I believe in believing in God. Part 3

I believe in believing in God

Part 3: I could not end my torment till I knew the truth, but this, I know, is true.

But is it true?!

We can imagine the exasperation of those who think, “This is all very lovely speculation about how wonderful it would be if only God was real, but the simple truth is that it is not true that there is love and wisdom at the heart of life. If there is no God, then your faith is just make-believe”.

Except there IS love and wisdom at the heart of life. You are conceiving of it now as you consider the love and wisdom that God stands for. And if you commit yourself to living this way of life, then there is the reality of this love and wisdom, right there in your life.

Of course, a theist like me wanted to write: “Except there IS love and wisdom at the heart of the universe”. However, Brian Cox has persuasively argued that at the heart of the universe is a cold, uncaring emptiness. I want to believe that there is a God who is everywhere, and therefore his love pervades the universe. This may be true, but I cannot demonstrate it. However, I think it is fair to say that his love exists in every reflective sentient mind. However, you may wish to complain that this is also a statement of faith and hope, so, to be specific, God’s love has the potential to exist in every reflective sentient mind. Why is it that the Psalmist, speaking for all people of faith, declares that if I fly to the ends of the earth, you, Lord, will be there, or if I lose myself in the depths of the sea, you will be there too? The Psalmist expresses amazement that wherever he goes he discovers the presence of God, but surely the answer is that we take God with us wherever we go, and this is why we can never lose him – provided we want to keep hold of him. We do not lose God if we are thrown in prison or lie in our deathbeds because God lives within us. His love dwells in our hearts and minds – if we choose to allow this. So, from our perspective, God’s love is everywhere, because everywhere we go, we take God with us and so discover his love wherever we happen to be. And every single person has the ability to discover and live in this love.

It’s important to emphasise, that when we are extolling the virtues of God’s love we are not simply talking about people using our human wisdom and goodness to adopt just values or altruistic principles. Doing this is certainly good, and will make our common life very much better, as well as hugely enriching the lives of those able to live by such a philosophy of life. However, this is not what we’re talking about. Human beings are a ruthlessly selfish species, tending to gross stupidity, hatred and greed, intent on exploiting others for our own ends. If we are to build a just and compassionate society, more power is needed than can be supplied through even the most noble philosophy of life. We need the love of God.