The Unknown God

I’m taking five courses in my 4A term at UW, one of which is a required course for all RS majors: RS 260, also known as The Study of Religion. The entire course is about HOW we are to study religion (as an aside, I’m one of those who would argue that Christianity is not just another "religion" as the term has come to mean, and thus the course name unsettles me from the get-go—but I’ve found there’s no sense in arguing it—if I’m going to study Christianity at a secular school, I’m going to need to get over it).

The first chapter of the textbook for the course outlines E.B. Tylor’s theory of religion. It’s an anthropological take on things and tries to explain how we as humans have not only evolved physically, but spiritually. Tylor states that we began by noticing that we seemed to have “another self”, seen in dreams. This then progressed to the assumption that we have a soul. Then animism comes into play where according to Tyler we ascribed these “unseen spirits” to plants, animals, and abiotic factors as well. Five assumptions later (and I do mean assumptions—it reads: “And then we must have...”) and we’ve made our way to monotheism.

Okay, so I’m going to be honest, I’m not convinced. But I’m also not here to just slam my textbook, the class and all it presents. Same with evolution. I’ve been led to the point of stating simply that God is sovereign and created how He created, and I don’t think we’ll know the intricacies of that work until we stand before Him. Ultimately, what He actually did is the truth. Will we know exactly what He did? No amount of scientific speculation, nor printed historical record could ever give us the full picture of His majesty as Creator anyway. I guess you could say that I sit comfortably on a rather wide fence.

Tangent alert! Back to Tyler’s theory.

Do I think it’s bogus? Yup.

Do I think his observations are invalid? Not in the slightest.

To give a little context, Tyler researched the religious practises of primitive peoples (I use the term loosely) and published a few books in his career. On the whole, this animism theory was apparently big stuff back when anthropology wasn’t a defined discipline.

Although his theory served as disproof of God for many, I can’t help but be all the more convinced of my Maker’s greatness. And frankly, this happens in most of my classes whether they’re talking about atheism, Krishna, Buddha, or the Lord Himself. Our amazing Creator has left His mark on all of humanity and over history we’ve taken note. There is clearly a deep desire in all humans to seek after God. Hypothetically, if Tylor is right and primitive peoples did made all those assumptions then all we have is an amazing God who reveals Himself to all people and has been guiding our discovery of who He is all along. We’ve all noticed Him. We all have the instinct to seek after more for a reason.

So really, all these attempts to explain away God because we can see a process of revelation is absurd to me. The process we see we've assumed is one of our own volition. What if it’s been God revealing Himself? After all, if we don't praise Him rocks would still cry out. If He is who He claims to be (ahem, God Almighty) then shouldn't His presence be pervasive throughout all the world, all basic human longing, the desire for Whom started waves of searching for answers? What I mean is that we as humans have clearly always been looking for Him. In all sorts of places.

Here’s my point (I think). I believe that Jesus is who He claims to be: The Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that all other answers to our fundamental questions for meaning (religions) are null and void by way of that proclamation. 

God shows Himself to be true by an imprint on every human heart. Regardless of how we try to explain it. Before there’s a stamp on a baptismal certificate or a signature below a doctrinal statement, our great God has laid eternity in the human heart, and none can fathom what He has done from beginning to end. Our observation of such doesn’t mean He’s not there. He's behind everything that we’re seeing. 

These are the waters I get to navigate. Endless explanations and no answers. Thankfully, God has proven that it’s always better to take my study to Him and lay what I’ve been told at His feet. After all, He is the ultimate authority on Himself.

Scriptures for thought

^“While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.  A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”  When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council.  Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11