James asked:

In philosophy we pose many questions that concern the existence of God. Why do we concern
ourselves with such questions when it is clearly evident that they can never be answered?

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Is it really the case that such questions can never be answered? Even if it was the case that such
questions could not be answered to everyone's satisfaction, is it not an important question? Should
we not attempt to answer important questions? Is this not why wepursue philosophy?

Perhaps the problem is that there are too many answers that are no longer convincing. What changes
in these answers is theidea of God. As we gain greater knowledge of reality, and as our mental
capacities improve, we should be able to arrive at a better answer.

Many of the answers that have been given about God have their origin in mythology. Aristotle
proposed a rational answer, based on the contingency of reality, but then he could not connect his
idea of God to that reality. The problem was that he did not have the categories of process available
to use in his explanation. He did not understand the world as the result of a process that extended
over billions of years.

We now know that the cosmos and time were initiated in the Big Bang. We can trace the process that
led from the Big Bang to the present. What we see is the self-organization of matter that ultimately
produces a life-friendly planet, Earth. Then life begins, with a DNA program that enables it to mutate
to fill all available ecological niches. Homo sapiens evolves and begins to form cultures. Human
cultures are processes of self-creation. People make cultures and cultures make people. Humans
develop in their intellectual capacities, and begin to perceive the Platonic moral oughts, forming moral
cultures. Humans develop in creativity and goodness, becoming more like some aspects of their
concepts of God.

So there appears to be a quite complex process, that began with the Big Bang. It appears to be a
process of ever increasing freedom, from the determinism of the laws of physics to the total freedom
of humans in relation to the moral law, which commands but cannot compel, as Nicolai Hartmann
noted. It is also a process of ever increasing complexity. The Big Bang did not just happen. It had to
be caused. By whom and for what purpose? Consider the evidence. A self-existent entity, a God,
could be the key to understanding what is going on.

Tony Kelly