The Silence of God

A random thought for today – the silence of God.

Warning: This is a random thought, which typically is going to mean that I have not developed the concepts and claims stated below as thoroughly enough to put forth a compelling argument. Nonetheless, it was an idea I had which I would like to explore briefly and that someone else may build upon to use for himself.

I have been engaged in a study of the Problem of Evil in the last few weeks. I have been reading various essays and books from both sides of the issue, as is necessary if one is going to be a well-rounded and, to put it plainly, responsible Christian apologist. So far my favorite paper on the issue has been Paul Draper’s formulation using Bayesian probability theory to show that pain and suffering are less surprising on the hypothesis that God does not exist than on the hypothesis that He does exist. I, of course, disagree with his hypothesis, but nonetheless find it at least as compelling as the counterarguments of the theists I have read.

In the future I will be posting some of my own thoughts on this topic, but right now I am reading C.S. Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain and a point he makes struck me as being particularly interesting though unrelated (for the most part) to the POE. Between pages 27-29 Lewis explores the notion of what conditions are necessary in order for beings that are self-conscious to exist. He essentially elucidates a claim that I have heard elsewhere, which is that in order for knowledge to be possible a duality must exist of a knower and a knowee. That is, if a self-conscious and personal being is to have knowledge then it must exist and be the thing that knows, and then something else must exist and be the thing that is known. This is an important precondition of knowledge and a problem fortunately solved by the Christian formulation of the Trinity wherein God exists in eternity as a unity of three persons.

But these are side-notes to introduce the observation which I wish to make – that is they are a context to put it in. Lewis makes what I think is a very interesting observation in noting that if two human minds were to exist without some kind of separate ontological instantiation of each mind by itself, then it would be impossible for the two minds to tell each other apart. To put this in non-technical language, if two human minds somehow existed in a sort-of disembodied state in which the thoughts of both minds were immediately present to each other, then one mind could not distinguish between its own thoughts and those of its neighbor. Thus they would both be unaware of the other mind’s existence.

Now, as regards God and our interacting with Him, a similar situation might occur when we wish for God to speak to us more directly. This is why I have titled this short piece as the silence of God, because it seems to be a problem for Christians – very much including myself – that sometimes we wish God would speak directly to us and yet He doesn’t. Well, if Lewis’ speculations concerning the nature of two disembodied minds are correct, then if God speaks to us directly into our thoughts – as seems to be the case considering that few of us have heard Him speak audibly – then it is very difficult for us to distinguish God’s words from our own thoughts. Indeed, this is precisely what Lewis says when he observes that, “You may reply, as a Christian, that God (and Satan) do, in fact, affect my consciousness in this direct way without signs of ‘externality.’ Yes: and the result is that most people remain ignorant of the existence of both,” (27). Again, Lewis is talking about direct communication of God to us through our thoughts, and he says that we in fact confuse God’s thoughts with our own, and Satan’s thoughts with our own (which I think is about the only way to make sense of demon possession in the Bible, although that is another topic).

So I tentatively put forth a hypothesis that God does speak directly to us less than we might desire, though not because He does not have want to be present in our lives, but because He uses other human beings to speak to us, in order to teach us regarding Him, His will, our own lives, etc. as the issues are essentially unlimited. A reason He might do this is because if He were simply to tell us what to do then we would confuse His words with our own thoughts and be acting upon what we believed to be our own ideas that we had assented to when in fact they were God’s. Thus there would actually be no choice for God necessary, because He would be bombarding us with thoughts and thus controlling – or very nearly controlling – our behavior.

To state more clearly the point that I am making, allow me to invent a practical example whereby the unfolding of this process might be seen to take place. Say that you were praying to God for a job. In searching the newspapers, internet, and talking with friends, a few potential job offers come your way. At this point you could go with whichever job you had been offered, but you were unsure of which one it was that God desired for you to have. So you consult family and friends over the possibilities and eventually arrive a decision which, insofar as you are able to discern, is where God wants you. Absolute certainty you may not have, but you are about as sure as you can be under the circumstances.

In the situation described above, God could have put into your mind a thought along the lines of, “I am going to choose job X because of Y.” Now, if you had acted on this thought, where would the deliberation and assent to God’s will have been necessary on your part? What actual choice for God would have been necessary? Through the use of other people in your life God can speak just as clearly to you without having to directly interfere with your mental processes to make you do His will. In praying to Him, He may not speak audibly or put the thoughts directly into your head as you might wish, because this would be much easier, but again that would eliminate the need for you to actually choose the particular direction He wishes for you to go. Indeed, it might call into question whether or not Christians can be said to have free will. And since God does not seem to interfere with our free will except on a very rare occasion, then His lack of direct communication is perhaps not so unexpected.

Now, with all that I have said I believe that many problems arise. Nonetheless, I think it is still a possible interpretation of God’s seeming silence during our times of seeking His will, and I hope that it might be useful to someone out there.