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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023

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Are we all postmoderns now?

I have a thought experiment, riffed from Schrödinger, of a box that when opened reveals whether or not God exists. While philosophically paradoxical (any entity that can definitively say God doesn't exist must be all-knowing and thus indistinguishable from God; an entity that says God does exist may only be referring to itself), I consider this a test for the strength of belief and/or the strength of the yearning for truth for believer and non-believer alike. Would someone be willing to stake a core part of their identity in opening such a box or would they rather leave it closed?

In my innocent (if not naive) moments, I consider the existence of God to be self-evident: life and consciousness are (to me) massive gaps in the Atheistic narrative. In my cynical (if not naive) moments, I consider the existence of God to be self-evident as well, but only as the creator/designer of our simulation.

During the "Sunday school" hour, my church has been having members talk about their lives and how they ended up being where they are geographically, professionally, and spiritually. Statements by two members struck me particularly:

  • "I could not believe in a God who has not suffered as I have" (in reference to Jesus being tempted in every way that we have, yet without sin; and his sacrifice on the cross)
  • "I struggled with how I could be both a thinking-person and believe in God"

These are members who, if offered the choice in my thought experiment, I'm sure would open the box. Yet they made statements that seem at odds with an assurance of the physical reality of God.

In the first instance, conditioning belief on an attribute of God (and one that has only existed for two thousand years!) implies a causality that runs in the opposite direction than it does: that the existence of God is predicated on our belief; or even worse, our preference for certain attributes of God. We may consider his attributes good but only because God is the creator of everything including morality. What we perceive (at least as through a glass dimly) as his good attributes are simply because we were made by a God who has these attributes. Any part of us that considers any aspect of God to be less than perfect is an error of our own fallen nature.

In the second, the desire (spurred by our post-enlightenment culture, perhaps) to appear (or even to actually be) intellectual and rational is juxtaposed against faith as if the existence of God is predicated on our ability to reason our way to him (or at least not reason ourselves away from him). Put succinctly, this line of thinking posits that we adjust our priors for the existence of God based on rational evidence or lack-thereof. Yet this presupposes our intellect to both be the primary means of knowledge about the existence of God and to be a reliable source of this knowledge. I have qualms with both presuppositions. The existence of God can be perceived experientially, and is probably a more robust evidence for God than mere philosophical puzzling (Colossians 2:8). Contra Aquinas, the intellect itself is fallen and incapable of definitively or reliably answering questions of God's existence. One of the genuine contributions of post-modernity and critical theory is bringing attention back to the limitations of rationality and scientific knowledge.

In both of my fellow Christians' statements, the "default" position is assumed to be one of agnosticism or "lack of belief". And indeed, everything about our culture assumes agnosticism. To participate and engage in culture is to do so within this agnostic backdrop. Every aspect of our interactions with non-believers and believers alike is permeated with this assumption.

Yet I owe this culture no allegiance. My acquiescence to the milieu (or should I say malaise?) is entirely self-imposed. Would that I could live in my own impenetrable bubble; surrounded by society without feeling the taint of it. The impossibility drives a desire to escape, to find a place where I can find the space to fully explore my relationship with God, with my family, with fellow believers, with nature; and better organize my own opinions and beliefs into a consistent narrative. It's the same desire that drives Rod Dreher to recommend cloistering away from culture, and Ayn Rand to fantasize about capitalistic communes. (It's worth nothing that neither acted on this desire; though Dreher did emigrate).

My fellow Christians keep reminding me that we are called to be in the world but not of the world. They are probably much better Christians than I; they may driven by a genuine desire to save the lost. I know myself, and I merely use the Biblical commandment as an excuse to amass temporal and superficial comforts at the expense of something much deeper. No fellow believer will uncover my secret: it is impossible to distinguish someone who is just "in the world" with someone wallowing in it.

Lest it be unclear at this point: I am inescapably postmodern.

life and consciousness are (to me) massive gaps in the Atheistic narrative

But what about God? Why is it that the universe needs to be created but God needs no creator? I have a sympathy for an eternal universe because of this issue with what comes first. If the universe is infinite in time then we don't need to care about beginnings. If God is infinite in time then that's a similar kind of completeness.

