Does GOD Exist? 

This is the ultimate question—the question of all questions. If you ask me whether Santa Claus exists, I can picture him clearly. But when it comes to believing in God, it feels like grasping at nothing. There’s no single image to turn to; instead, we end up creating our own version to believe in, as if that version is real. 

This disconnect shifts the question from "Does God exist?" to "What is God?" at lease to get a better understanding of the concept of God. This shift in focus allows us to explore the spectrum of beliefs about God's existence, from the traditional religious views to the more philosophical and metaphysical interpretations. By examining the various conceptions of God,

We have explanations that use words like "Omnipotent" and "Omniscient," but what do they actually convey? Can we truly capture an image of God that represents an objective truth simply by using words that imply ultimate power yet lack context? These terms may describe boundless attributes, but they don't offer a clear or relatable picture of God.

Instead, they create a distant, abstract figure—powerful yet undefined. Without a grounded context or image, these words alone might give us traits, but not an understanding, leaving us to wonder if we can ever conceive a collective truth about God.

When we try to answer this question, we encounter several initial challenges. First, there is no clear, universal definition of God. The concept of God is often understood subjectively, shaped by individual beliefs and cultural interpretations. An entirely objective view of God may only exist as an absolute—something beyond our current understanding. This lack of a shared, definitive concept creates a complex starting point, as we now face two unknowns: the nature of God and the nature of the absolute. 

This issue only deepens as we attempt to define concepts that belong to a realm beyond our own. It’s like trying to describe a five-dimensional object within the limits of three-dimensional space—certain elements may be recognizable, but we inevitably lose the full picture, constrained by our current perspective. This is why faith plays a crucial role.

What is Faith?

Faith acts as the bridge between what we cannot fully comprehend and the truth we seek. However, to use faith effectively, we need to first clarify what we mean by it, as the definition of faith is often misunderstood. Many people equate faith with blind belief or mere hope, something tenuous and uncertain. But faith—and this might blow your mind—is an emotion, a higher cognitive power that moves us beyond the ordinary. True faith, in this context, is something much deeper. 

Faith isn’t just hoping that God exists or blindly trusting in something unseen. In the story of Pandora’s Box, Hope was the one thing left inside the box after all the evils were released. The classic Greek myth explains how pain and suffering were brought into the world. Although Hope is often seen as something positive, it’s curious to consider why it would remain in a box filled with evils. If we think about it logically, Hope could be viewed as passive—even detrimental—because it implies inaction, a waiting state. It encourages us to rely on the possibility that something will happen, rather than taking steps to make it happen ourselves. This is not our true nature; we are meant to act. Faith, in contrast, is about acting confidently, with the assurance that what we’re doing is right.

Faith is a deliberate choice to engage with the unknown, drawing from experience, intuition, and learned wisdom. It’s a confidence that builds on a foundation of understanding, a guiding force that allows us to step toward what we cannot yet prove. In this way, faith is not a static belief; it’s dynamic—a tool we use to navigate the mysteries of existence.

Faith enables us to approach concepts like God and the absolute, even though they lie beyond the limits of our current perception. It becomes the drill, so to speak, that allows us to "screw in" complex ideas that might otherwise slip through our grasp. Faith doesn’t replace reason; instead, it complements it, bridging the gap between reason and the unknown and allowing us to reach further than reason alone can take us.

Building a Decentralized View

A Foundation Beyond Traditional Theology
 

So then how do we begin to address this question, one way we can do this is by not using traditional theology as a foundation. Traditional theology is a system of beliefs that is based on the teachings of a particular religious tradition. It is a structured approach to understanding the divine, often relying on sacred texts, doctrines, and rituals to define the nature of God and humanity's relationship to the divine. While traditional theology has its place in exploring the concept of God, it can also be limiting in its scope and perspective. By focusing solely on the teachings of a single religious tradition, traditional theology may overlook the broader human experience of the divine and the diverse ways in which people understand and relate to God. 

Perhaps we can look at qualities that are universally seen as virtuous or powerful in humanity—compassion, creativity, intelligence, resilience. These traits resonate with us because they are qualities we aspire to and can understand. But where do these qualities come from? Are they merely the result of evolution, or do they hint at something deeper?

The challenge here is contextualization. We’re trying to understand the spiritual realm through the lens of the physical, where concepts like virtue serve as our  tools for defining human responses. Virtue, however, can be seen as more than just a moral guideline; it’s an emotional state that drives action. In literal terms, emotion acts as the cause, while the resulting action is its effect. 

This cause-and-effect relationship suggests that virtues aren’t just abstract ideals but are intimately tied to our experience of reality. If virtues like compassion or courage are rooted in emotions, then could they also reflect something divine—a spiritual origin embedded within us? Perhaps these qualities arise not only as evolutionary survival tools but as glimpses of a higher source, a reflection of attributes beyond the physical realm that compel us to act in alignment with something greater.

