Evidence for God
September 27, 2009
I was looking at Ayn Rand on YouTube and rather enjoying her personality. And saw her refutation of God and liked that too. She said, that while it is impossible to prove a negative - to prove the non-existence of fairies, say - she does not and we should not believe in God since there is no proof of his existence. If there were no evidence for the existence of God then I would agree. Donahue, the interviewer, then pointed out the order in the world. She countered by saying that it makes no sense to postulate a ordering mind, an order outside the order. We see the order, and the chance, and try and understand the order, but there is no reason to assume that there must be a something outside the order that we see that creates that order. This seemed fair enough to me too.
I would not say that I believe in God exactly. But I do think that there is some evidence for the belief in God, these are:
1) Testimony of others, over wide time frames and geographical locations
2) Behaviour of others that seems to suggest the existence of non-self-cantered motivations (altruism, "good")
3.1) Ones own adherence, and the adherence of atheists, to being honest non-contradictory and reasonable. All atheists should be self-interested, and therefore part-time, at least death-bed, theists.
3.2) The very existence of my own reason, or its nub-come-nexus: self-speech. Why am I, we, you doing it?
1) That many people believe in God. I think that normally, if a lot of people testify to something then it is not unreasonable to see that as evidence. Of course, I can think of lots of reasons for ignoring their testimony. The biggest one is perhaps that there are so many different gods. Thor, Allah, Yahweh, Zeus? They all seem to say that theirs is the only one. But all the same, from a detached viewpoint, it seems that there is a commonality between the testimony - e.g. a supernatural creator - that should make the objective analyst give pause. If one were investigating a crime scene for instance and found that witnesses were saying different things about what happened (as I believe they do) but they had a commonality in their testimony, then ordinarily one might think, there is something in, some truth behind, the testimony.
2) The existence of altruism. Ayn Rand seems to dislike it. Why do people seem to sacrifice themselves? Why do people go in for good and evil as objective standards, rather than pursue only their self interest? Ayn Rand saw this as a disease, something that should be eradicated. But all the same, it is evidence that people do believe in some objective standard. C.S. Lewis, argued from this evidence, that people who believe in good believe in God. I think that C. S. Lewis was right. It seems to me that there are loads of people including myself going around behaving in, from a objectivist point of view, strangely altruistic, and moral ways. Again I think that is evidence for the existence of God. Naturally like point (1) above one can think of other reasons why people believe in Gods (even though they do not exist) and behave altruistically (weakness). The evidence can be explained in other ways. But the evidence remains.
Taking the first two points...and returning to the invisible elephant. If one came into a room, or the world, where one could see no elephant but (1) there were lots of people saying "There is an invisible elephant (Yahew)" or "There is an invisible hippo (Thor)" (2) There were lots of people avoiding certain behaviours (as if they might get squashed), then it seems unfair to say that there is *no* evidence. There is evidence. But one can interpret it in ways that suggest that the people are wrong.
(3) Attitudes towards and Existence of Reason
Ayn Rand is big on reason. There are two parts to this. The first (relates to 2 above) is about Ayn Rand’s attitude and behaviour towards reason, the second to the phenomenology and behaviour of reason itself.
(3.1) Did Ayn Rand have the courage of her convictions? Did she behave in a self-centered way? It seems that Ayn Rand upheld reason in a way that is a bit strange. I get this vibe from a lot of atheists. What is it about reason that Ayn Rand felt the desire to uphold? For example, even if she saw no reason for believing in God, but she was pissed off, dying, in need of some comfort, why did she stick with reason? Why be honest? Why ask for evidence, as reason does? She seems to base her philosophy on reason and self-interest, but aren't the two in conflict? Isn't it self-interested to believe in a fairy or two? Why not allow ones to be deluded, to delude oneself? Sure in a lot of cases one gets out of touch and suffers the consequences. But dying people, people with few realistic options, why should they stick with reason? If they were self interested then why would bother? Reason (whatever it is) would on the face of it seem to be a tool of self-interest. If so then when self-interest dictates that unreason is less stressful, why uphold it? This seems to be mystical behaviour. Thus in Ayn Rand's own behaviour there seems to be an unreasonably reasonable element. It seems altruistic to reasonable in the face of self-interest.
