What kind of being is God?

Baek guan

During an undergraduate metaphysics class, the professor said, “Kant cannot dare to talk about things regarding ‘God’ with human reason.” After class ended, I was curious about what these words of Kant meant, so I looked it up once. The meaning of what the professor told us was probably a story that came out of the context of criticizing, ‘Proofs of the existence of God before Kant are merely ‘speculative theology’.’

To explain it a bit more, the proof of God’s existence before Kant was the cognition of God’s existence according to speculative methods. This is because humans can recognize through intuition, but God is not in our intuition. Humans can deal with God ideationally, but God is not an empirical object―an object of intuition―and transcends the category of human understanding, so he cannot be cognized.​

Therefore, Kant said that the logic of speculative theology is merely ‘a false illusion that reason can expand cognition even to transcend understanding’. However, Kant did not deny the existence of God. He said that ‘God’ is necessary for humans to achieve good will and the highest good. This is because the ground of freedom that humans have not experienced lies in ‘God’.

The God Kant spoke of is the supreme being, and that being does not appear as a present being but exists only as a premise. Therefore, he explained that God is not a cognizable object, but a being that is postulated―or requested―so that human moral reason―ethical action―can be possible.

Previously, holding my ex-ex-girlfriend’s hand, I attended the ‘Mass for the Sending Forth of the 88th Cohort of Ministers of the Word, Pascha Youth Bible Group’. Perhaps because it was a ‘Paschal’ sending mass, I could see a large number of choir members, altar servers, priests, and an auxiliary bishop that I had never been able to see before, so I felt good for no particular reason.

A few months have passed since the sending mass ended, and unlike my Ex, I am still an unbaptized non-believer. Nevertheless, the contents of the homily spoken by the auxiliary bishop during the sending mass and the <Sending Petition – Sending Petition Document> still remained in my mind.

During his homily time at the sending mass, the auxiliary bishop said, “The Catholic Church does not stimulate emotion. This is because if one cannot stimulate a person’s emotion equally after having stimulated it once, that person will not come back to the church because it fell short of their expectations. That is why we do not do actions like shining a spotlight only on the speaker or shining a spotlight only on the Eucharist.”

Hearing these words, I was reminded of a letter recommending the Jesus Prayer by ‘St. Theophan the Recluse’ of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the letter, St. Theophan says to the believers, “When you do the Jesus Prayer, warmth circulates in your body, and since you continue praying, it is a natural phenomenon. Anyway, it is good for your health.” This means not to obsess over mystical experiences but to continue praying.

I think the meaning in the contents of the auxiliary bishop’s homily and the meaning in St. Theophan’s letter are the same. Because, as the auxiliary bishop said, the Catholic Church is not a place to have mystical experiences where one feels pathos or pleasure that stimulates human emotion. The Catholic church is a place where one confesses their sins to Jesus and repents, and it is a place where one can witness Jesus. Since the Catholic Church is a place that delivers the words of Jesus, who is the Logos itself, emotions like pathos or pleasure are not given nor do they exist there, and only reason exists.

After the auxiliary bishop’s homily ended, the sent ones read the <Sending Petition – Sending Petition Document>. The sending petition document was written, “I, OOO, am indebted to both Greeks and non-Greeks, to both the wise and the foolish./ Actually, even if I proclaim the gospel,/ it does not become a boast for me./ Because it is an obligation I cannot help./ If I do not proclaim the gospel, I will truly be unhappy(1 Cor 9:17)./ Regarding myself, I will boast of nothing but my weaknesses(2 Cor 12:5)./ I can do all things in him who strengthens me(Phil 4:13)./ Please send me as a minister of the Word(Isa 6:8).”

The contents of the <Sending Petition – Sending Petition Document> seemed to be ‘contents of the sent ones earnestly asking Jesus to make moral reason possible’. In the <Sending Petition Document>, the sent ones blocked their sense of authority by saying that proclaiming the gospel as ‘ministers of the Word’ is their duty and not a boast. For the good will of the sent ones to become the highest good, it is to propagate the ‘gospel’, which is the path of human salvation by Jesus who is postulated as the highest good, and to obey according to that will. In order for moral reason to be possible, and to live an ethical and practical life, they earnestly asked Jesus, “Please send me(Isa 6:8).” as a minister of the Word.

After attending the ‘Mass for the Sending Forth of the 88th Cohort of Ministers of the Word, Pascha Youth Bible Group’, I pondered the meaning of God and religion. If I were to think that the reality I live in is everything and thus everything ends when I die, I would immediately not act ethically and practically, and would become a selfish person who only chases my own happiness. However, because of the thought that there is a background behind reality, namely the afterlife, I cannot easily become a selfish person. Such thoughts come from faith, and faith makes us practical people. And such faith is possible only through religion. Religion is a cultural system formed by believing in God, that is, a cultural system that can only exist by God.

Paradoxically, the Catholic Bible, which acknowledges the existence of the afterlife, did not explain heaven in detail. Rather, because it considered ‘how should I manage my mental state and posture?’ and ‘how should I treat others?’ more importantly in order to go to heaven, it described these in more detail than the afterlife―heaven―.

Humans cannot know the ground of freedom―the act of recognizing and utilizing the objective necessity of nature and society―. This is because the ground of freedom is not an empirical object and is something that transcends the category of human understanding. Therefore, we must earnestly ask that only ‘God’, a transcendent being that surpasses human reason, can make moral reason possible. Thus, ‘God’ is a being postulated for moral reason.

As seen earlier, in Catholicism, the ground of the highest good and freedom was found in the gospel. That is why it says, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”(Phil 4:13). For humans, among the good will of the moral law, ‘in order to know what the highest good is’ and ‘in order to practice the highest good’, one has no choice but to postulate to God, who holds the ground of freedom, to let them know what it is. Therefore, as a postulated being, ‘God’ is a transcendent being that surpasses human reason, and religion can be said to be a space where one can anticipate and witness a transcendent being.

I have only been able to understand the existence of God as a theory so far, and since I could not understand the existence of God for the purpose of faith, I still have not become a believer in a specific religion. Nevertheless, I attend Mass at the Catholic church every Sunday, and on weekdays I offer the Rosary in my spare time and read the Bible.

At that time, the reason I, who am not even a baptized believer, repeatedly do these acts is an earnest heart wanting to feel them if beings called God and Jesus exist, and it is a self-suggestion to look back on my actions, to keep myself from falling into temptation, and to direct myself toward the highest good without falling into evil, as well as a prayer in the sense of earnestly asking Jesus and God ―the postulates of moral reason―. In this sense, we can say that God is a being postulated and earnestly asked for so that moral reason can be possible.

Written 2023 May 1.