I think that your points you make about the existence of God through the existence of the world, and of life and consciousness are good ones.
However my issue is not with the idea of there being a Creator or "Creative force", an uncaused cause, supreme consciousness etc.
In fact I believe in the mystical view of "God/Atman/Brahman/Annata/Allah" which pervades all and is exemplified by the statement "I Am".
My preferred word for that which is really unnameable - which can only be described in negatives really, according to both Pseudo-Dionysus of Areopagite and the Hindu Upanishads...
Is "Supreme Be-ing". Not "Being" the noun, but "Be-ing" the verb.
I have had many mystical experiences of oneness with this divine state and I believe that it is the same mystical experience described in Christian texts, Hindu texts, Buddhist texts and Islamic texts. In this state, all is God. All is Self (in that, the feeling of "I Am" is all, not that all is my ego or the human being that I feel myself to be). All is Divine.
I Am That I Am
Tat Tvam Asi (I Am That)
Om Namah Shivaya (Universal Consciousness is One)
Ana'l-Ḥaqq (I Am the Truth/I Am Allah)
- etc.
So if that's what people mean when they say "God" I would completely agree. I would also agree if they wanted to call it in terms like "the Universe experiencing Itself". Or if they wanted to call it "Supreme Self/Atman". Or if they wanted to call it "Not-Self/Anatta". Or if they want to describe it in scientific language of panpsychism. Or in Spinozan terms. Or Islamic terms. Or whatever they like!! If what they mean is really this communion with the All.
I actually believe that all science and all art and all music, are all explorations of Supreme Be-ing. That there is no separation between the physical and spiritual world. That the belief in separation is the illusion. God sees the sparrow fall, because God is the sparrow, and the wind, and the earth, and all things. Including you and me.
"The million masks of God" as Alan Watts said.
However I think what most atheists are talking about when they deny God is not this kind of "God which is indistinguishable from existence itself". They are talking about the "image" of God. The old man in the sky. The wrathful anthropomorphic being, the burning bush, the lake of fire - all these things are not really God, and you and I know this. Sophisticated people who understand the Bible underneath the allegories know that no one is supposed to believe that is really what God is. God is not an image, a mental idea, a word, a concept. Those things point towards the knowledge of God but can also lead people astray if they take the image to be the truth itself.
When atheists talk about God - they are thinking about the image of God, the concept of God, the human imagination of God. And of course to them it makes no sense, and can be disproven. Because it's an image. A concept. What we're trying to talk about is beyond all those things. Beyond EVERYTHING. Beyond all thought, all image, all words - all that humans have ever known or ever dreamed.
I used to be like this because I used to be an atheist. I started out as a Catholic who only knew of God through the imagery of the Bible. Then when science contradicted the imagery and words of the Bible, I discarded that and became an atheist. Then I had a spiritual awakening. Now I am a mystic who sees the truth being described in many different religious traditions - whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Pagan etc. :D
I think too many religious people fall into the trap of reification as well, they mistake the image of God (the image in their own minds I mean) with what is really being talked about.
Perhaps that's what the Bible really meant when they talked about idolatry. The mistaken idea that an image of a thing is the thing itself.
Anyway, I appreciate your writing, and I think we all have our own path to this spiritual truth. <3 Sending love to you, fellow expression of Supreme Be-ing!