Also, why does life need God? Do we understand the biology of the primordial soup deeply enough to be totally sure how proteins might form? We have not replicated their formation in the lab, sure, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. How can we be sure that we're not missing some feature of underwater volcanoes that makes it easier to form proteins, or that there isn't some other process that produces life? Does anyone feel really confident about microbiology from billions of years ago?

Yet this presupposes our intellect to both be the primary means of knowledge about the existence of God and to be a reliable source of this knowledge.

??? Why so? If we're not using our intellect, then it's just words, superstition and cope (that the evil people who do so well on Earth will actually be invisibly punished by powerful beings after they die, when said beings could easily punish them in public). Scientific logic has gotten us a great many good things, what has critical theory supplied of equal worth? Critical theory is a great solvent, it's used to destroy. But where is the evidence that it dissolves bad things and not good things? I could use critical theory to undermine critical theorists, analyze how they invent new concepts like 'gender' which further divisions and conflict. I could psychoanalyze the interests of critical theorists as a class, open up questions as to the meaning of emancipation...

Why is it that the universe needs to be created but God needs no creator?

The universe is composed of parts that change. Everything that changes is composed of the actual (what it currently is) and the potential (all the states it could be in.) Everything that is composite like this needs some sort of explanation for why it is in this current condition and not a different state.

The classical theist definition of God solves this problem by proposing something that has no composition, no change. Because there is nothing else that it could be, its current state needs no explanation. This changeless, fully actual thing is that which we call God. Based on knowing that it is without composition, fully actual, philosophers can then derive proofs for the other common attributes of God.

What if the universe just is, a timeless unchanging thing (unchanging from outside) and time and causality describe relationships within it and it's parts? As an analogy, a filmmaker shoots a reel and the reel itself is unchanging, but within it still seems to move.

To me, this has the advantage of only talking about observable things, and doesn't have the first cause problem. Am I making some elementary error?

That there are real relationships within the universe itself, without which it would be something substantively different, indicates that this is not the answer. Classical Theism requires that God be "divinely simple," composed of no parts that could even be conceptually taken away.

But I will admit we are coming up to the edge of which arguments I remember comfortably. There are lots of distinctions made between types of relationships, causal, change, etc and I have forgotten more here than I remember.

Needless to say, if presented with the box described in the OP, I would open it in a heart beat! I have spent a decent percentage of my life trying to answer the question with the tools I have, and will undoubtedly spend a lot of time in the future on the matter (I have Gaven Kerr's "De Ente et Essentia" on my desk and am trying to psyche myself up for what some have called the best proof for God's existence yet.)

That there are real relationships within the universe itself, without which it would be something substantively different, indicates that this is not the answer.

I don't understand this. What's an example of a real relationship that makes the universe substantially different? How does this indicate that "time and causality are not relationships within the universe"?

There could be three fewer stars in the universe, and the universe would still make sense as a concept, but the effects of the gravity of the stars would no longer exist. Within the universe, we can talk about things having cause and effect, firing a bullet really does cause a broken window.

The imagined God would not have such cause and effect internal to it.

Are you saying that the universe could have been different (it could have had 3 fewer stars), therefore it needs an explanation for why it is the way it is, and why it isn't another way? If this is not what you're saying, than I admit I cannot follow what you write.

In this post you discuss God's nature.

The changeless thing's nature is entirely, wholly, and simply to act, to bring into existence.

Why does God's nature (to act and bring into existence) not require explanation? Couldn't its nature have been different?

I am struggling to see what value or benefit the concept of God is giving: I will admit, my general strategy is to show the universe has God-like properties, or equivalently, that God has universe-like properties.

therefore it needs an explanation for why it is the way it is, and why it isn't another way?

Yes, you understand what I'm saying. Whether I'm providing the best steelman of the argument is another question (answer is probably no.)

God's nature could not be different, or it would not be God. Philosophers call God a "Necessary Being," a Being whose nature is that it is impossible that it should not exist. If He is the answer to "why something, instead of nothing" it would be because His nature is necessary, not conditional or composite.