Hence, I think that Ayn Rand should have seen in her own behaviour evidence for an non-self-interested constraint upon her own behaviour. Reason is something that takes place in the mind, I presume. So I suggest that Ayn, and anyone that is into being honest for honesty's stake, or non-contradictory for non-contradiction's sake, should recognise that they are presenting evidence for the existence of non-self interested other in mind, in other words, a supernatural other, hippo, Thor.
Some counter this with some sort of liar's paradox gambit saying "It is impossible to be unreasonable (reasonably?)" but Ayn knows that there are so many people that are "weak" that do live unreasonably, surely she could do it too. Perhaps she should have said "I do not believe in God, unless or until it is more enjoyable to do so." That I could go for. But remaining reasonable to the end, hanging on to reason for reason’s sake? Surely that is mystical and evidence for God, evidence that the seems to be overlooking.
(3.2) But is reason a tool? What is reason anyway? It seems to me that reason is very linked with language. Reason seems to be the application of language to life, taking language seriously, expressing ones self and ones world in non contradictory ways. Reason at the end of the day seems to be about respecting ones self speech. I have already questioned the "respect" given to reason in (3.1) but here (3.2) I mean to question the existence of the self speech itself. Why do reason, or why talk to oneself at all? I think that the answer to the question, also answers why people respect reason, and also provides evidence for the existence of an intra psychic (in the mind, in the head) other, and thus a rhino (if not an elephant).
As Derrida says speech is on the face of it, a communicative activity. Communication usually requires an information gap. Being reasonable, when we are not engaging in phatic greetings, and needs to pour out our troubles, we speak, out loud that is, to communicate some information that we have that someone else does not have. But when it comes to self-speech, then there is no gap. What can I say that I do not know? Reasonably, there is something unreasonable about the existence of self-speech. Why are we doing it? Why don't we just quit this self-speaking thing? Since I can convey or communicate nothing to myself (a self contradiction) then it is unreasonable, strange, mystical of me to be doing it.
There seems to be something in my experience, not the unreliable testimony of others, that has no clear explanation.
Okay, merely because I do something for which I can see no clear explanation does not mean that I should see that as evidence for the existence of God. I like Elvis Presley, but that proves nothing. When it comes to self-speech, however, it is like that the room with with the "invisible elephant" with people in it that avoid certain areas of the room. One goes into the room and finds that everyone is avoiding the central aisle of the room. They say there is an invisible elephant in the room. These two facts, avoiding the central isle, and saying there is an elephant, are internally consistent. As is believing in God and behaving altruistically. Aha, one says, they are wrong about both things. But then one finds that oneself keeps on saying *to nobody in the room* "Tsk, Tsk" as if there is an elephant there. Doesn't the reasonable person say, ooops, it seems as if I believe there is an elephant in the room myself?
Have you every tried stopping your own self-speech? Or even asking yourself why you are doing it? Why not quit? Why is it so difficult to quit? It seems to me that self-speech is a behaviour could be explained by the existence of god. It could be explained upon the assumption that, one self-speaks not so that one hears ones self-speech oneself (that would be silly, unreasonable), but so that some other intra-psychic entity, someone else inside ones head, may also hear it.
I can see no reasonable reason for my self-speech other than my own, at times unrecognised, belief that someone hears that speech. And what is a god if not another person that can hear inside ones own head? That being would have to be supernatural. Communication implies an other. I do a would be communicative act in my head. This implies that I believe in an other in my head, an other in my mind, a supernatural other.
Let us say that Ayn Rand, RIP and anyone unfortunate enough to read this blog were to agree: "Okay, self-speech does imply the belief in an other in the mind," this too would not prove the existence of God. But it would be evidence. Testimony of others (1), and behaviour of others (2) is easier to reinterpret. But when it is oneself that is doing the weird behaviour, then that is fairly strong evidence.
Back to the crime scene. A detective believes that a crime has not been committed. He speaks to people who were at the "supposed crime scene" and they all say that there was a crime but none of them can agree exactly as to what the crime was. They all say it was a murder, but none of them can agree on the details. They all avoid the place where there crime was committed. But, no body is found. The detective thinks, "Yeah, these people are all nuts, they are not being reasonable." But then the detective gets cold shakes whenever he goes to the place where the crime was said to have been committed. He starts screaming (our self-speech is so loud, in here) "No, no, nooo," as if he were reliving the crime that he believes was not committed. Then shouldn't he start to worry? Shouldn't he say, okay the other people may all be nuts, but for some reason I am behaving as if I saw a crime here too.
Do I believe in God? Yes and no. I am an a sort of "other-power" Buddhist.
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