Diving Deeper

If we entertain the idea that these cognitive powers are indeed emotions, we might categorize them as “higher emotions” in contrast to our "lower emotions." So, what might these lower emotions be? The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins offers a useful framework here, as they represent fundamental human impulses—pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust—that often drive us toward actions rooted in self-interest or harm.

While higher emotions like compassion or resilience elevate us, lower emotions often tether us to immediate, self-serving desires. This distinction highlights a hierarchy within our emotional spectrum, where higher emotions align us with virtues and broader, self-transcendent purposes, while lower emotions tend to focus on the self, binding us to reactive and often destructive patterns.

In exploring these distinctions, we might begin to see that our higher emotions offer a pathway toward understanding God, reflecting attributes we associate with divinity. Conversely, our lower emotions ground us in the material, the immediate, and the self-centered, creating a contrast that could further illuminate the nature of a higher power.

If this hierarchy of emotions is indeed a reflection of a higher power, then the obvious question is: what is the highest emotion in this higher realm? Religious doctrine offers a useful framework here—not through specific beliefs but through the concept that emotions mirror the nature of the highest power. In Christianity, the highest emotion is often considered to be love, described as the greatest of virtues and the purest connection to the divine.

Love, in this context, is more than an emotion; it is a state of being that transcends self-interest, reaching beyond personal desires to encompass compassion, forgiveness, and selflessness. This aligns with the idea that true love is transformative, capable of lifting us from lower emotions to a state that connects us with something greater. 

If love represents the peak of this emotional hierarchy, it may suggest that the essence of God is rooted in this highest state. Other traditions echo this notion—speaking of bliss, unity, or boundless compassion—as the ultimate expression of divine connection. By pursuing these higher emotions, we may not only strive to reflect a divine attribute but also draw closer to understanding the nature of a higher power. This suggests that emotions like love, joy, and peace are not merely human experiences but may serve as portals to experiencing and connecting with the divine itself.

Let’s pause and reflect—are we venturing into make-believe territory here? What are we really saying? Are we suggesting that emotions somehow dictate our very status of being or existence? It feels like a stretch. How can we claim that emotions, which are so subjective and fleeting, could hold any definitive power over our state of being or the nature of a higher reality?

If emotions can be manipulated, swayed by circumstances, or even dulled by chemicals, then what basis do they have as reflections of anything divine or permanent? Aren’t emotions just responses—temporary states influenced by our biology, environment, or mental conditioning? This raises the question: are we putting too much weight on something as inconsistent as emotions to understand existence or a higher power?

From this perspective, we could argue that focusing on emotions is misguided, even risky. If we’re defining our path to understanding God or existence through something so mutable, are we not building on shaky ground? Shouldn’t we instead seek answers in something more concrete and universal, beyond the fluid and often deceptive nature of emotions?

But let’s think about that for a moment and consider this: the Ten Commandments—a set of moral and ethical guidelines that have shaped Western civilization for centuries. What these commandments ask of us, at their core, is to engage our higher emotions. This is the Bible’s primary call to action: to cultivate compassion, respect, honesty, and reverence, which all resonate with higher emotional states. In-fact. if we examine all religions and take the core message of all of them, we find that they all encourage us to embrace higher emotions.

On the other hand, if we examine the Seven Deadly Sins, we find they embody lower emotions—those that keep us grounded in the material world. In this sense, these "sins" can be seen as forces that hold us back from spiritual growth, as they prioritize self-interest and worldly desires over spiritual development. The notion of sin, then, might serve as a warning: to remain bound by these lower emotions is to prevent the progression from the material to the spiritual, effectively missing the potential to connect with a higher state of being.

This perspective suggests that the commandments encourage us to rise above lower emotions and embrace those that align with the divine. By overcoming these "sins" or lower states, we open ourselves to a transformative process that moves us closer to a spiritual existence, connecting us to what many traditions define as our highest purpose. 

 The Emotional Connection

If we start to recognize how emotions play a crucial role as the drivers of our actions, it becomes clear why mastering them is so essential and why they receive so much attention across philosophies and belief systems. Emotions influence everything—from our decisions and relationships to our sense of purpose. By gaining control over our emotional states, we don’t just gain mastery over ourselves; we gain clarity in how we interact with the world.

But it seems to go even deeper than that. What do I mean by that? Let’s look at a phenomenon known as life after death. This is an experience reported by many people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs). They often describe leaving their bodies, seeing themselves from above, witnessing doctors and nurses working on them, and even hearing conversations occurring around them. They describe moving through a tunnel toward a bright light and meeting loved ones who have passed away. And yet, there is something even more profound than these visions: the overwhelming sense of peace, love, and interconnectedness they feel—emotions they often describe as beyond anything they’ve ever experienced in life. 

