Kierkegaard on the Proof of God

When pondering the question of God’s existence one reasons to use the same methods one implements when attempting to prove the existence or truth of any concept and thus formulates the question that seems to flow implicitly from such a rationalization, “Can science prove the existence of God?” While many great thinkers and common men have devoted many of their hours to deliberation over this question, I will elaborate specifically on the works of Soren Kierkegaard, a philosopher who contributed his explanation and analysis on the validity of this theological inquiry.

Kierkegaard contended that science could not prove the existence of God, as science could not prove the existence or validity of any notion of an absolute truth that individuals may question. Kierkegaard regarded reason, logic and any other tool of rationalization as inadequate as man could not define a system regarding any notion of reality – only a creator, one placed outside the boundaries of existence that binds humans, can understand reality. Kierkegaard regarded the existence of humans as binding them to a life of a constant state of change that inhibits individuals from isolating the elusive ideas of absolute reality.

Kierkegaard also commented on the subjectivity of truths, as the one of the existence of God, and regarded them as entities that change with each individual, meaning that the idea of a truth differs from one individual to the next. Passion, Kierkegaard remarked, was the highest form of subjectivity, which works in aiding one’s contemplation of God and forces the questioning of any objective truths, which claim to be absolute, as God is the only entity with access to such truths. Thus, Kierkegaard deduces that the capabilities endowed to any existing being, is one that does not comprise of the tools necessary for an application to the field of scientific inquiry. Also, Kierkegaard states in the definition of ‘existing’, that individuals surrender the power of having the capability to provide an equation for the existence of God, for if there is to exist a perfect and omniscient God, and we exist as imperfect and non-omniscient creations of Him, having substantiated absolute knowledge and truths via scientific inquiry would make the creations of God as omniscient as God himself; if man were as knowledgeable about God as God himself is, then we would be on the level of Him while creating a contradiction in which God and His creations are on the same level. Thus, the inherent definition of God implies that we cannot prove or know of absolute truths and axioms regarding his presence. The question remains of how one would go about proving the existence of God if the use of human logic and science are not adequate in such a search.

Kierkegaard relies on the notion of paradox, absurdity and blind leaps of faith as applicable modes in which the presence of God can be affirmed in an individual. To better explicate the notion of paradox that leads to the belief of God according to Kierkegaard, I will explain what he refers to as the “Absolute Paradox,” which is what he considered his faith revolving around – the paradox of Christ. The paradox of Christ was one in which God, the antithesis of human existence, took the form of a human in Jesus Christ. How God took take the form of its antithesis in essence, existing as human and God simultaneously, is an absurd paradox according to Kierkegaard. The absurdity of this concept is one stemming from its illogical grounds, the synthesis of an antithesis and a thesis. In having faith in the notion of God by virtue of this paradox one is abandoning all reason and rationality, and in this abandonment is where Kierkegaard finds the closest incarnation of truth available. Kierkegaard stated in regards to faith that such is “âÂ?¦ the highest passion in a person. There perhaps are many in every generation who do not come to faith, but no one goes further” . In light of a paradox which defies all commonplace logic, one must take what Kierkegaard defines as a ‘leap of faith,’ a belief that one holds in virtue of its absurdity. Kierkegaard, a Christian, admitted and attested to the illogical grounds of his basis for his beliefs openly as according to his beliefs God himself was the ultimate expression of the absurd. Thus, Kierkegaard found science to be the least revealing application as to which the existence of God could be validated or expounded as logic and rationality do not maintain the connection to God and Absolute Truths that blind faith can provide one with.

Kierkegaard’s novel approach to the universal question “Can Science Prove the Existence of God?” is one which stepped outside the boundaries of human logic and questioned its very core: if logic is the commonplace tool with w
hich we solve problems, and the question of the existence of God cannot be solved using it, then is it possible that the antithesis of logic, the absurd, can lead us to truth in this search for an answer? Kierkegaard advocates this view in his surprisingly unique appraisal of Christian theology.