Why God?

"Papa," Shoghi asked me one day, "why do we believe in God when we can't prove His existence?"

What a great question.

Of course, I misinterpreted it, at first. I had thought it might be a question of atheism, but no, it wasn't. It was more of a question of what it means to believe, and how this belief can be developed without actual proof.

Anyways, as per usual, once I got on the right track, my response, which was developed from a niggling intuition, surprised me.

To start though, I wanted to look at one of my favorite quote from Baha'u'llah: Prayers and Meditations, LXXV.

All-praise be to Thee, O Lord, my God! I know not how to sing Thy praise, how to describe Thy glory, how to call upon Thy Name. If I call upon Thee by Thy Name, the All-Possessing, I am compelled to recognize that He Who holdeth in His hand the immediate destinies of all created things is but a vassal dependent upon Thee, and is the creation of but a word proceeding from Thy mouth. And if I proclaim Thee by the name of Him Who is the All-Compelling, I readily discover that He is but a suppliant fallen upon the dust, awe-stricken by Thy dreadful might, Thy sovereignty and power. And if I attempt to describe Thee by glorifying the oneness of Thy Being, I soon realize that such a conception is but a notion which mine own fancy hath woven, and that Thou hast ever been immeasurably exalted above the vain imaginations which the hearts of men have devised.

Ok. This is just the first of four paragraphs, but what a beginning. And in fact, it is a beginning that had long confused me. I mean, what does He mean when He says "All-praise be to Thee"? Then I began to look at the description of humanity and God in the Baha'i Writings, and realized that all the praise-worthy qualities that we can exhibit are actually our various attempts at getting to know God better.

When we contribute money to the various funds, or buy a poor person a cup of coffee, we are showing generosity, trying to get to know God, the All-generous, better. In the short daily obligatory prayer, we say that we are created to "know God and to worship" Him. This, as I have said many times over the years, is not just a good idea, but to me a factual statement of own creation. It is not that I should attempt to know God and worship Him, but that I actually do this, whether or not I am aware of it. And if I am aware of it, and striving to know and worship Him better, then well and good, or weller and gooder. You see, I can look at any action I may take, and see it as an attempt to better know and worship our common Creator.

And so, given all this, it seems to me a tautology. It really is true that anything that is praisewothy is, by definition, of God. I may praise a mirror for shining the light of the sun, but it is really the sun that deserves that initial credit. And while the mirror may merit a touch of praise for its ability to reflect, without the sun, there is nothing to reflect.

But let's move on.

In the next sentence, Baha'u'llah is saying that He does not know how to praise God, or how to describe Him. He doesn't even know how to call upon His Name. If Baha'u'llah, a Messenger of God, for His sake, doesn't know how to do this, what hope do I have? "The All-Possessing" is just a vassal dependent on God? The All-Possessing possesses everything! How can it be dependent on God? And He who compels all falls in the dust before God? These are very heavy concepts.

So what do I make of all this?

Simple, really.

It seems to me that everything Baha'u'llah does helps raise our vision. Muhammad, for example, said “Love for one’s country is a part of faith”. Baha'u'llah has raised this to "It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."

Now, what does this have to do with God?

Looking chronologically at the Judeo-Christian traditions, it becomes a bit more obvious how this progression goes. I'm sure it works in other traditions, but I'm going to stick with the Jewish - Christian - Islam - Baha'i chronology.

In the Tanakh, the Jewish sacred Texts, we begin by seeing God, in Genesis, as "the old Man in the garden". I figure we respected our elders, so God must be really old. Got it. Makes sense.

But is it accurate? Well, in a sense. But not really.

So we move on.

As we progress through the Tanakh, God becomes the voice speaking to the Prophets. He isn't really an old man, but something more. In fact, by moving "off-stage", if you will, we get a higher sense of this God. He is removed from, and above, our perceptions. It takes a special prophet to even hear His Voice. And so we get a better understanding of God.

But again this isn't quite accurate.

Now we move on to Jesus. If you really want to know God, want to know more about Him, look at Jesus. Look at the Manifestations of God. It is no wonder that many Christians see Jesus as God. Again, true in a sense, but not quite accurate.

Muhammad comes along and elevates our vision once more. If we really want to get a better understanding of God, we can see Him as the embodiment of the highest virtues. We understand generosity, so God is the Most Generous. We can relate to mercy, and appreciate it, so God must be the All-Merciful.

And now, Baha'u'llah comes along and says, "Well, yes, but not quite." He, once again, raises our vision of the reality of God.

But what does all this have to do with my son's original question? Why do we believe in a God Whose existence cannot be proven?

The simple answer, to me, is that it is useful, like math.

Wait. What? What does math have to do with it? I know. I know. Tangents all over the place.

Well, look. When we began with math, as a human race, we basically knew how to count. Simple addition and subtraction. Then, as we developed, we began to learn about multiplication and division. But in reality, numbers don't tangibly exist. They have an existence beyond the physical reality, just as God, in 'Abdu'l-Baha's words, emanates physical existence.

Today, we have calculus, imaginary numbers, quantum reality, and all these other things that we can only begin to really understand, but the uses we have found for these various knowledges seems to know no bounds. We can never truly "know" numbers, as they are, by definition, infinite. Similarly, we can never really know God, or prove His existence. But what we can do with what little we do know seems to know no bounds. We can never really look at all of mathematics in its entirety, we can never really 'prove' it, but we know a lot about how they work. And similarly, we can never really understand God, but the more we learn about Him, the more we can use that knowledge to our benefit, and the benefit of the world.

And so again, why do we believe in God when we cannot prove His existence? Because proof of existence is not a condition for use.

I cannot prove that prayer works, but I know that when I pray, my life just seems to be better. I cannot prove that my wife loves me, but when I trust that it is so, life just seems to be better. There are many things that I cannot prove, but when I trust in them, well, life just seems to be better.

 

...and with that, 93 to go.