God Is Known by Absolutes

JOE BINGOLD

Presupposition: Absolutes are a source of truth. An absolute is something that exists in every interpretation of the data we perceive. Existence is an absolute. We exist. Even if we think our lives are actually the projection of a computer program inside a fantastic matrix, something absolutely exists. Change is another unavoidable absolute. Today you live on earth, one day you will not.

Absolutes require a foundation to sustain them, a source from which they came. The sustaining foundation has to have the same characteristics of the absolute or it cannot generate the absolute. For example, if something doesn’t exist, it cannot support existence. If something doesn’t move, it cannot generate movement, dynamism.

God is what we call this source, and God has the characteristics of all absolutes. This is not necessarily a religious God, it is simply the word for that which generates and sustains absolutes.

Thus far, this description of God is abstract and relatively uninteresting. But there are more absolutes to consider that expand our idea of God. Most see logic as an absolute in the sense that it defines the structure of thought and comprehension. Therefore, God is logical. Our human self-awareness is another absolute. I exist therefore I am. God must also be conscious and self-aware.

Philosophers throughout the ages have reached this same conclusion. Descartes requires God in order to justify mathematical truths. Leibniz needs God as a way to explain the pre-established harmony between our perception and reality. Bergson’s God is the God of creative evolution. Aristotle points to God as the Unmoved Mover to begin all movement. Even Kant relies on God for explanation of the moral life.(1)

The more we discover the absolutes of our universe on which even science agrees, the more we learn about and define the attributes of God. Is decision-making an absolute? I believe so. If God were unable to make decisions in a dynamic environment, there would be an even higher absolute controlling God. So, sentience and a dynamic environment implies choice. Choice, or at least the perception of choice, is another absolute. If humans can make decisions, then we can make choices contrary to what God would choose. Such choices introduce pain and evil, which are not absolutes but the consequence of choices.

This journey of reasoning about the existence and interplay of absolutes helps to demonstrate both the reality of God and many aspects of God’s character, as far as it goes. This line of reasoning has its limit at the boundary between fact and faith.

Ramification: God embodies the absolutes of our universe. No finite being can alter them. Ignoring these absolutes does not nullify their truth or their importance for you. The more you appreciate the God of absolutes and align your views with God’s, the closer you come to an eternally meaningful experience.

Proposition: Contemplate absolutes and discover more about God. Share the truth of God with others, so that we can all appreciate our meekness compared to an infinite being. Such humility will contribute to a more harmonious society.