I thought this title was interesting for this discussion. It actually is the title of a Fleetwood Mac song. It could read “God is nowhere” or “God is now here.” Just as in life… it’s all in how you look at it!
Hume believed that we know things based on what our senses tell us. For example, if I were born blind and had never seen the color red, I would never know what red is. Descartes would say that I know red by what people tell me, or what I read (brail) of red, what I learn of the color using my thinking abilities. I suppose someone could describe it for me and I could get a general idea about red, but I could never know the color red without being able to sense it visually. I can’t feel red, taste, red, smell red, nor can I hear the color red so my only hope of knowing red myself is to see it. But if I’m blind, that’s not possible. At the same time, if I see just fine, I still cannot know red unless someone tells me it is red, or unless I read about red somewhere. I can look at a cherry day and night and not know that the cherry is red until I have been taught that the cherry is red.
The topic of God isn’t too far off. Substitute “red” for “God” and it’s saying the same thing. If I am [spiritually] blind, a person can teach me about God, and I can read about him, but I’ll never know him without my senses to confirm what I’ve been taught. Just as well, I can see God with my own two eyes and never know that it is him unless someone has explained to me who God is, and I accept what they’ve told me.
If I were pulled into this debate I would side with both (as is typical for me besides). I tend to see both sides to everything, but this one makes sense to hold both ideas. You cannot know something unless you have been taught to know it, AND unless you have come to know that thing by your own senses as well. I can know of God from the Bible, and yet never know him by touch, smell, or sight. I can also know God’s voice in my heart and not know it’s him (calling it intuition or gut feeling) unless I have read his Word and know that it is him by my thinking of him.
