Religion

What is all this mystery about God? The secrecy? If the guy exists, why doesn't he show himself - VISUALLY - to us? Anne, age 13

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Perhaps he does, but not in the way that ordinary people show themselves to each other. After all, I believe in your existence but all I have as evidence is your message to the group. Does the fact that you are not visually present to me make you mysterious? I don't think so, and believers often claim to find evidence of God's presence in the everyday world around us. I would turn the question around and ask you why you think sight is so significant. Do you only believe things you can directly see? If so, then you surely fail to believe many things that normally are believed by human beings. That does not mean you are wrong, of course, but it does mean that most of the rest of us are, since for most people existence does not depend on visibility.

"Ok, ok," says Anne, "fair point. But I guess I'm not really hung up about the visual thing. A booming voice from the sky would do. Or even a few more signs like burning bushes in the Moses story. But something in your face and unmissable. Sure, people say they have evidence of God. But why does this 'evidence' all seem so flakey and disputable? If God really exists and is all-powerful and all that, why doesn't he make his own existence just obvious to us?"

Warming to her theme, Anne might continue: "Some people go on and on about the bible being the word of God. But why should I believe that if I don't already believe in God? Some people talk about religious experience. But what people 'experience' seems to depend on what they already believe (after all, Tibetan monks don't have visions of the Virgin Mary do they?). And some people claim to find evidence of God's presence in the everyday world around us. Like in all the disease and suffering? Or like when they make up dodgy creation myths? I'm not impressed! So, as I said, why -- if he really exists and cares and wants us to believe in him -- doesn't he show himself downright indisputably?"

Which I think is a pretty good question, Anne. True, theologians over the centuries have given stories in answer to awkward questions like this -- trying to 'explain' why God allows so much evil the world (despite his goodness and infinite power), and why God mysteriously hides himself, and so on. Frankly, the answers have always seemed pretty weak double-think and special pleading to me. But don't take my word for it. You are more than old enough to start doing some serious reading and thinking for yourself. Try, for example, Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion which is both a fun read and stuffed full of arguments (I'm not saying that they are all good ones!). Get your friendly local believers to recommend some pro-God book which equally aims to give arguments (not just make assertions like "take it on faith"). Try to think it all through and work out which arguments are strong ones, and follow the arguments where they lead.

Well, a philosopher would say that, wouldn't he?

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