THE IRRELEVANCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD [F, 6-14-24]

BEYOND WINTER: Irrelevant Musings of an Old Man—THE IRRELEVANCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD [F, 6-14-24]

 

The existence of God is irrelevant, and so thus are arguments about that existence. What matters is the presence of God. Kind of like pecan pie; its existence is irrelevant to me if it is not present to me.

I was never much impressed by the arguments about God’s existence, either from the theological angle, such as the quinque viae [five arguments] of Aquinas, or from the “logic” of “scientists” who define “facts” in such a way as automatically to exclude anything they don’t want to deal with, kind of like the way physicists ignore the gravity field when looking for a unified field theory, because it doesn’t fit any taxonomy they can come up with.

Maybe I was never interested in the existence of God because I wasn’t pushed far enough, but I think it was because I always knew the presence of God. I never cared whether God existed, because I was always aware of God’s presence.

“Know” is the proper word there, for me. I have never “felt” the presence of God, never heard a voice. I gladly sing “I know the Lord has laid his hand on me,” and know it is true, but I have never “felt” the touch of that hand, even though I often recite “The Touch of the Master’s Hand,” by Myra Brooks Welch.

I am not decrying such experiences. Some people experience God’s presence as a bodily warmth, or a special light. These experiences establish the presence of God, not the existence of God.

Bill Pruett was one of my clergy friends. We were an unlikely pair. He was an orthodox conversative, and I was a hillbilly liberal. Because, however, we were both honest about and secure in our theological understandings, and our faith in the presence of God, we had good times together. Bill loved to introduce me as “my liberal friend,” apparently to prove that he had one.

He used to get disgusted with a good many of our conservative friends. “They trust in their feelings, and then when things go bad, and they don’t feel all happy about God anymore, they go off the tracks. Feelings are part of faith, but sometimes you just have to use your mind.”

I never worried about feeling God. Emotions come and go. I was always aware of the presence of God, though. I think that is what Bill and I shared. That is why we could be honest with each other.

John Robert McFarland