Why Is It Important to Know Specific Things About God?

We may feel the hand of God in our lives--but do we really need to know specifics about the nature of God?

We may feel the hand of God in our lives--but do we really need to know specifics about the nature of God?

I was studying Chapter 1 of Gospel Principles, "Our Heavenly Father," in particular a section on the nature of God. This section concludes with a simple but deep question (p. 6):

Why is it important for us to understand the nature of God?

It is fashionable to be quite indistinct about the nature of God, to leave it all to generalities like "God is love" (which is true, but which begs the question, 'how is that so?'). We live in an age that all but revels in its ignorance about matters religious and theological. As we slowly come to realize that we live in a multicultural world, it is most stylish to deal with our religious differences by glossing over them, ignoring them, being almost wilfully ignorant of the specifics of our individual faiths (let alone anyone else's). (Those interested in checking on these claims are invited to read Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy, an excellent book for all.)

In this context, the Latter-day Saint faith seems positively old-fashioned in its insistence on specific details regarding the nature of God. We teach about the physical nature of God; the Father and the Son as separate beings; the 'mission statement' of God being to bring about our immortality and eternal life, that is, to make each of us a god--each doctrine, a positive scandal to the dominant churches of Christianity. But its not just that the details of LDS belief about God's nature are controversial; the mere fact that there are details at all seems so out of touch with the spirit of the age.

Yet this is just another instance where the spirit of the age can be seen for the ephemeral, passing fancy that it is.

Next to that question in the Gospel Principles manual--"Why is it important for us to understand the nature of God?"--I found a note that I wrote two or three years ago:

1. In understanding God's nature, we understand what our own perfected nature is.
2. We must understand the nature of the One whom we worship in order to worship God satisfactorily.

And these are surely powerful truths (although I'll just focus on the first of them here). For the Saints, God is not just the Ultimate Ground of Being, as some modern non-LDS theologians would have it; rather, God is our Ultimate Role Model. This sort of idea has powerful consequences for how human beings think of themselves, how they think of the universe and their place within it, how they behave from day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute. What we think about God makes a difference in how we think about ourselves. Of course, how we think about ourselves--our potentials, our possible futures--makes a big difference in terms of how we live, and what kind of people we become over the course of our lifetimes.

So, yes, it is important to know specific things about God. Another book by Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One, describes different ideas about God in the major religions of the world. As it happens, the Latter-day Saints have very specific and highly distinctive claims about the nature of God the Father, Jesus, and the Godhead--and the LDS scriptures describe a process whereby a person can know whether these claims are true (see, in the Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:3-5). It behooves each person to find out for herself or himself whether the LDS claims about God are true.

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[The photo is a detail of the vault of the apse of Sant Climent de Taüll in Catalonia, Italy. It was uploaded to Wikipedia by D. Bachmann, and is in the public domain because it depicts, unaltered, a piece of artwork created so long ago that its copyright has expired.]

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Does the Physical Universe Prove the Existence of God?

Does the existence of the natural world--in all its order, beauty, and variety--prove the existence of God?

I was studying this, the opening paragraph of Gospel Principles, Chapter 1, "Our Heavenly Father" (p. 5):

Alma, a Book of Mormon prophet, wrote, “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44). We can look up at the sky at night and have an idea of what Alma meant. There are millions of stars and planets, all in perfect order. They did not get there by chance. We can see the work of God in the heavens and on the earth. The many beautiful plants, the many kinds of animals, the mountains, the rivers, the clouds that bring us rain and snow—all these testify to us that there is a God.

It is important to note that "to testify" and "to witness" do not mean "to prove." The Saints and other believers sometimes act as if the existence of the physical universe somehow 'proves' that there is a Creator, and as if those who do not accept the physical universe as proof positive that God exists are somehow mendacious, stubborn, or simply dense. This is neither true nor fair.

The fact that honest, rational, intelligent people have devised ways to account for the existence of the physical universe without positing the existence of God is itself sufficient to demonstrate that the existence of the physical universe does not conclusively prove the existence of God. To say otherwise is to fall into the trap that believers so often fall into:

1. We know, spiritually, that something is true.
2. We insist that nonbelievers accept our testimony as proof that it is true.
3. By insisting that evidence- and logic-driven people accept a spiritual testimony as conclusive proof, we actually disqualify our spiritual truths from serious consideration by nonbelievers.

Far better would it be to take the prophets at their word, and put forth the existence of the physical universe as a "witness" or a "testimony" of the existence of God.

We LDS share our testimonies, for example, at Fast and Testimony Meeting. We Saints often stand as witnesses of various Gospel principles, in classes, private conversations, and so forth. But no sane Saint expects that this is somehow conclusive proof to someone else hearing that testimony or witness.

Hearing or reading someone else's testimony or witness is, in a logical sense, merely suggestive evidence. In a sense, someone else's testimony or witness is an invitation to the listener to inquire of God as to the truth of that which is testified or witnessed. For only that personal testimony, a gift of God alone, can really stand as proof of any spiritual truth.

And that is as it should be. If spiritual truths could be conclusively proved by logic, that would damn any logician or scientist (or any other rationale being) who refused to follow that truth. Besides, logic shifts according to its premises, sometimes supporting this conclusion, sometimes that. Only truth is eternal--and the final word on truth can only be instilled, with convincing power, within the heart of the seeker, by God alone. That is personal revelation, the foundation of personal testimony.

So, yes, the physical universe testifies of and gives witness of the existence of God--but it does not conclusively prove that existence. Let us believers not demean those nonbelievers who insist that the physical universe does not constitute conclusive logical proof. Rather, let us agree with them, offer the witness and testimony found in the physical universe as suggestive evidence, and then help them to gain that personal testimony through spiritual revelatory means that lead to the only conclusive proof possible in this world. (See Moroni 10:3-5.)

[The photo of Hopetoun Falls in Australia was taken by David Iliff, who posted it to Wikimedia Commons on 27 July 2005. It appears here under License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 .]

Copyright 2012 Mark Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.
Permission is hereby granted to share this content non-commercially with this author's attribution.