What If God Showed Up? – Modern Koans

Estimated reading time: 11 minute(s)

What If God Showed Up?

Question: Let’s say the Christian God showed up and proved his existence; all humans are left to follow and celebrate him without doubt. What would that be like?

Response: I struggled mightily with this question. So thank you, it is a great one. Questions like this help you break through all of the preconceptions you have about the world and force you to let the hypothetical chips fall where they may.

I’m going to add my own twist to the question. Doing this helped clear away some of the obstacles I was stuck on trying to conceptualize this.

My adjustment is to take religion out of the picture. I set aside my concept of God. This helped ease the pressure that my biases create.

Imagine that we lived in a world without religion. For one reason or another, our instincts led us to adopt the scientific method early in our culture and it never occurred to us that there was a God. And then, he showed up.

Then, God Showed Up

It’s Saturday morning. You’re watching cartoons with your kids and a news bulletin interrupts the show you’re watching. The President of the United States begins to read from the teleprompter:

“Today will be a day remembered long into the future. Today we have established contact with an alien being that appears to wield incredible power. Far beyond anyone’s imagination. This being has indicated that it is the creator of this planet, the galaxy, and the entire universe. It has demonstrated that it is responsible for and can exert control over the fundamental laws of nature.

Needless to say, we are in a state of bewilderment. Our defense minister, together with his colleagues around the world, has determined that any attempt to resist this alien would be disastrous to the planet and to all life on it.

The alien has provided a document, laying out its conditions for our complete surrender and outlining guidelines for all future conduct with it and amongst ourselves.

We would like to ask each and every one of you, to remain calm. Please go about your business as you would have before. We understand that you will have questions and concerns. We hope to be able to establish a continued dialog with the alien to further evaluate its intentions. “

Pretty surreal huh? I don’t think anything anyone could do or say would keep me from panicking.  Terror would spread across the planet. After that, questions, so many questions. Then possibly factions vying for favor or improved living conditions. With the alien in residence, requests would come for immortality, increased pleasure and other adjustments to the universe.

Some might challenge the being on its claims, only to be rebuked or even killed for their insolence. Whole nations would be destroyed. Children’s lives taken in retribution for deviant behavior. Scourges and floods doled out as punishment. Seeing the being wield its power would forge permanent fear into our hearts.

The alien would assure us that it has nothing but love for us. But the punishment would continue. Certain death, scourges, personal tragedies, and natural disasters would continue unabated.

The alien would send representatives to check in on our behavior. They reassure us of its beneficent intentions and at the same time warn us of the consequences of non-conformity. The net result of this rhetoric is the status quo; seemingly random tragedies befalling the best and worst of us alike.

There is promise of benefit in an afterlife. This becomes our last vestige for hope. Seeing the alien wield its power, the possibility of afterlife seems reasonable; but, witnessing the beings indifference towards us in this life, this hope wanes.

A broken and defeated species, humans will ultimately submit themselves to eternal slavery in the service of this all powerful alien being.

I agree this is a pretty harsh conception. But for me, tying together the Bible’s description of Yahweh and the facts of everyday experience lead this little thought experiment to a pretty dark place.

Of course, it’s hypothetical – more of a straw man than a conclusion. You might end up somewhere completely different. If you do, I’d love to hear about it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Modern Koans is an ongoing series that recognizes that good questions are often more important then their answers.

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton  Get Each Week's Modern Koan in your email box

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