Throughout history, Christianity has led people in the search and knowledge of God. Besides, Christianity has given a true meaning to history giving it a path which leads to the one unique God who revealed Himself through salvation and His revelation through Jesus Christ (Johnson, 2015). Humans consider knowledge of God in two distinct ways. First, there is personal knowledge which is subjective and that which the believer possesses. Secondly, there is the objective knowledge that God has all things.
Humans acknowledge God through the understanding and knowledge of love. From the book of Ephesians Chapter 1 verse 4 and 5, God had chosen mankind in Jesus Christ before He founded the world, through love and thus making humans be His adopted Children through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1: 4-5 New King James Version). God knows all His children and chose them all under the sphere of love. God's love for His people is known for his election. For that reason, David says in the book of Psalms 139: 17 "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, “O God! How great is the sum of them!" (Psalms, 139: 17, New King James Version) Through this verse, David exclaims that the thoughts of God about him are wholesomely loving and great. Also, in the book of John Chapter 10, the Bible reveals that Jesus is a good shepherd who has deep knowledge of all his sheep who follow him. Because of love, Jesus sacrifices His life for the sake of his sheep and only by the love he keeps his sheep till the end. In the book of Acts 2: 23, Peter tells Christians that Christ was delivered on the cross for the knowledge of God (Acts 2: 23 New King James Version).
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Not only does the Bible reveal that God is omniscient, The Bible informs us that God's knowledge of things is very different from that of humans. Besides, the Bible reveals God as the creator, the provider, the protector, the beginning and the end. God has an absolute knowledge of everything outside of Himself. God's knowledge embraces even the things which are not significant in the eyes of man such as the number of hairs on the head of a man.
The Existence of God
Using cosmological proofs of God's existence, Christian authors argue that human intellect can acknowledge God's existence using the existence of the created world. Even with the many philosophical approaches used to explain the proofs of the existence of God, each approach leads humans to discover one absolute dimension or aspect of the reality which is God. Beginning with the contingency to the order and beauty of the world, one can only conclude that God is the beginning and the end of the universe. The incommensurability and uniqueness of God are such that none of the approaches by themselves can wholesomely complete the picture of God. Each path reaches only a particular facet that is His intelligence, providence, existence and so on.
Amongst the famously known cosmological ways, five of them are clearly elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas, who used philosophical reflections of the philosophers who came before him. For one to understand these approaches, one should have the knowledge of metaphysics. The first way uses the understanding of the unmoved mover. In which according to metaphysics, nothing can move unless it is moved by a prior mover (Kenny, 2014). This leads humans to a regress in which people must ask who or what made the first move for the world to exist. At the end of it all, humans conclude that God is the unmoved mover who made the first move. The second argument is that of the unmoved cause in which it is believed that everything which happens is as a result of a prior cause and that nothing can be caused by itself. The first cause of the effects happening in the universe is as a result of the prior causer who is God.
The third argument is that of cosmological reasoning arguing that there is a time where nothing existed and because there is the existence of physical things now, there must be something which brought physical things to the existence and that is what is known as God (Kenny, 2014). Fourth, there is an argument from a degree in which humans notice that different things in the world differ from each other. There are degrees of perfection and goodness but people can only compare these degrees with a maximum. Humans can be both good and bad. Thus the absolute goodness cannot rest in humans but there must be some maximum setting standard for absolute goodness or perfection and the maximum is God (Kenny, 2014). Finally, there is the argument from design in which the world and the things in it particularly the living things look like they are designed. Nothing in the physical world can look designed if it is not designed by anyone. For that reason, humans believe that there must be a designer who perfectly designed the living things and that designer is God.
Human spirit also reveals the existence of God. Human spirit recognizes preeminence and uniqueness of God regarding the rest of nature. Even though man is biologically like other animal species, he is unique in several ways. For example, man is able to reflect on his experiences, capable of technological progress and his ability to discern what is right and wrong. Since humans possess unique intelligence and since he enjoys freedom, his position in creation transcends the other creatures. In short, mankind is a subject of spiritual life above matter although he continues to depend on matter. Human spirit in itself is a path to God since one of the ways that lead people to God is through an experience of an individual. With human openness to the beauty and truth in the world, his moral sense, freedom and conscience, man can only conclude that a supernatural being exists.
Descartes’ Argument on Freewill
According to Descartes, God enjoys the space of supreme indifference (Forstmann& Burgmer, 2018). From the writing of Descartes, it is clear that he acknowledges that divine freedom requires one to have liberty f indifference. Descartes establishes that it is not possible for God to deceive mankind and that all things that man has are from God. For that reason, Descartes believes that God is the one who gives man free will as well as the intellect to choose from his free will. It is essential to clearly understand free will and how it relates to the freedom of humans since throughout his mediation, Descartes explains how the free will interacts with the human intellect (Forstmann& Burgmer, 2018). Because both intellect and will come from God who is perfect in His existence, it becomes obvious that both the faculties given by Him are perfect.
Descartes asserts that even though Humans are created in God's image and receive faculties from Him, humans are an imperfect link between nothingness and God. A critical component of Descartes' argument of free will is his explanation of the origin of the human error. Descartes after having three mediations concludes that it is not possible for God to deceive man. He argues that after acknowledging that judgment is of God, and that God is perfect and cannot deceive humans, then it appears that one would only conclude that God cannot give a wrong judgment It is from this point that Descartes concludes that humans make mistakes frequently because even though they are created by God in His own image, they are not like God (Forstmann & Burgmer, 2018). Descartes does not believe that the will or intellect is the sources of human mistakes. Instead, he argues that human error comes about because the scope of the will is larger than that of intellect. He observes that whereas the will is infinite, intellect is finite (Forstmann & Burgmer, 2018). Since intellect is finite, it can only understand so much. On the other hand, since the will is infinite, it can judge anything. Descartes gives a solution to those who seek to avoid mistakes by telling them that when their intellect presents to them a perceived will, the agent should not form any judgment until the perception is distinct and clear (Forstmann, & Burgmer, 2018).
Conclusion
The deep knowledge and understanding of God can only be given by wisdom which is also given to Humans by God Himself. Religious dimensions have throughout history explained God’s existence and supported their argument using several approaches. Christian authors such as St. Thomas Aquinas have also tried to lead people into believing in the existence of one unique God. Even without the inspirations from the Christian authors, Bible or religion, God manifests Himself to Humans through the Human spirit. Descartes establishes that it is not possible for God to deceive mankind and that all things that man has are from God. For that reason, Descartes believes that God is the one who gives man free will as well as the intellect to choose from his free will.
References
Forstmann, M., & Burgmer, P. (2018). A free will needs a free mind: Belief in substance dualism and reductive physicalism differentially predict belief in free will and determinism. Consciousness and cognition .
Johnson, C. K. (2015). Increasing Awareness of the Knowledge of God Among Pentecostal/Charismatic Congregants in Spokane, Washington (Doctoral dissertation, Oral Roberts University).
Kenny, A. (2014). Five Ways: St Thomas Aquinas Vo . Routledge.