This intense peace and love reported in near-death experiences seems to hint at a different level of existence, one where emotions are not fleeting reactions but fundamental aspects of being. It raises the question: could emotions, especially higher ones like love and peace, be intrinsic qualities of the soul or consciousness itself? If so, then emotions might not only shape our earthly experiences but also hint at a spiritual dimension, where they exist in a purer, boundless form. 

This emotional connection to a sense of peace, unity, and love could suggest that mastering emotions isn’t just a tool for living well in the material world; it might be a pathway to connecting with a deeper, possibly eternal, reality. Perhaps emotions like love are not merely human experiences but windows into something beyond us—offering glimpses into a spiritual truth that transcends the physical, reaching into the very essence of existence.

The Purpose of Emotions

We often think of emotions as something we simply feel, and while that’s true, it’s more of a side effect than their actual purpose. Emotions are the drivers of our actions and thoughts—they are the fuel that propels us to do things. Meanwhile, consciousness is the data we collect through our senses, the information we consciously process and interpret.

But this raw data doesn’t mean much without an emotional response. Emotions shape our reactions, guiding us to respond either with higher emotions aligned with our “higher self,” or lower emotions aligned with our “lower self.” This choice is what we call free will—the ability to choose which emotional lens we use to process and act on the information around us.  Imagine emotions as the classic “angel and devil on the shoulder” scenario. The angel, representing higher emotions, encourages us toward compassion, patience, and understanding, while the devil, representing lower emotions, tempts us with pride, envy, or anger. The angel appeals to our higher nature, guiding us toward actions that resonate with empathy and wisdom, while the devil urges us to indulge  immediate desires or self-centered impulses. This internal dialogue.

symbolizes the ongoing battle within us to choose between higher and lower responses, highlighting how emotions direct us along different paths.  In this light, emotions aren’t just fleeting reactions—they’re directional forces that influence our journey in life. When we choose higher emotions, we align with what some might call our higher purpose or true self, drawing closer to qualities that lift us and connect us to others. By contrast, when we act from lower emotions, we ground ourselves in immediate desires and self-serving choices, moving further from that higher connection.

Emotions, then, have a purpose beyond mere feelings: they’re navigational tools, signaling which path aligns with our higher self and which may hold us back. Understanding this dynamic empowers us to use our free will in a way that transcends simple reactions, guiding us toward intentional actions that reflect the essence of who we truly wish to be. 
 

The Role of Emotions in Understanding God

Returning to the ultimate question—does God exist?—we begin to see that emotions aren't just reactions but integral to how we perceive and interpret this question. So, how does viewing God through the lens of emotions shift our understanding?
 

The Answer: Vibrations and Frequencies

One reason this perspective makes a difference is that emotions, in essence, are vibrational states. They resonate at different frequencies, influencing not only how we feel but how we connect with reality. As energy beings, we are made up of atoms, which are composed of subatomic particles, and at the core, everything is energy. This energy vibrates at different frequencies, manifesting the physical matter we observe—including ourselves. In our current state, we primarily resonate within the material realm’s frequencies.
 

By viewing God through the lens of vibrations, emotions can be seen as a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms. Higher emotions like love, peace, and compassion seem to vibrate at a frequency that aligns us with qualities traditionally associated with divinity or higher consciousness. Lower emotions—anger, fear, greed—resonate at denser frequencies, keeping us tethered to the material world and our personal ego.
 

Emotions as Frequency Modulators

If we consider emotions as frequency modulators, then higher emotions may allow us to 'tune in' to higher frequencies, facilitating a connection with a reality beyond the purely physical. This isn’t just philosophical speculation; science has shown that different states of mind and emotions can measurably affect our physiological energy levels, influencing everything from heart coherence to brain wave patterns. 

Thus, when we engage with higher emotions, we may be elevating our energetic frequency to align with what could be called divine or spiritual resonance. This shift allows us to approach the concept of God not as an abstract belief, but as an experiential reality—a vibration we can feel within ourselves.
 

Why This Matters: A Pathway to Understanding God

If our emotions influence our frequency, then the act of cultivating higher emotions might bring us closer to understanding the essence of God. In this framework, God could be seen not as an external force or being, but as a frequency of existence that we can align with through our inner states. Emotions become the keys that open the doors to this alignment, providing a pathway to connect with the divine, not through logic or doctrine, but through vibrational harmony.

In summary, when we look at God through the lens of emotions, we find that our spiritual journey might be less about external beliefs and more about tuning our internal frequencies. This approach doesn’t necessarily provide a final answer to the question of God’s existence, but it offers a way to experience the question itself—a pathway to align with a higher state of being that many have called divine.