One of the comments was “If God created the universe, he left the evidence so scant.” Granting this I will now provide some concepts as to why God is hidden, leaving behind scant evidence.
Judeo-Christian theism, which I am presupposing, holds to free will: the choice to accept or reject not only a relationship with God but His very existence. How is God to produce enough evidence to convince those who will believe but not enough so that those who will not believe will not be forced to believe. Wait, wait, why does God not simply make His existence so obvious that all will believe?
This is the point though; the free will choice necessitates uncertainty. But why offer free will? Why not just have everyone, or make everyone believe? Because belief is only part of the equation. There are atheists and non-Judeo-Christian theists who despise the God of the Bible. What if it could be proven to them that the God of the Bible is the one true God? They would still have to decide whether or not to have a relationship with this God whom they despise. Regardless of a person’s opinion about this God the question of choosing relationship is the same.
For example, the New Testament states, “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). Merely believing in God, a mere intellectual ascent, is not the point. Consider the demons referred to in the text, they had no dispute regarding God’s existence, for them the choice was only one of relationship, which they rejected by rebelling. It appears that since this choice of theirs was to reject the relationship their decision, their choice, their rebellion was ultimate and eternal.
Demons, who are fallen angels, cannot repent they do not want to repent because they have chosen to rebel. We humans have, due to our long history or sin, moved further and further away from God to the point that one of our choices is about God’s very existence and the other regards relationship.
Thus, back to the question as to what to do, God appears to have taken various courses of action some of which are as follows:
1) God’s creation of the universe.
2) God’s actions in the world.
1) God created the universe and absolutely everything in it (in one stage or another). The universe reflects God’s character: it is an ordered and rational place governed by laws and inhabited by creatures who can explore it. The exploration of the universe as carried out by the sciences was largely, if not entirely, premised upon the concept of God’s creation of a reality in which things functioned in such as way as to allow exploration, regularity, laws, cause and effect, fine-tuning, etc. God’s handy work is available for the viewing in the universe and natural theology, which is derived from exploring reality, offers the basic characteristics of God.
For example, is it reasonable, if not inescapable, to conclude that since time, space and matter came into being at a certain point (a point in time, the beginning of it) then whatever brought time, space and matter into being was timeless (or eternal), spaceless (or not subject to locality, or omnipresent) and matterless (immaterial, or non-physical, or spirit). The Bible just happens to state, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” or “In the beginning [time] God created the heavens [space] and the earth [matter]” or again, “In the beginning God [a preexisting eternal, omnipresent, spirit being] created [intelligently and purposefully brought into being with an infusion of energy] the heavens and the earth.” That God created demonstrates that God is a “person” having the volitional ability to will to be, to make decision.
The basic atheist response to this argument, here given in a very abridged version, is to believe, by faith, that some day we will discover materialistic causes for everything. I actually do not understand this since the Judeo-Christian holds that God created the material realm and so we should only expect material causes for material effects. Yet, the atheist puts her faith in future human omniscience and so argues, as it were, that we cannot logically or scientifically come to supernatural conclusions until we humans know everything that there is to know and everything that there is to know about everything that there is to know-until we know how everything functions and interacts in every possible interaction in every possible circumstance.
Moreover, as long as they can invent tall tales, with a scientifically respectable faa&#a7;ade that labels it theory, about how things could have, or may have, (or should have?) occurred by materialistic means, that is good enough. Was the universe created ex nihilo (from nothing)? Well, I can imagine (without a shred of evidence) an oscillating universe, a big band followed by a big crunch ad infinitum, I can imagine black holes giving rise to other universes, I can imagine multiverses, etc., etc. into the realm of sci-fi that passes as respectable theory.
2) Since God is hollowed, that is set apart, or holy our sin causes distance between us and He. In the beginning God dwelt directly with human beings. An act that ensured free-will was the placing of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. This was necessary for providing Adam and Eve the ability to choose. They chose sin and so do we. God’s holiness demands separation from sin. Yet, God’s love demands grace. God Himself has provided a way to be forgiven. At certain times during history God acted obviously and in such a way as to get the attention of even the cultures which were furthest from Him. God chose an unremarkable people to call His own and built them up as a nation from the ground up, from slaves to kings from a few to a nation.
His liberation of them from slavery in Egypt was one of the events that was dramatic enough to get the attention of the gentile nations. When the Temple was built the Jews had a place for the gentiles to come and worship with them. God also provided prophets who wrote his word to us. The Bible is not a book about cosmology, medicine, zoology, science, or anything of the sort in particular. The Bible is meant to tell the story of redemption. The Old Testament has been correct about historical events even when historians and archaeologists claimed that it was wrong because it mentioned things and even entire nations that we know nothing about-only to uncover them later.
The Bible is realistic about the human condition and presents even its heroes with warts and all. It accurately describes certain scientific data (see essay here and here). The Old Testament is proven to have been reliably transferred for at least two millennia. The New Testament is equally correct in its meticulous historical references and is better attested than any book of antiquity by a very, very large margin. This was certainly a very truncated version of each aspect mentioned.
Now let us consider various scriptures that make reference to the fact that God is available for the finding but certain people who do not put their sense organs to the task-they have them but will not exercise them. Some people presuppose reductionism or absolute materialism and thus simply refuse to consider that there is anyway to possibly feel, reason to, or know anything that is not material (even while believing in subatomic particles and the likes, mind you).
Let us consider metaphoric blindness and deafness:
“They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell” (Psalm 115:6).
“They have ears, but they do not hear; Nor is there [any] breath in their mouths” (Psalm 135:17).
“Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10).
“Seeing many things, but you do not observe; Opening the ears, but he does not hear” (Isaiah 42:20).
“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 12:2).
We also find encouragement to see and hear along with further affirmation of our self-imposed blindness and deafness:
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8, 14:35).
“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. [Their] ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with [their] eyes and hear with [their] ears, Lest they should understand with [their] hearts and turn, So that I should heal them. But blessed [are] your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear” (Matthew 13:15-16).
“Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:43).
“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:23 and 7:16).
“Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (Mark 8:18).
“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. [Their] ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with [their] eyes and hear with [their] ears, Lest they should understand with [their] hearts and turn, So that I should heal them” (Acts 28:27).
Blaise Pascal wrote that the heart knows reason that reason does not know. By presupposing reductionism and thus, absolute materialism atheist are cutting themselves off from the very intuitions and hearts reason upon they do rely, whether they know or realize it or not, to premise their particular worldview in the first place since fundamentals, the basic beliefs, axioms are not evidenced but accepted intuitively.
Lastly, let me note that the Bible states that God’s existence can be inferred from the creation and that those who deny it are essentially fooling themselves. If you have ever read the various fanciful theories about the pre-cosmological state or the origins of life you know that this is quite true.
“_I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because the thing which may be known of God is clearly revealed within them, for God revealed it to them. For the unseen things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being realized by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, for them to be without excuse. Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man_Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness_For they changed the truth of God into a lie_they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:16-28).
Finally, let us note that God states,
“you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).