Maybe God Doesn’t Want Us To Prove His Existence

By bjacobs

I recently read an article inspired by some ideas in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Basically the argument put forth is that the reason God doesn’t just prove his existence by some great sign in the sky, and the reason he doesn’t make a personal appearance to each and every one of us, is because he doesn’t want us to have 100% proof of his existence.

But that doesn’t make any sense, right?

Well, these guys propose that us believing in God is a choice we have to make, and that choice would be taken away from us if we had proof of him. Proof would basically force us all to believe in him, and God doesn’t want to force us to do that. It would be a roundabout way of making us puppets, but God wants us to be independent beings with free will.

I’ve never thought about it that way.

But then why does it have to be a choice to believe? Even if we are forced to believe, we still have the choice to obey, so then our free will would still be intact. Additionally the Bible tells us that nature reveals the existence of God, and that no one has an excuse to not believe in his existence, so in essence his creation does reveal himself already.

So why doesn’t God give us proof? Why doesn’t he show himself like a neon sign in the sky for all to see?

Maybe it’s because our idea of “proof” is so convoluted. What would proof of God’s existence look like? What would we accept? Scientific proof? I’ll address this idea of scientific “proof” in another article.

Maybe God not visiting us all and giving us proof is simply a matter of human beings being separated from God. We don’t get to experience his presence and glory in our daily lives because our world is disconnected from him.

Or maybe it’s that our relationship with God is about us going to him, and not him coming to us. We have to seek him, not stand around and demand he reveal himself to us.

Or maybe it’s a matter of God becoming mundane. It’s in our nature to get bored with what we already have figured out. No matter how amazing, once we see something every day then it becomes mundane to us. Or if everyone everywhere had an encounter with God, then these encounters become normal and mundane. If God’s existence was just another fact in the encyclopedia of common knowledge, then it would be mundane. And God is anything but mundane.

Instead, experiencing the mystery of God’s existence is a journey, one which ultimately reveals his awesome glory to those who travel it. I think it’s better that way anyway.