"I Don’t Believe God Exists"

Fr. Dwight Longnecker:

Did that headline getcha? 

What I mean is that I do not believe God exists in the way that I exist, or in the way that my mother exists or that tree or flower or mosquito exists, or the way the planet Jupiter or the Milky Way or the sand on the seashore exists. 

It is not that God exists, but that God is Existence itself. He is that power or source of Life by which and through which all things exist that do exist. As such he is who he is. He is Being Itself. As he said to Moses, “I AM who I AM”. This is Yahweh–the one Who is Existence. 

Consequently, the question, “Does God exist?” answers itself. He does not exist as any dependent being exists. Instead he is Existence. Can his existence be proved? Can we offer scientific evidence for his existence? To ask for this is to suppose that he exists out in the sky as some sort of big extraterrestrial. Sadly, this seems to be the concept of divinity that is held by most scientific atheists. They ask for “proof of God’s existence” as if he were the big guy out there who can be measured in some way. 

To ask such a question or make such a demand makes about as much sense as saying, “If there is such a thing as Beauty why can’t we take its temperature?” or to say, “If there is such a thing as Life why can’t we weigh it?” 

The Judeo-Christian claim is that the one God is the essence of existence itself, and that we can know this Existence through our own lesser existence in an analogical way. We discern the triune nature of this Existence through contemplation on our own self knowledge. There are three aspects to my self: 1. The self 2. Self consciousness (whereby I can observe and have knowledge of myself) 3. Self love – in which I can appreciate, be unified and be at peace with my self. 

Self contemplation of my own existence therefore reflects the triune self contemplation of God–who is the essence of Existence. His Existence is a dynamic of self-revelation and self knowledge–and this dynamic relationship we recognize and call The Trinity.

Fr. Longnecker stresses a central truth of Christian theology. God is not a "thing". He does not "exist", in the sense that things exist. He is the ground for existence. He is not dependent on another for his existence, as we are, as trees and rocks are.

God is existence, loosely phrased. More rigorously, God's essence is existence. For every created thing, the essence of the thing (what it is) must be conjoined to the existence of the thing (that it is). 'What something is'-- a round stone in my hand or a butterfly in my garden-- is a different assertion than "that something is'-- the fact that there is a round stone in my hand or a butterfly in my garden. Essence of things does not necessarily imply existence of things. We can describe the essence of unicorns quite precisely-- horse-like, a horn on the nose, wings, etc. Unicorns don't exist, though. Essence and existence are not the same.

This is one of the fundamental insights of Thomas Aquinas. He pointed out that the Ground of existence cannot be itself something with contingent existence. The Ground of existence does not depend on another to join its own essence to an act of existence.

God is the Ground of existence. The Ground of existence is not a thing. He will not be found under a microscope or glimpsed by a scientist.