The Search for God: Part 1
The Paradox of Life
A disturbing, inescapable paradox regarding the nature of God dwells in the heart of life. The problem defies resolution and makes life challenging and difficult. In the mental and spiritual realms of life mankind is blessed with unlimited potential. As a race we are capable of higher consciousness and inspired creativity. Our scientific achievements continue to advance our standard of living. We have the capacity to enter mystical states of unity and oneness. We can touch God. But in our physical life we are saddled with crippling limitations. We are not immortal. Despite all our achievements life is short, difficult and unfair. Time grinds us all down. We are born. One day we will die. What lies between is entirely up to us. That is all life guarantees.
Randomness vs Intelligent Design
Is life then as random and meaningless as it appears to be? Or has life been designed by a higher power to be difficult and uncertain for some unknown purpose that we fail to comprehend?
Life is meaningless only if we deny the reality of God. Without God there is neither a higher purpose to life nor any linkage between what we do here and what happens when we leave here. Without God any possible continuity between life and death is fiction not fact: myth and fable, not truth and reality. If there is no ultimate reason for life, the quest for meaning and the search for enlightenment are simply the detours and delusions of a fool’s path. If we believe that God does not exist then life is an accident, a mysterious aberration in a cold and sterile cosmos.
The Absence of Proof
Unfortunately, the existence of God has not yet been proven scientifically. The absence of scientific proof is due to the fact that God is not a substance that can be quantified empirically and objectively. The experience of God is a subjective and personal one. God is felt, not measured. His existence is not just “out there,” in intelligent space, but here, inside our hearts as well. The secret to proving the existence of God is internal and individual. We prove God exists one person at a time. The reality of God does not yield to quantification. The mystery of God yields to love.
If we can’t find God in our hearts, we will not find Him outside of ourselves. If we can’t feel Him in the internal world of our soul, we will not see Him working in the outer world of flesh and stone. One of the most important life tasks we will ever face is the challenge of transforming the unredeemed, dark parts of our psyche that hinder us from feeling the existence of God.
What Separates Us From God
What prevents us from feeling the Oneness within is the personal suffering, anger and confusion we have not yet overcome. If the unhealed aspects of our psyche are holding us back is our failure to feel God’s presence our fault of His? God, of course, does not need to prove himself to us. He already knows that He exists. but if He does exist we need to find Him to complete and fulfill our destiny.
