If God exists, why can’t we see him?

by October 14, 2011

Question: If God exists, why can’t we see him?

Answer: All of us can see God, but we need the appropriate apparatus procedure just as we would need a telescope to see a distant celestial object.

Consider the following statement of Albert Einstein, “The deeper one penetrates into nature’s secrets, the greater becomes one’s respect for God.” Let’s try to penetrate into the secrets of one of the most astonishing natural phenomena: bird migration.

The book Nature’s IQ written by two Hungarian ISKCON scientists Hornyánszky Balázs and Tasi István, gives the example of the ruby-throated hummingbird (archilochus colubris). This bird, which weights less than three grams, is the only colibri species nesting in the eastern part of North America, yet every year it flies across the Gulf of Mexico to spend its winters in Mexico and Central America – a distance of almost 1000 kilometers – without stopping for food or rest. The flight takes twenty-five hours, and to keep aloft the hummingbird flaps its wings seventy-five times per second, a total of more than six million continuous wing strokes. To have energy for this stupendous journey, the hummingbird stores surplus fat during the period preceding migration (it roughly doubles its weight to six grams). But how does the hummingbird know when it is time to fatten itself up? How does it know how to find its way accurately over the 1000 km journey? The authors convincingly show how these questions have no adequate reductionist explanations. The only reasonable explanation is that God who resides in the heart of all creatures is guiding them with a part of his own infinite wisdom

So to see God, firstly one needs to have the appropriate intellectual apparatus: a deep logical and scientific understanding of the profound order in nature along with its philosophical implications.

ISKCON scientist Dr Michael Cremo in his landmark books Forbidden Archaeology and Human Devolution explains systematically the severe theoretical and evidential problems with the present reductionist worldview of science. He also lucidly delineates the scientific basis for an alternative theistic worldview and gives the scientific process of mantra chanting that brings about the evolution of our consciousness. When our consciousness has evolved sufficiently, we can free our perception from being shackled to matter. Then we can observe and experience the spiritual realm and interact with God just as we are currently observing and experiencing the material realm and interacting with people here.

So adopting this scientific apparatus and procedure is like enhancing our vision with a spiritual telescope to see God. Are atheists who refuse to try out this experiential confirmation of the God hypothesis no less fanatical than the dogmatic clergyman who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope when told that they could themselves confirm the Copernican hypothesis?

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