Essay by: Bryan Harrison
Subject: God, Religion, Knowledge

God and Knowledge of God

Can we know God? Well, some people claim that they have seen him, or heard his voice, or touched his finger, or seen his mother, Mary, in a photograph, or have had some experience that has given them proof that God exists. They go out and tell everyone of their experience only to get bashed into with scores of doubting heathens (everyone who has not had the same experience). The guy says, "Well, I just turned in to the alley, and there he was… floating around in midair, saying, ‘You must go out and eat seven flies from seven spider webs.’ And then he takes off on this pillar of light saying, ‘Then you will be healed, my son.’" He fails to mention that he was on his twentieth dose of acid at the time. This guy truly believes that he has seen God, but everyone else just shoves his story behind concluding that he was on acid or something. He believes so much, that whatever happens, he will never be swayed from what he has seen, because to him, it is fact, and therefore, truth.

Many people have had an experience that they cannot solve by the original methods, and have proclaimed that God must have intervened somehow. The way that they interpret their particular experience, or experiences, depends on their knowledge of science and physics. Protagoras, an early philosopher, maintained that no man’s opinion can be said to be more correct than another, because each is the sole judge of his or her own experience. This may seem like a joke, but… A physicist, an astrologer, a biologist, and a religious youth could be sitting on a bench as a falling star streaks across the night sky. The three scientists would immediately dismiss the phenomenon as a rock colliding with the atmosphere. The youth would say it was a sign from God, and dedicate the rest of his stay here on Earth to the restoring of our old ways. This is clearly an example of using God as a scapegoat to an unexplained event. This sort of thing may happen to someone that could convince hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of people that they should throw away their TVs and telephones and plant some corn and wheat so they can live peacefully on the land.

Even in such modern day religions, none of them have yet proven that God exists. They have undoubtedly tried, and tried, but all the attempts have gone to no avail. They must rely on their own faith that there is a god, but the "Outside World" just won’t listen to their warnings of certain doom if you do not repent. The believers and non-believers have been at it for some time now and neither of them could possibly win in a court case.