Three Elevators
Can I expect God to provide some kind of clear evidence of His existence? My Christian friends say that is asking demanding too much of God. They say that I am being arrogant to make this kind of demand on God.
There are Gods from approximately 7000 religions on the planet. Let me make it easier: Lets say I know about three Gods: Zeus, Odin, and Yahweh. Each of them has a significant amount of mythological lore about them.
Does it matter which I worship? I am told by Christians that I must accept Yahweh (a.k.a. Jesus) as my personal savior otherwise I won’t be saved. If Yahweh ends up being the *real* God, then worshiping Odin would result in eternal damnation. In other words, kinda really bad. So, let’s assume it matters that I pick the right one.
Does God Care? Again, the Christians insist that God does in fact love every single human being, even a poor wretch like me. So let’s assume that God does care.
Then: if it matters which I believe to be God, and if God cares, then it falls as a requirement that He make it clear which God is the correct God. How he does this does not matter, and since we also presume he is omnipotent then we conclude that He certainly can find a way to make it clear which God is the right one to worship. Anything short of being absolutely clear to me is a failure to communicate, and would be falling short of what a caring God would do.
The Christians tell me: no, you are demanding too much of this God. You are arrogant to make such a demand. You can not make demands of such magnificence.
I make no demand at all. There is no arrogance. Let me explain by way of an analogy
Elevators and Ethics
Let's say in a tall building, there are three elevator shafts. Two of them are not functional. If you enter them, you will fall 50 stories to your death. Only the third one has a car there and will safely transport you. The hitch is: you have to choose the door you will go through before door opens. So, you don’t have the luxury of being able to check whether there is a car there when the doors open. Whichever door you choose, you will go though, and if you choose the wrong one you will die.
Imagine you live in that building. Maybe you know which elevator is safe, but you also know there are other visitors to the building on a regular basis. Because you live there, and because you know of the grave danger, you are morally obligated to put some kind of clear sign as a warning to others. The dangerous shafts must have a sign saying clearly that they are dangerous in enough detail to make it clear, and the safe one must be clearly marked as being safe.
Let’s think about the morals. I am saying that every person who walks by the elevator shaft knowing that there is grave danger, and knowing that people might easily take the wrong one by mistake, is morally obligated to make sure that they are clearly marked. It would be immoral to know about the situation, and to not do anything. I dare say that everyone one of you reading this would take some effort to mark them. It would similarly be immoral to refuse to do that on the basis that your neighbor should do it.
It would be even more morally reprehensible for the builder of the building to fail have them marked adequately. Especially if that builder was omnipotent. But the real point is this: any normal human being who knew the danger would take it upon themselves to clearly mark the dangerous buttons.
It would not be sufficient to make a warning, but place it in a locked filing cabinet in the basement. You are morally required to do more than just try to let people know, but you must take steps to make sure that everyone knows. You would stretch “danger” tape across it. You would try to cover the button so it can not be accidentally pressed. You would mark it in a way that anybody speaking any language, and even blind people, would be clearly warned of the danger with unambiguous markings.
Any one of us would do that in that situation.
Unreasonable Demand?
The Christians tell me that demanding that God clearly give evidence of which God as the right God is an unreasonable demand. This is like saying it is unreasonable to demand that the elevator shafts be properly labeled.
I don’t demand that the elevator shafts be labeled. Not at all. I am saying that any person with a shred of moral fiber and who knew of the problem would clearly mark them. Their failure to mark them is a complete failure to act in a moral manner. Sure, I might demand they act morally, but this is not an unreasonable demand. They would not be doing it because of my demand, but because any moral human being would do this.
Everybody understands this: you can not simply let such a dangerous situation persist. Every one of us knows in our hearts that we are morally obligated to prevent people from accidentally hitting the wrong button. This is the morality of mere mortals.
If it matters which God you worship, and if God cares about everyone, then God is morally obligated to clearly let each and every person know of proof of who the real God is. .
This is not a demand on God at all. It is simply a moral obligation that any morally responsible being would understand.
Free Will
The next argument from Christians is that if God revealed himself clearly, then mankind would not be able to have free will. This is basically saying: if God clearly marked the elevator shafts then you would not have free will to choose. Here you go: “Pick door 1, 2, or 3 and I am not going to tell you which one is safe because it would interfere with your free will.” This is ridiculous of course.
Given no indication of the choice, 2/3 of all people will freely choose death, while 1/3 will get lucky. That is not free will, that is either randomness, or it is manipulation. You are not free to choose the right path, if you are not informed of the right path.
Free will can only be effective if properly informed. When not informed, it can not be considered your will anyway.
Faith
Faith is no help either. Imagine a small group of people in front of each door. Each group tells you that only their elevator shaft is the safe one. But they don’t really know because they can’t see in there. You visit and see three doors with three groups each telling you to accept what they say on faith. Which do you go with: the ones that yell the loudest? Do we have any assurance that the loud yelling ones are right?
This is the problem with Christians who say that God informs you through Christian outreach. God knows that picking a faith without clear distinction between the right faith and the wrong faith is just as bad a not picking a faith.
Free will can only be effective if properly informed. When not informed, it can not be considered your will anyway.
Reflections
I make no demands of God. If there was a God, I would be . . . very humble. I am a tiny thing in the midst of a enormous universe, and my feeble understanding of the cosmos would be no match. Given clear evidence of God, I would follow any request.
However, the fact that there are 7000 religions tells you that there are plenty of people on the planet who do not have a clear understanding about God. Given that there is no clear proof for God, only one of these must be true:
- There is no God.
- There is a God but it does not matter whether you accept Him or not.
- There is a God, you must accept Him, but He does not love everyone.
These are the only possibilities. The fourth possibility, that He exists, it matters, and He loves everyone is possible only if there is clear proof of God available to everyone. The multiplicity of religions rules that out, so only the three above are possible. I make no demands on God, I see this as simply the undeniable logic about moral behavior.
I would be delighted if you can show me where my logic is wrong.