The Problem of God in the Human Mind

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John Courtney Murray categorized the problem of God as a unique modern crisis of philosophy, history, and religion, aggravated by science. Murray presented God as a problem of modern knowledge because it lives within the human mind. This surrounds the human need to both question and verify God’s existence. The scientific community creates a barrier to solving the problem of God because science is based on observation, hypothesis, and the verification of data, in which case, God’s existence cannot be proven regardless of personal beliefs. As he stated, any scientist can attempt to experiment and verify God’s existence, but the data surrounding such unique existence is intangible and “out there.” Therefore the problem of God is “a problem that touches all aspects of a person”(Dostoyevsky) because this means that the “whole human being is profoundly engaged both in the position of the problem of God and its solution” (Murray).
Murray argues that God’s existence is a problem not only in itself, but also to all of human existence because no one can say that He does not exist, as that would be to spread a delusional thought leading to the destruction of humanity. At the same time, if God does exist, no one can argue otherwise, because that would be to spread ignorance of God’s real existence, which would also prove in the destruction of the human kind. The problem of God then, is everyone’s problem because it is based in human existence. To deny God when God exists or to believe in God when he does not exist are equally destructive, which often result in an existential crisis. Murray framed the post-modern cultural landscape of God’s problem in what he labeled “the will to atheism” in secular culture, and “rationalistic” in the Christ...

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...dernity were wrong altogether or incomplete. In light of this, there can only be a variety of paradigms, canopies, and surfaces of the truth (48-49).
In the end, Caputo believes that one is only capable of “seeing as” in contrast to seeing truthfully because such systems or paradigms can only be seen through the lens in which they are looking. With this understanding of postmodernism, Caputo emphasized passion as the ultimate goal, or concern because there are no definitive answers that can be applied universally. It requires one to think for oneself outside the hard-framed default settings and inherited assumptions, and to define our own ultimate purpose with depth. Therefore, the passion for life is embedded in one’s lifelong quest of critically and consciously understanding of what is praiseworthy, the ultimate goal, or something worth worshipping.

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