still exist, "growing smaller and smaller."
Lightning is caused by electrons, not by Thor or Zeus! Science
explains and solves more things than God or faith in Him does. So they
say.
The Writings warned against this whole line of reasoning, in fact
ridiculed it, just when the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment were
peaking: naturalism is not willing to acknowledge the possibility of
"influx from the Lord's Divine through the spiritual world." That is
why naturalism has "overwhelmed" the Church (Apocalypse Explained
1220) and favored thinking "about Divine things from things proper to
nature, that is space and time" (Arcana Coelestia 5116:3). Then,
however, "one infinite God" cannot be comprehended at all, nor the
entire creation of the universe, which becomes a "foolish" notion
(Canons 4). The consequence would be the "worship of nature" which
leads "automatically to atheism" (True Christian Religion 771). That
is why "naturalism and atheism rush forth together" (Coronis XVI).
We of course cannot condemn outright all that science does, nor
the scientific principles which have "created" the world of technology
we all enjoy, deemed to be the most advanced and civilized since the
world began. We count "civilized" by such modern standards as
electronic equipment and new model cars. What is denounced is
eliminating God and heaven, just because they cannot be seen from the
natural "lumen" of science (cf. Divine Love and Wisdom 69)! Just
because the scientific method which is now a norm to all learning
throughout the world, absorbs information just as easily as a sponge
absorbs water (Interaction 9) does not mean that science is only
harmful. It just should not deny God! For natural theology can never
enter into "spiritual theology," while the reverse, however, cannot be
said. For spiritual theology easily enters into the natural scientific
techniques (De Verbo 6:4). From spiritual things, all natural things
can be seen in order, while from natural things, nothing spiritual at
all is witnessed. There are indeed two foundations of truth, the Word
and Nature (Spiritual Experiences 5709), yet from the foundation of
truth based on nature, nothing of the foundation of truth based on the
Word can be seen. "Nothing can be founded upon Scientifics except it
be previously founded upon the Word" (Spiritual Experiences 5710).
This is repeatedly given as the method:
"When a person's basic assumption is to believe nothing until he
sees and understands it, he cannot possibly believe; for spiritual and
celestial things are neither visible to the eyes nor comprehensible in
mental images. But the true order is for a person to become wise from
the Lord, that is, from His Word. In that case everything follows as
it should.... the premise of belief in the Lord's Word and of
confirming spiritual and celestial truths by means of natural truths,
using as far as is possible the terminology of the learned world"
(Arcana Coelestia 129).
Some have seen the need to see God from a premise of prior
existence, as Barth, for example, who thundered "Let God be God."
There is no "regenerative soteriology" i.e. human approach to God that
generates its own view of Him. This is because "God sought humanity,
not the other way around," he said. Similarly, to the extent that
atheism is based on lack of proof of God's existence, it is just
declaring that the method of discovering reality obviates spiritual
reality. You can no more prove that God exists than prove that the
"idea of God" is itself real. After all how real is an idea? And so it
goes.
It is supremely ironical that the Lord Himself on earth addressed
the impossibility of proving God's existence. Can you guess where? It
is of course where He says, "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet
believe" (John 20:29) He was talking to Thomas, who had just fallen on
his knees and said, "My Lord and my God." Thomas having earlier
witnessed the Lord's crucifixion and death, had here witnessed the
resurrected Lord. Here was the proof, the nail marks, he asked for.
Still, the risen Jesus rebuked him: "Because you have seen Me, you
believe." Part of the irony, is that Thomas "saw" the Lord with his
spiritual eyes. He was seen only with the spiritual eyes after the
Resurrection, saying "their eyes were opened" (True Christian Religion
777, Conjugial Love 30, Apocalypse Revealed 36). Only when they are
opened, is there any "proof" of spiritual reality. And every single
night, that proof of spiritual reality is supplied to practically all
human beings, as quickly and quietly as the earth turns from light
into darkness. We dream. Where does the "light" of a dream come from?
