What Does"God" Mean?

Notice carefully that you can’t construct something out of nothing. You didn’t invent the difference between left and right. You discovered it as a baby, and then learned words and gestures to describe it later. The same goes for logic, math, and morality. 

Just like the difference between left and right, these facts exist to be discovered. Once we discover facts, we can learn or invent sounds and symbols to describe them with a language. But for our language to make any sense, the facts must exist to be described. In short, meaning always comes before learning.

Science is the project of dispassionately observing, recording, and analyzing information about physical relationships so that we can better learn how the world really works. Science is a noble and powerful project. Still, science is as “helpless as a baby” when it comes to explaining two foundational facts. The first is the reality of meaning itself; and the second is the human capacity to respond to meaning with right-understanding and right-action—that is, with reason and faith.

Consider this carefully. For science to function—reason, observation, and application must already be up and running together. Since all available evidence supports the hypotheses that the world began in the finite past, and functions as a meaningful life-support system for reasoning persons—it follows that Life, Meaning, and Personhood  had to be up and running before time, the world, and the project of science began. Meaning preceded learning. 

So where did Meaning begin? That's the thing—it didn't. Meaning simply Is—in God. "He Is" the Fact beneath every fact (Exodus 3:14).

Skeptics often ask: “If God created the universe, who created God?” This is a good question since it notices the problem of an infinite regress of being. This is a huge problem that every worldview must deal with. Most don't—they simply ignore it and press on.

To meaningfully explain the existence of a world that began with meaning already up and running, we're stuck concluding that the Source of our finite world didn't begin with the finite world. "He" must exist before and beyond the creation. That is, He Is transcendent. He must also be necessary (uncaused); eternal (without a beginning or end); self-existent (independent and essentially complete); and He must be personal (relational, reasonable, and free). Why does God have to be personal? Because He didn't have to create a universe at all. He freely chose to. Agency is a personal trait.

When theists use the word “God,” they usually mean much more than the above—but they cannot mean anything less. If this doesn’t fit with your own ideas about Reality, then you're not thinking about "God" at all. “Alright, so what?”

Well, think for a moment about cause and effect. Try to find even one effect that constructed its own cause. Notice that a driven nail never swung the hammer that drove it in—let alone forged the nail from nothing at all. Every meaningful creature (created living-thing) is an effect caused by this "Meaning-Full" Creator.

Here's the important distinction. You are a construct. God isn’t. Ever heard the phrase: “the buck stops here?” That’s what “God” means (Revelation 22:13).

Do you know what the word “perfect” means? Of course you do—but how? Have you ever done anything perfect? Do you know anyone who has? What human construct supplies meaning to "perfection?" Some especially brilliant people have tried to find one—and have been checkmated by God. I dare you to try.

Three witnesses to Perfection were up and running before Adam discovered his first fact. They are logic (the language of reason); mathematics (the language of observable reality), and morality (the language of personal reality). Different cultures use different sounds and symbols to represent the meaning in each, but the facts are the same—they are stable, trustworthy, and true. Simply put, they're perfect.

The phrase we use to describe facts like these is "self-evident." They are true by definition, self-confirming, and immune to dismissal. Things like "go" not being a synonym for "stop" (logic); 2+2=4 (math); and love being the right way to live towards other persons (morality). Each of these facts are self-evident. Now notice the following very carefully.

Perfect self-evidence is really compelling evidence of a Perfect-Self. (Matthew 7:48)

A common refrain among atheists is: “there is no evidence for God.” 

You be the judge of that. But before you do, consider this. If there’s no such thing as God, then there’s no such thing as evidence either. Because evidence is true-information that grounds our knowledge of the facts. For thousands of years, humans have looked to something called The Truth. But if each of us constructs our “own-truth,” why should you, me, or anyone else care about evidence? Because talk is cheap.

Imagine that you are driving behind me in traffic. In “my-world” the red traffic lights mean "go," and the green ones mean "stop." Can you honestly promise to stay off your horn and celebrate “my-truth” instead of cursing me out while you strangle your steering-wheel—or worse? 

Because of the reality of evidence, I don’t have enough faith to believe that you can. The meaning of "go" and "stop" is perfect and well understood by the simple language of a traffic-light. Perfect-Meaning has to come from a Perfect-Source. This means that imperfect people like you and me can't be it. 

Anselm of Canterbury formulated one of the clearest and best ideas about the meaning of "God." He Is “that which nothing greater can be thought.” 

"He Is" Perfection. That is what "God" means. Who Decides?