Fundamental Truth
Is the person on trial innocent or guilty? The whole purpose of a trial is to uncover the truth. All the relevant facts are sifted and examined so that the court can finally reach a verdict. If justice is to be done, whether the person be innocent or guilty, it is essential to discover the truth in order to reach the proper decision.
Attitudes towards the truth vary. Truth is the friend of those who are honest and upright, but is obnoxious and feared by the criminal and the liar. By and large, though, most of us value the truth and like to know what is and what isn’t true.
What, then, is the truth about the existence of God? This is probably the most fundamental of all questions? How can we discover the answer to this conundrum. Can we prove He exists or doesn’t exist, or is that an impossibility?
Let us begin by taking a fairly simple case reported early in the Bible. It was God’s wish that mankind should spread out and populate the whole earth, but God was either ignored or disobeyed. Men congregated to build a city with a tower that reached to Heaven, thereby gaining access to God by their own efforts. Were they likely to succeed? With our current knowledge we can be sure that the project was doomed to failure. Even though this was the case, all-knowing God was displeased with their intention, confused their language and dispersed them. Incidentally, many still gather themselves together in cities where it is so easy for them to concentrate on one another rather than on the things of God.
A similar misconception is still demonstrated today. When man became capable of space travel by rocket, the unbelieving and mocking voice asks, “Is there any sign of God up there?”
The truth is that God is not located in a specific place in space, but rather permeates space so that He is near to each one of us. God is not to be found physically ‘out there somewhere’.
Next, let us consider the case of the philosopher. Many great minds, far superior to my own, have been and are interested in ascertaining knowledge of fundamental truth. The philosopher has to start somewhere, though, and reasons from the ground up. Beginning with axioms, he or she builds premisses using logic in order to reach conclusions.
To the best of my knowledge, up to the present time no philosopher has proved or disproved the fundamental truth of the existence or non-existence of God. I feel fairly certain that if this feat is finally accomplished and a watertight logical conclusion reached, it wouldn’t be long before we all heard about it. For my part, I don’t think it will ever be done. Hence, I am confident that:
The fundamental truth about the existence of God will never be achieved purely by logic. That is not the fault of logic – it just isn’t the right tool for the job.
It is amazing the amount of trust people invest in science. The ninth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines science as “a branch of knowledge conducted on objective principles involving the systematized observation of and experiment with phenomena, esp. concerned with the material and functions of the physical universe.” Well, I think I can go along with that. It is commonly considered that if something can be proved scientifically, then it must be true. The danger is not so much in that statement, but in its inversion, i.e. if something is known to be true, then it can be proved scientifically. Neither statement is totally correct, but the latter leads some people to adopt the attitude, “I’ll believe in God when His existence can be proved scientifically.”
That is rather a pity, since science is the study of God’s creation. While its methods are appropriate to the creation, they cannot be applied to God Himself. That would be subjecting God to the limitations of the universe, when it is quite obvious that the creator must be greater than that which is created. Consequently, we are entitled to draw the following conclusion:
It is not possible to determine the existence or non-existence of God scientifically.
All this is very discouraging. How, then, are we to determine the real truth about the existence of God. I can’t think of any way that we, as mere humans, can reach such a decision. But all is not lost. While we can’t do it off our own bats, God is perfectly capable of proving the reality of His existence to us by revelation, which He does to many individually in His own good time.
Beware! This does not mean that we can simply wait for God to act while we just carry on pleasing ourselves in what we do. If we are really concerned about discovering the truth about God, then we have our part to play, which is to earnestly seek after the truth. There is much more on this website that may help you if you are seeking, but don’t forget that you are encouraged to keep thinking. Please don’t hesitate to question and ask why.
There are two other points I would like to flag up here. Firstly, we began this page with the subject of trials. Sometimes, the evidence is incomplete, or it may be a case of having to take one person’s word against another’s when it is not clear who is, or who is not, telling the truth. On such an occasion we may hear or see reported the comment, “It is doubtful whether the truth will ever be known.” That is never so, for we know from the Bible that everything is known to God – words, deeds, thoughts, motives, whatever. It is absolutely impossible to hide anything from God. Furthermore, we are assured that the time will come when we will have to answer to God for everything done in this life. At that time, when all that was done in private is known publicly, it is no wonder that we will not have a thing to say in our own defence if we have not resolved the whole purpose of life here on Earth in God’s way.
Secondly, we have heard of half-truths. When evaluating the truth, things sometimes seem grey rather than black and white. Is it possible to find truth that is fundamentally pure white, with not a hint of grey? Happily, the answer is, “Yes!” for when Jesus was praying to His Father, he said, “Your word is truth”. God’s word, God’s unchangeable truth, is pure white and totally dependable. If you are really seeking truth, examine the Bible for all you’re worth.
Finally for this page, something really worth bearing in mind:
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”