Transcendence and Immanence

Lecture Two

A. Origin of Our Idea of God

Belief in God has been common to humanity in all ages, nations, and conditions of life. It is practically universal. It has been and is as widespread as religion, and necessarily so, because it is fundamental to religion. There can be no religion in the exact sense of the term without the idea of God, even though that idea may be perverted.

But how did this universal idea of God come about? How did the idea of God first come into the mind of men and women? Don't feel bad if you do not come up with any answers, because most cannot come up with an answer when asked that question.

The universal idea of God has been there since the earliest recollection of time. In Genesis 1 and 2, the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, had knowledge of God. I am not sure as to the level of their knowledge of God, it may not have been as highly developed as our knowledge of God is today or it may have exceeded our knowledge of today, but they did have knowledge of God.

There are 3 theories as to the origin of the idea of God:

1. That it is an intuition

2. That it is from reasoning

3. That it is by an original divine revelation handed down by tradition.

1. Intuition - By intuition we mean that sort of knowledge that is due to that inherent energy of the mind that gives rise to certain thoughts and which is differentiated from knowledge gained by instruction from without, by reasoning, or by experience. In other words, the mind is so constituted that its nature is to recognize certain things as being true without proof or instruction.

2. Reasoning - There are those who reject the idea that our knowledge of God comes through intuition but comes about through humanity's process of reasoning. They contend that the human mind is capable of learning about God by rational processes.

3. Revelation - Simply that God revealed himself to humanity. As in Genesis 1 and 2 with Adam and Eve. With Noah, Abraham, etc. Romans 1 says that God is revealed through the works of nature.

Beyond these basic theories as to how the origin of the idea of God came to be there are several arguments as to the evidences of God's existence. There are