The room is dark, yet the dream has light! That is seeing with our
spiritual eyes. Besides this "proof" which we leave you to ponder, the
Lord when He said, "Blessed are those who do not see yet believe,"
meant the very fact that no one can prove God's existence: "They are
blessed who do not see the Lord with their eyes, as Thomas did, and
yet believe that He is; for this is seen in the light of truth from
the Word" (Faith 10).
"Believe that He is." That is God's existence. The Only "proof"
of God comes from the Word of God, which is the "light of truth." Only
the Word can "prove" God's existence. Only revelation can tell us of
God (Sacred Scripture 114). Well, does the Word of the Lord exist?
Yes. The Word of God exists: Ergo, God its Author exists. We too "are
because God is" (Divine Providence 46e)...
Another argument: How can such a majestic universe exist without
proof of a cause or Maker? Who is clever enough to create a universe
without leaving a trace, but God? And as if to have the last laugh,
the Lord made His Advent by the same method: spontaneous germination
in the womb of Mary: "Only by means of conception from His Divine and
by birth from a virgin..." (Divine Love and Wisdom 234, Lord 29) To
think the Lord could have come any other way is insane. (True
Christian Religion 502)
Still, people ask "Where is the evidence? Unless I see it for
myself..." However, because the "reaction appear[s] as though it were
a property of the thing created because it occurs when the thing is
acted upon," (Divine Love and Wisdom 68) the spiritual acting on the
natural is so subtle that it escapes empirical detection. Yet ever
since paleo-history, man has known God was behind it all: wise people
knew the land was "impregnated by the most subtle substances (which
can have no other than a spiritual origin), and through this they have
power to conjoin themselves to use, from which comes their prolific
principle" (Divine Love and Wisdom 310). "There is present both the
spiritual which provides a soul and the material which provides a
body. Also within everything spiritual there is a conatus to clothe
itself with a body" (Divine Love and Wisdom 343). People have known
that for ages, as part of the wisdom and lore of culture.
Well, if so, is there in fact any tangible evidence of God being
the source of life? What could constitute "empirical evidence" of
God's Creative hand? Can we see when life began? Was it suddenly?
Would evidence of a sudden beginning of life constitute a "smoking
gun" for Creation, a finger-print of the Intelligent Designer? Is
there any hard evidence of a SUDDEN beginning? Well, ahem, ahem:
"The period of biological innovation occurred at virtually the same
instant in geologic time all around the world....evolution at
supersonic speed." (Time, When Life Exploded, Dec.4, 1995, p.68)
Life did explode "instantly," no not on Dec. 4 1995 but from 543
to 510 million years ago. That is a mere 33 "eons," called by Time
"virtually the same instant." Now the current estimation of the age of
the universe is 13.7 giga-years, i.e. billions of years. Dividing 543
million minus 510 million equals 33 million, into 13.7 billion, equals
ca. one 400,000th.
The "instant" of 33 million years when measurable organic life
began all over this planet, is one 400,000th of the total time elapsed
since creation. That is awfully quick.
So does that do it? Is this proof? "Life" began suddenly,
everywhere, simultaneously! Is this not only God's signature, but
entire palm-print in creation? What else could cause such a sudden
arrival of life all at once all over the planet? It is scientifically
verifiable evidence. The Lord made His Advent only on this planet
(Earths in Universe 113) just because here it can be known that God is
Man both from the Word and from experience (Spiritual Experience
4782). God the Creator of the universe was born onto our planet, but
543 million years ago, He left His mark already. Now we can appreciate
why the Lord "loves this earth more than others" because here
"heavenly truths can be rooted in truths of nature." (Spiritual
Experience 1531) Fossils and mathematics match revelation, the
foundation of nature matches how creation happened as revealed in
Divine Love and Wisdom, published by Swedenborg in Amsterdam, at the
print-shop of Fran ois
Changuion, in 1763. "I AM" acts and the time and space universe began.
