The Hiddenness of God “Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence”

The Hiddenness of God is one of the most argued themes for the” insufficient evidence of God's existence”.

Someone asked me a question about this the other day. She said, “If God is so big, why is it that we can’t see Him?” The same is for others, while people still argue about the existence of God and the many evidences. The only thing God wants is a truly genuine relationship with people.

The more we think, the more we doubt. This is what keeps unbelievers away from knowing that there is a God. They argue and think they a have “smart thinking” ability and bring it into action when it comes to face the existence of God, not knowing that this “smart thinking” syndrome is causing them to doubt and conclude in the inexistence of God and use this an excuse to say “I can do whatever I want”.

To have a truly and genuine relationship with God, faith is needed. To believe that God is your savior, faith is needed for “we are saved by grace, through faith…” (Ephesians 2:8)

Several answers can be given to those who say that the hiddenness of God is insufficient evidence to believe in the existence of God, to which one of those was expressed in the previous paragraph. Regardless, there is another fact that contradicts those who oppose to believe in God because of His hiddenness. Jason Dulle said, “Freedom of choice is not eliminated by evidence, but rather directed by the evidence” the freedom of choice and the human will is an absolute that God gave to men. God created men not to be robots and control them to do whatever God wanted them to do. But God created man to have a freedom of choice to serve Him out of his own will.

Some say that the amount of evidence would make them believe in the existence of God, thus stating that the hiddenness of God is not much evidence for them to believe. This argument is wrong, since it would be wrong to think that God would give people “sufficient” evidence for His existence. This would of course rob human will and freedom of choice. And again, “Freedom of choice is not eliminated by evidence, but rather directed by the evidence”.

To say that the Hiddenness of God is insufficient evidence to believe in Him is to say that the hiddenness of love is insufficient evidence to believe in it. I believe that love exists, if you don’t, then ask yourself, “do I love my mother or father or myself?” you may deny your lack of love towards your mom or dad or even yourself, but you cannot deny that love exists, or at least it is very hard to accept that love is a myth or simply something from your mind. Some say, “If God exists, why can’t I see Him?” my question would be, can you see the air? If you cannot, then how do you know it exists?

Simply because we cannot see something does not mean it doesn’t exist.

The same can be applied in this example; if there is a painting we would assume that someone painted it, thus calling him a painter in the sense of a creative artist in the medium of painting. If there is a building we would assume that there was someone that constructed it, thus calling him a constructor. If there’s a wooden chair we would assume that someone created it, thus calling him a carpenter. The same is when we see the world and its unexplainable complexity of form and creation; we would assume that someone had to create it, thus calling Him or it a creator. Even though we cannot see the painter, constructor, carpenter, and creator it is by logic to recognize that they had to exist for nothing can be created out of nothing, and we have seen the creation. An amount of evidence is not needed to believe in the existence of the painter or carpenter, but rather a direction of will to accept or not that when you see the paint, and wooden chair choose to believe in their creators.

The same Jason Dulle said this, “Perhaps God has provided metaphysical rather than physical evidence for His existence (given the fact that He is an immaterial being)” the Apostle Paul said it like this:

(Rom 1:20)  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

After all, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.