The Sermon Part 2 (Agnosticism)

by dhw, Friday, July 25, 2008, 10:00 (5963 days ago) @ Mark

Since I don't know whether God even exists or not, I can hardly begin to know him. I can only take up your Queen analogy, and weigh up what I know about him, and what I know about him is what I see in his creation. I'm going to abandon your beloved Queen, though, and pick on Robert Mugabe instead. I don't know him either (and fortunately he doesn't know me). It's philosophically possible that he doesn't exist, but I hope you and I will agree that he does, so that we can dispense with the philosophical niceties. I have formed certain opinions which are based entirely on what I have read, seen and heard. The accounts make me believe that he is cruel, callous and uncaring, and if I were to meet him in person, I would find it impossible to discount what I already know about him. I suspect most people would have the same problem. I needn't go into any more detail, because that is all I require for my analogy. I have read the science books and believe that the scientists are right, and dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years before we did. The strong ate the weak. Survival depended on a system of self-interest and bloodshed. Animals feel fear and pain ... otherwise why would they run away from a predator or howl when bitten? This pattern was set long before man came on the scene. Fighting over territory, food, mates ... all deeply ingrained in those creatures that preceded us. The selfishness that underlies evil is not man's invention, but is integral to Nature. I don't know God, but if he created Nature, I would find it impossible to discount the evidence of this Mugabe-like cruelty, callousness etc. I read the Bible, which some believe to be the Word of God, and it is filled with tales of similar savagery (we've already discussed them: the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah etc.). And I look at the world around me, and see yet more slaughter of the innocents caused by the instability of Nature as God ... if he exists ... created it. This is not to deny the beauty and love that are also to be found in Nature and in the Bible, but this very mixture adds to the intellectual attraction of belief in an impersonal universe. You say: "It is God himself by his Spirit who can make himself known to you." I therefore have two questions: What is it that he makes known about himself beyond the facts we learn from Nature and the Bible (I might add history)? And are these facts to be ignored? - Finally, let me go back to the beginning of your sermon, the first words of which are: "It is not possible to know God except by faith." You clearly have faith. But can you in all honesty stand before your congregation and say to them: "I know God"? If you can't, what is the point of your initial statement? If you do say: "I know God"...well, perhaps we shouldn't go down that road. - Your sermon is challenging and stimulating, but the words have a hollow echo for someone in search of a coherent sense. Perhaps there is no coherent sense. Ultimately, faith rests on something inexpressible and incomprehensible, which leaves all of us groping in the same vast, ambiguous darkness.