If Theists and Atheists met and discussed belief, no solution
would likely ensue. There just is no proof. The decision to believe,
however, is in the New Church dependent on reading the Writings or
not. When Theists are also New Church members, the discussion would
revolve around what proof there is that Heaven and Hell or all of the
Writings are, in fact, so? However, that is one question that can only
be answered by reading for oneself! As Swedenborg himself advised,
"Read my books and see for yourself." After reading them, another
question can be asked: who has any shadow of a doubt left that
everything said there is so? There is no doubt left whatever. "Life
after death is a dead certainty." Generations of New Church people
have faced death content with the certainty of what is said about the
afterlife. It is true.
The same goes for God's existence. After the Lord is studied in
all the Doctrines, the question of God's existence becomes pass .
God is the Divine Itself, the Father, acting as the soul to the Divine
Human, the Son, who is the risen Lord. The Holy Spirit comes from Him
when He, as the visible God, One both in Person and Essence, speaks.
That Divine speech is the "Spirit of Truth leading to all truth," the
source of the Writings, the Heavenly Doctrines. The only proof of God
comes from all that He has now said, namely the Word of God in the
Heavenly Doctrine.
We close with the childishly simple proof of God. There have
been so many proofs of God put forward that they become frivolous. But
there is some substance to them.
The Transcendental Argument says (1)
If reason exists then God exists, (2) Reason exists, (3) Therefore,
God exists. - The Cosmological or first cause Argument says, (1) If I
say something must have a cause, it has a cause. (2) I say the
universe must have a cause. (3) Therefore, the universe has cause. (4)
Therefore, God exists.
A couple more:
The Argument from Beauty or Design (Teleology): (1) Isn't that baby/sunset/flower/tree beautiful?
(2) Only God could have made them so beautiful. (3) Therefore, God
exists. -
Finally a rather cynical argument from the Bible: (1)
[arbitrary passage from OT] (2) [arbitrary passage from NT] (3)
Therefore, God exists.*
All of these can be stated more
philosophically, but also easily be disproved and so discounted.
* http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm
But there is a new argument we mentioned at first: How can people
for thousands of year, all over the world, without contacting or even
knowing of each other, all reach the same doubt over God's existence,
unless there does indeed exist a God as the object of all such doubt?
You just cannot doubt something that actually does not exist, not for
that many millennia, in so many scattered locations. In any case, if
God actually did not exist, then the doubt of His existence would not
even arise. There would be no belief to begin with. This is proved by
children who are taught nothing, ending up believing - nothing!
However, if God really did not exist, then there would be no universe
nor people who could believe, either! But doubt of God has persisted.
God has become the permanent object of human doubt. The very
persistence of human doubt thereby makes God's existence permanent!
One could put this in Cartesian terms, using Dubito, ergo sum.
Transposing, we have, Dubito Deum longeque per orbis terrarum, Ergo
Deus est. I doubt God over time and through all the earth, therefore
God is.
However, the only proof of God is found from the "light of truth
from the Word." There is also an influx into the souls of all people
that there is a God and that He is one (Canons 4). This influx can
only reinforce a true belief when this is expounded from the Word. You
can't see it in your inner self, as Kierkegaard postulated, since the
inner self has no answers which have not entered through the senses.
There too there is a proof of God, since the idea of God has to enter
through the senses. That means God has to reveal Himself in order for
anyone to see and then believe in Him. Once the Word has come about
through such experiences, the Word of God stands in for the original
personal presence and revelation of God. And the existence of the Word
of God cannot be denied, however strongly anyone is confirmed in
Atheism or not. If the Bible's existence cannot be denied, neither can
God's existence be denied, since only the Word shows God to be. For
God's existence, His nature, Advent, Salvation of the human race, all
this must be revealed from the Word of God alone (Sacred Scripture
114, 115). No one can come up with this information on one's own, by
natural deduction. "No one can see from below the things which are in
the heavens" (De Verbo 6:4). They must be revealed. With the Second
Coming having taken place in the revealed Writings, the conclusion
that "God is" and that "we are because God is" (Divine Providence
46e), is almost a foregone conclusion, but apparently not with 100% of
witnesses. Therefore, "Blessed is the man who has not seen, yet
believes" (John 20:29, Faith 10) |
