An question oft asked is "How could one investigate God when we have no tools to do so?". God is presumed not to exist for the very reason that we consider ourselves powerless to apply any tools to it in investigating it. I think that that is a somewhat defeatist attitude myself given that we have accomplished so much when we put our minds to it. Think of the early pioneers in science, whose tools were so crude as to produce the wildest of results - and then consider if they had taken the same approach.
As with science, a lot can be achieved by presuming a position and then developing hypotheses to examine the presumption. An initial bit of thinking might produce the following:
a) I'm leaving the house only to discover that I've lost my car keys. I start rationalising. I don't get a bus to work to see if they are there as I must have had them to arrive at home with the car. I start thinking about where I might have left them but draw a blank. I start looking in the places where they most probably are; behind the sofa cushions, in my pockets etc. Then, irrationally I find myself looking in places I've already looked as if they could magically turn up by virtue of looking 10 times.
What I realise is that inanimate objects rely totally on me to find them. They can contribute nothing to the task of finding them. Nothing at all.
b) I'm an avid bird watcher. I've heard that the lesser-spotted eagle has been reported around the area. As with my keys I set about figuring out the rational way to observe it. Where is it likely to build a nest, what are it's feeding habits and and what times is it likely to be out and about. When and if I do spot it, it is a result of my efforts BUT ALSO the actions of the bird itself. If it didn't do what it did, I could have looked forever without being in the place where it revealed itself to me. It's actions were unconcious in helping me in my search but without them my search would have been in vain
c) I fancy this girl in work. I think she's make a good girlfriend. So I go about, as above, developing methods by which I might attract her attention. I shower at least once a week, I invest in that aftershave which seems to (at least on tv) drive them wild, I mind my language, I decide not to talk about football results when I meet her at the water fountain. Unless she makes some concious decision in my direction however, I am powerless to have her reveal her thoughts on me, to me. I do what I think I can do. And I do it as well as I can but the choice is to a fair extent, hers.
d)I decide I want to investigate if God. I have no clue about what actions I should take but given the above progression, I can presume that if he exists, then the revealing is to a large, if not total extent reliant on him doing it. In presuming his existance I may (although I may not - but we're trying to develop a positive hypothesis) consider the following to be 'reasonable' things to assume for a start:
- God would be a complete wonder. Somebody/thing who could do all this would be beyond my wildest dreams about what is possible to achieve. I would have no inkling as to the power/ability/means it would take. If I assumed this then the assumption of some humility would be a sensible thing to assume. If God exists then 'me' is a speck compared to 'him'. I would be at his mercy not the other way around. I, it would seem likely, would have to bow my will to his
- It is reasonable to presume that God did all this for a reason. The reasons might be to amuse himself, or he might be prototyping for something else he has in mind. But given the new found and appropriate humility of above, I may just hold off second-guessing and just suppose he did it for a reason which is far beyond my comprehension. Not only would he have to reveal himself, he would have to reveal his reason too.
- It would be reasonable to suppose that his reason has something to do with me. Man after all is orders of magnitude above all other creatures as far as we can tell: man walks naturally upright, has vastly greater intelligence, is a historical and political being, has consciousness and self-awareness, man has propositional language which allows him to write prose, poetry and express emotion in complex ways using this language,is capable of complex reasoning, has mathematical skills, has achieved massive amounts in culture and science, has an aesthetic dimension, is not completely governed by instinct,is uniques in his relationship with the opposite sex: he can chose to love and chose the level of that love, man has a moral dimension, man has a spiritual dimension. If man is an animal then he is the most extraordinary animal there is or ever was. Yes, it is reasonable to suppose God's purpose has something to do with me.
- That there is no widespread revelation of himself, yet many say they have had this revelation, implies that there would be terms and conditions to his self-revelation. It is also reasonable to suppose that this self-revelation would be such so as to ensure the person to whom he was doing the revealing was in no doubt as to what was happening. Nothing that man could suggest as an alternative reason for the idea that God had revealed himself would be powereful enough to cause the person to doubt what had happened.
- If God exists and there was a reason why he created me to be the pinnacle (as far as I know) of all he has created then it is not unreasonable to suppose that he might want me to know that he is there. Maybe he wants to reveal himself but I am not meeting his terms and conditions. It may well be that he leaves the choice up to me, that is to say, his terms and conditions could very well be that I must be the one to want him to reveal himself to me - before he will do that. Like the keys,lesser-spotted eagle, attractive girl my desire to have them reveal themselves depends more and more on the amount of desire I have to have them reveal themselves. Given that God would be total maybe the amount of my desire must be total. What would total desire look like.
- It is reasonable to suppose that a desire born out of curiousity or fun is not a total desire. The desire would have to be a genuine, heartfelt one, one that felt that this was the question to which one wanted an answer above all others. If God did reveal himself then it is reasonable to suppose that it will be the most significant thing that would ever happen. As much humility as one could summon would be the total humility one could summon. Total humility would, I imagine, be essential.
- such total desire too would involve a total, blind acceptance of the consequences of desiring God to reveal himself. Massive consequences such as
a)life would never be the same again. It would change dramatically and there is no way of knowing beforehand whether this would be for better or worse. It would be placing total trust in God that, him revealing himself would not be the worst thing you ever did. But you couldn't know beforehand. A blind leap. A leap of faith.
b)There is no possibility to go back to disbelief after such a revelation. Once it happened that would be that. One would now have no choice but to believe...and all that that might entail. One would have relinquished their freedom to chose on this matter.
c) An acceptance that if God doesn't reveal himself that that is not proof of his non-existance. It means accepting that God is allowed to reveal on his terms and that if he doesn't it could be that the terms haven't been met or that the timing, his timing for revealing himself, might not be now. Again humility and bowing to whatever it is he wants to do.
That's the hypothesis. It's only one of a myriad of possible hypotheses but there is nothing unreasonable in it. Best thing to do now is to test the hypothesis to see if it works. There is no point though if the hypothesis isn't followed. So due consideration of it: humility, acceptance of any and all consequences that may follow, a genuine desire for God to reveal himself - realising that ones ability to have total desire is imperfect but it is the best one can do at present, the acceptance that it one would be asking God to do something very special - just because you ask it. That's the hypothesis
All that remains is to ask Him to reveal himself. As simple and as hard as that. Simple, because it would only be the simplest form of words required. Hard because in following the hypothesis means those words would have to come from the very bottom of your heart. No one knows where that is. You'd have to trust that he would
p.s. an obvious help in asking "from the bottom of your heart" would be to ask him to help you ask from the bottom of your heart. If he exists it would seem reasonable to suppose that he could and that he would.
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