Question:
If there were a god that wanted to keep hidden from me, would it be tantamount to blasphemy for me to seek him?
anonymous
2016-02-23 11:49:54 UTC
Either way, I figure it's best to not believe a god exists... either because none exist, or else the ones that do exist hide all the evidence from me because they don't want me to know they exist (and I wouldn't want to upset any existing gods by ruining all their efforts at keeping hidden through trickery and deceit).

Pascal would have loved that one.
Twelve answers:
username_hidden
2016-02-23 12:59:03 UTC
That's a more interesting argument than many I've seen on here, but I think it would only work for an imperfect God, not for a perfect one. A perfect God who wished to be hidden would be able to hide perfectly, so no matter how hard you searched your risk of finding him would be zero, and his concern that you might accidently find him would be zero.



Furthermore, a God who wished to remain perfectly hidden would not merely hide himself, but would hide the very concept of God from our understandings, because knowing that something might be is a necessary precursor to looking for it. So the fact that we are discussing God implies that a perfect God is not trying to hide from us.
anonymous
2016-02-23 13:50:44 UTC
Truly the true God is not hiding from you or anyone else. You are just missing him. Be careful with blasphemy because there is an unforgivabe sin, remember Judas Iscariot. Zephaniah 2:3 tells us to "seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, Who observe the righteous decrees. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you will be concealed on the day of Jehovah's anger." God wouldn't tell us to seek him and at the same time he hide from us. When Jesus was on the earth he left an example of prayer for us. Matthew 6:9,10 is instruction for prayer Jesus gave us to follow. First, Jesus let us know that prayer is a private matter between you and God. Second, we are to pray to God alone and no one else. Verse 7 says that we are not to say the same things over and over again. Meaning prayer is from the heart and not from a piece of paper or book of someone else's words. It is important to follow that guideline because we are talking to God about our individual situation and we are all different. Prayer is very important because it is our method of conversation with him. Psalms 65:2 says "O Hearer of prayer...". God is the hearer of prayer. Matthew 6:9-13 is a model prayer that men have taken and recite as their own prayer. But remember Jesus said not to say the same things over and over. So that written prayer must be something else or else Jesus was contradicting. That written prayer is an example of what we should be praying for. (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16,17) First we are to acknowledge God as the Almighty whose name is Jehovah. Then we spill out our hearts to him. But in recognition that Jesus died for us we end our prayer "in your Son's name Christ Jesus". If you don't end respectfully acknowledging Jesus then the prayer is in vain.

JW.org
Hal
2016-02-23 12:06:47 UTC
It would not be trickery or deceit though if you didn't know much math because you thought it was useless and didn't learn much of it -- that's a very common condition. Now, if I wanted to learn about math (or astrophysics, etc.) I would certainly not go to a site that is anti-math in order to learn math, *nor would I go to a place that makes math into a chore without joy and wonder and interest*.
Linda
2016-02-23 12:05:13 UTC
God is not hiding from anyone. He is clearly visible not only in the incredible things He created but in the bible He had written for you to read.



He can also be seen in any kingdom hall of Jehovah's witnesses where over 8,000,000 humans from all backgrounds live in peace and love and perfect harmony.
Lodar of the Hill People
2016-02-23 11:53:07 UTC
Does science work by intentionally not seeking answers? No? Then why apply that method in this context? If we pretend that nothing exists that we don't know about, we would have an entirely different view of the world.
anonymous
2016-02-23 12:02:04 UTC
It wouldn't necessarily be tantamount to blasphemy, but he wouldn't like you doing it.
?
2016-02-23 12:24:10 UTC
would you worship a god that keeps hidden from you ?

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence

I refuse to believe in a god that would send me to hell just for not believing in him.
?
2016-02-23 12:07:13 UTC
Makes sense. Or perhaps the gods want us not to believe so that they can justify torturing us forever.



@ Lodar. Science is not thought to have any view on what humans should or should not do. Gods on the other hand are easily upset (apparently).
anonymous
2016-02-23 12:23:57 UTC
Yes, God is hiding in plain sight. the evidence is there, you, like so many choose to ignore it or just plain not accept it.



2 Corinthians 4:3-5New King James Version (NKJV)



3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.
Uncle Remus 54
2016-02-23 12:14:25 UTC
God is not hiding from you. The truth is there for you to see, hear, and touch. Only the spiritually blind you cannot see it there. The truth is always "hidden" in plain sight.
issac
2016-02-23 12:18:41 UTC
That's a new one... I like it.



For the sake of answering the question and not breaking any rules.... Yes I think it would be.
anonymous
2016-02-23 12:59:31 UTC
The downside to that approach would be if God isn't obscuring Himself, but instead is being obscured by the self-imposed limitations of languages that were developed by humans with strong partiality or favoritism towards only one type of intellect, level of perceived intelligence or way of expressing thoughts. This is actually the explanation given in the Bible for why people fail to perceive God and lose faith in His existence.



