Who is God?

This question goes to the origin of the human experience. There are atheists who deny the existence of God and agnostics who question the existence of God. Perhaps even the most religious believer in God might at times ask this question.

I think if you question the existence of God in a material sense, there is no answer. There is no scientific method to attempt an answer. In science one makes observations or relies on the observations of others and uses logic to extrapolate answers. I have not seen an object or person or sign that would definitively prove the existence of God, but I do believe in God, and I think that is true for most people who believe in God.

Belief in God or some form of deity seems to be almost universal in various cultures in various separated places going back to prehistoric times. Why? Imagine yourself as a primitive person living in a generation that has recently developed language and the ability to communicate a rudimentary history. You now realize that there are people who are no longer living and that the absence of physically living is the fate of all humans and other living creatures including yourself. The question now arises as to what is the purpose of living, creating, progressing, with the ultimate end of nothing. In other words, is there a meaning to life? So in this primitive culture, the idea arises that there are deities who are immortal and continue to exist forever, and that perhaps a human has a soul that goes on after death in some sort of existence. But most importantly, religion gives humans a purpose for existence. Life is not just meaningless. There is a reason to live, to reproduce, to build for the future even if eventually you as an individual will not directly participate in that future. At least one can rely on one’s family line, or tribe, or country, or people with common ideals, or all of humanity to give meaning and continuity to life. Eventually, humans came across the idea of one God over all of existence rather than multiple local gods. This unitary concept of God seemed more satisfying than multiple gods for multiple functions or multiple tribes.

For me, belief in God is not a question of God’s existence but rather of God’s purpose. God’s purpose is to give meaning to the existence of the lives of humans (and other creatures) even though that existence is tragically brief. I believe that if one finds meaning in life no matter how brief, that life is not just nonsense, that accomplishments and ideas will exist after one is gone, that teaching others will continue your efforts after you are gone, that life can be enjoyed no matter how brief, then one has found God. If one considers life just a chaotic meaningless nothing, then one can pray all day and all night, and one has not found God.