The August issue of Omni Magazine featured a cover article on the scientific search for God. It is an interesting article that poses an interesting question: Is it possible to find God apart from supernatural revelation? If so, what can we learn about God from such an analysis?

Putting aside revelation for a moment, we can discover some things about God by applying what we know about living things and non-living things. For example, by examining the complex nature of cell structures and genetics – their encyclopedic codes and tremendous complexity – we must conclude that such things demand a Creator. It is a fact that nothing unnatural with a high complex (or even simple) structure came into existence without a creator – man. Therefore, we should also conclude that nothing highly complex (far more complex) in nature can come into existence without a Creator. Even the most basic structures reveal great complexity even in their atomic structure. A Creator does exist.

By virtue of the fact that the largest to the smallest forms have complexity – from DNA to molecular structure of a simple stone, we must conclude that the Creator has intelligence. We can also conclude that since man has intelligence, the Creator must also have intelligence because non-intelligence cannot breed intelligence. God is intelligent.

By examining the variety of life forms on the planet, and the many environments in existence, and the wide variation in creation we conclude that the Creator is creative (meaning, in a diverse, artistic way).

When we look at the animal and human kingdoms we discover that for most of nature the male is the dominant sex. Likewise the adult female is usually dominant over her offspring. This implies order, and from nature we can conclude that the Creator has a sense of order.

Because all higher life forms are able to feel emotion (and possibly lower forms), we can conclude that the Creator is an emotional being.

Just from nature we see that the Creator has the attributes of intelligence, is artistically creative, has a sense of order, and is an emotional being, we can surmise that the Creator has personality. The order in creation implies purpose. Purpose can also imply moral order, or moral purpose.

What we cannot determine through nature alone is what the Creator is made of. We cannot divine his location, or personal will, or how to reach and communicate with him simply through nature. For these things we must turn to something other than Natural Revelation. For these things we are at the mercy of whether or not the Creator – God – chooses to reveal Himself to us through Divine Revelation.

Through nature we can discover certain things about God, but we cannot discover God Himself – who He is, why He created us, His desire for us, His purpose for creation. These things can never be discovered, they can only be revealed.

What is revelation? Are we talking about the revelation of Buddha, Mohammad, Karl Marx, or philosophers or thinkers?

If any revelation is contrary to what we know to be true about God from nature, then that revelation must be false. We can conclude from a study of nature, for instance, that atheism is false. Nature testifies to the existence of a Creator which atheism denies. Atheism is therefore incorrect. We can conclude that the popular New Ages ideas about God being an impersonal force (idea stripped from Eastern thought) are also incorrect since nature reveals a Creator with personality, intelligence, and purpose.

The Bible lays out God’s revelation in no uncertain terms. It agrees with nature’s testimony to God’s existence. It spells out His personal attributes, character, emotions, and His will for mankind – both collective and individually.

The Apostle Paul, while addressing the Athenians at the Areopagus wisely said, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth…since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things…they should seek God. If perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are His offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like…an image formed by the art and thought of men. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

God has revealed Himself to us in nature and in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He raised from the dead. We know of His existence. We know His attributes, character, and will. We must simply decide what our responsibility to God is, and live accordingly.