The reasoning of the Bible is this:



If God does not exist, you will find no separate system of steadily increasing reward proportionate to your increasing belief in His existence, as promised by scripture itself. The terrible downside to choosing not to search at all is an obvious and broad road to terminal destruction, (Matthew 7:13-14), ending with the lineage deaths of everyone inside of the evil system while they each remain aloof to their own destruction. Jesus calls the separate evil system 'mamonas', (Matthew 6:24), after the 'god' of abject greed which blinds its devotees to its existence and to their own self-destruction.



From this perspective, your philosophical approach is tantamount to not wanting to upset the force that is already relentlessly destroying you, or alternatively, letting yourself be destroyed instead of choosing not to upset the only God who has promised to rescue you. I suppose that the key to all of this would be in searching diligently against the momentum of your own self-destruction for a single glimpse of this destruction actually happening, thus temporarily piercing through the supposed blindness being created by the first 'god,' thereby accepting the initial reward of sight from the second God. This would display Christ's perspective to you and allow you to interpret for yourself what He was actually describing. If science has no answer to explain it, you might want to seriously reconsider your entire philosophy.



Consider for a moment why your fellow man's embrace of a godless universe does not abjectly horrify you. The foundational cosmic narrative of science has inspired faithless humans to trap themselves inside of an inescapable arms race that immediately gobbles up the bulk of the world's resources precluding any possibility of a sustainable world peace; it has led to the production of poorly secured machines of mechanized death which has dragged them into world wars and cycles of grand scale genocide; it has led to the advent of weapons of mass destruction which have already been tested and used on civilian populations while representing an ongoing and looming threat to everyone else; it has led to a global system of pervasive poisoning called 'mega-industry' that is unleashing unprecedented diseases with no cures and only economically inaccessible 'torture treatments'; it has led to exponential increases in states of existential dread, drug abuse and fatal overdoses, suicides and murders, sudden inexplicable violence, exponentially expanding asymmetrical violence, widespread negligence and needless accidents, gender confusion and psychological chaos, sexual sterility, (both emotional and physical), millions dead from sexual diseases, poor and constantly shifting understandings of complex chemicals and drugs, unpredictable and unmanageable disasters, millions incarcerated and tortured or deviantly raped in the interest of 'justice,' lawless sprawling ghettos funded by government taxation steadily advancing through the 'protected art' of sexual perversion media and gang recruitment media, and on and on...



That is only a glimpse through the haze being created by the 'god' Jesus called 'mamonas' and which modern people now call 'progress.' The God of the Bible explains to us that this evil system maintains itself using 'kategoria' (Greek: 'dividing titles'), from which we derive our English word 'categories.' They are what modern people now call 'social demographics.' These represent our membership in the evil system. By rejecting them and returning to our individual non repeating identity and personal calling from God, we enter through what Jesus calls the 'narrow gate' of escape, (Matthew 7:13-14). We cannot be manipulated as a 'gay' or a 'straight' a 'black' or a 'white' if our identity is unique from all others. We receive none of the promised rewards but we also suffer no losses. We remain safe unless we join in and participate in the viewpoints which make us expendable. We exist just outside of the tandem dramas of government and criminal enterprise. We are largely ignored. It is here we find individual liberty and the rewards of a separate system, 'hidden' from us by our own initial lack of belief in its existence and then further obscured by our social demographic assignments. Once abandoned, we can see again and the God of the Bible becomes real, becomes able to reward and is willing to do so---beginning with the natural liberty of remaining uniquely uncategorized and undefinable by government or criminal powers.



Remaining inside of this system requires a direct natural genius which the Bible calls 'faith.' Those who endure and remain there, despite the powerful pressures to return to the broad road, develop steadily increasing evidence of God's existence and His rewards---which remain unique to each person but also predictably fulfilling and able to keep actual human lineages safe from the otherwise certain growing extinction that surrounds them. Jesus tells us that only the 'meek' lineages will ultimately survive history's gauntlet, (Matthew 5:5), since these are the only lineages to embrace the safety of direct natural genius and reject the various offers to experiment and explore 'greater mysteries' at the expense of others. In the end, those experiments all lead to the same place.



The impartial language of sacred allegory is how the 'meek' are able to receive this natural genius. It is flexible and dynamic rather than rigid and partial towards any one type of intellect or expression of learning. It is like an 'orchestral' language that includes all equally and welcomes every voice as long as each voice is humble enough to accept that it is not the 'dominant' voice and does not represent its own separate path to 'better' mysteries. That would include your voice, as long as you are humble enough not to discount the many other voices that say that God does exist and is willing to reward those who diligently seek Him.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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