The Evidence of God's Existence is His Coolness

I thank Atheism because it stirs an honest doubt, without which, faith would be lame. For someone who struggles to know the truth, the tug-of-war between two camps can be sickening at times, yet it can also reveal wonderful insights.
A simple question from a fellow blogger asking for the evidence of the existence of God conjured up in me an idea which I have no name for. Here is my take on that issue:

The evidence for the existence of God is the mystery of His existence itself. It is the mystery of His existence that is an evidence in itself.

It might seem like a circular argument at first, but let me expound. Let's have a Gendanken experiment: Suppose that god revealed himself in a most personal way to each and every human being on earth, such that it is overwhelmingly "convincing" that it was god himself, saying "I AM GOD".
I cannot even imagine how god would do this to cater to each person's unique standard of "convince-ability".
Each person has a unique level of "proof threshold" that must be satisfied before belief can ensue. I doubt if God can accomplish this for each human being, not because of Him, but because the human mind is naturally skeptical, or that because of Free Will - people simply choose not to believe.
But that is not the point. My point is this: if God exposed Himself to me, bare and without any sense of mystery at all, I would start to think that he is lame, boring and uncool. In fact, I would question Him even more to the point of unbelief, and then start to ask who the heck created this weird Being who is exposing himself naked to me. I am sure that I will be thrown into an infinite regress by asking who created him because he is so lame.
I just realized that I do not want a God that has no sense of coolness. I do not want a God that has no sense of mystery.
Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps my own personal "reaction" to this hypothetical "revelation" of God's existence is just unique to me. Other people may rejoice when God reveals Himself to them ever so clearly. But not me. I would find it boring and lame if God did that to me.
Personally, I like a God that makes my hair stand on end at wonderful tidbits of wonder, such as when looking up in the night sky gazing at the stars. I like a God that gives me goosebumps when I realize that perhaps, in some way the Mandelbrot set points to Jesus.
And so, I think God is cool. On this particular issue of "evidence of His existence", I think God is handling it in a hip way, at least for me.
In my opinion, the evidence of God's existence is the coolness of how He decided to handle that issue itself. I do not know a "term" or name for this thought or argument. All I know is that personally I think Mystery is a cool thing.
I love the awe and wonder that this universe brings, and the experience of pausing and wondering "that perhaps God exists", after every new discovery. I love the pieces of clues that is revealed to me each new day. I also now enjoy the challenge of this thought - that maybe God is nothingness. Then onwards I go to seek the Truth.
Some people live their lives content at either of these two camps-- as a firm believer with an immovable faith, or as a staunch atheist with an unbeatable intellectual prowess.
Yet, I prefer myself to be at the gradient of both, in between these two opposing camps.

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
- Harry Emerson Fosdick

"I don't know where the sunbeams end and the starlight begins...its all a mystery."
- The Flaming Lips (The Fight Test)

The Science of Intuition: Let's give it a shot!

Photo Credit: Intuition by Ankher on Flickr.

The Science of Intuition, it's almost an oxymoron. But I have a gut feeling that it is worth pondering upon. This article caught my attention: Intuition is Not Pseudoscience, Say Researchers. Below are some important snippets:

"intuition is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential."

"the researchers concluded that intuition is the brain quickly drawing on past experiences and external cues to make a decision on a non-conscious level. In other words, it happens so fast that we’re not aware that the intuition actually stemmed from a supercharged burst of logical thinking."

"Humans clearly need both conscious and non-conscious thought processes...But it’s likely that neither is intrinsically ‘better’ than the other."

The story of the race-car driver whose life was saved by following his "gut feeling" to step on the brakes on the curve is interesting. But in the process of trying to understand the mysteries of life where science falls short, does it also make sense to tap the hidden potential of human intuition?
My answer is a resounding yes. Intuition is one of the good tools in the process to understand the meaning behind patterns, of what I call as "archetyping".
By scanning through this archetyper blog, you may have probably hinted that this is like a science blog, yet at the same time it borders between speculations, musings and sci-fi-like thinking. This is because I am striving to strike that balance between science and mystery. Just like the beautiful complexity that lies between Order and Chaos, there are wonders that fall in between the facts that what we know and the mysteries that we can only glimpse.
After all, we have two brain hemispheres to make sense of this world, perhaps we can integrate the two modes of thought to make intuitive insights about life and the cosmos.
Einstein said that the only real valuable thing is intuition...so let's give it a shot:

What does your gut say when you ask yourself, "Is there a God?"

What does your gut say when you ask yourself, "Will I live again after I die?"

The Song, Self, Soul and Spirit

I remember a transposer software that automatically generates the chords in a different key for a song. Transposing is useful as it helps us sing a song at a more comfortable pitch if the song is either too high or too low for the range of our voice.
Why is it that even if one raises or lowers the key, one can still recognize the song? Regardless of which octave it is on, the distinct character of the song is retained. This property brings one thing to my mind - each one of us is a song.
We all have our unique character, personality and identity. Its what we call the self in philosophical terms or the soul in spiritual jargon. Is it possible to preserve or extend the "self" even when the material substrate from whence the mental life arises is destroyed? It cannot be denied that the brain supports much of our consciousness. Marked changes to the brain from injuries, drugs, strokes, senelity, surgery or illnesses such as Alzheimer's literally changes the mind. How can one's sentient life and consciousness can be regenerated, extended or even resurrected if it depends on a fragile piece of crumpled meat? Let us explore a premise : There is some sort of a "metadata" repository of an individual's moment by moment slice of consciousness through time. Our very existence leaves behind trails of information regarding our "self". A history. Consider this scenario : If all of my very self, my soul, and everything that makes me who I am - past, present and future - were laid out flat and static as one long page of musical piece frozen in time (think of Julian Barbour's Time). Now if a Superbeing that transcends all dimensions were to change bits of the past chords of my life and rearrange notes here and there, then my soul's "DNA" loses the unique essence of who I am - it would be the utter destruction to my soul. Every single bit of past experiences has molded the "me" in it's entirety. The choices I made in the past shaped my identity. Had I chosen different decisions, I might have been a different "me" - another song with a different tune.
Throughout life, an individual's soul is being written out on this current octave- the physical world. Each day is like a musical bar, and every minute we are leaving 'notes' as the universe records the 'musical piece' of our soul. Whether we like it or not, our very existence leaves behind trails of information regarding our "self" as time goes by. Could it be really true that each one of us will eventually give an account of one's life? For if there's a record, then it can definitely be played back by the superintellect who owns such a "database" (Heb. 4:13, Ecc 12:14).
Time goes by, i.e, it "moves forward" because there might be another octave that everything is destined to move into - a higher key, a higher dimension (such concepts of higher dimensions already have a mathematical description used in the field of String Theory that they call the Calabi-Yau Space). In that higher plane, it may be possible to completely regain our personality, memories, consciousness, and mental life. Somewhat like 'porting' or transposing the 'self' into a higher platform. Could resurrection really be possible? Only if Someone 'ports' our soul, a Cosmic Musician who must transpose everything for us to ever get a shot at a future life.
Is there something beyond for us? Or is there nothing at all? Something or Nothing, Eternal or Ephemeral. Its our choice what to believe now, but whichever is our choice, that is our faith.
But if one is still challenged by the question of life beyond death or the even existence of a personal self to begin with, then perhaps the Song metaphor will give an insight. Each individual is a song.
It is amazing how a glimpse of some understanding about the human soul can be gleaned from the field of music. As Ludwig von Beethoven said, "Music is a higher revelation than philosophy." Indeed, music has been providing insights throughout the ages over mysteries of nature. We hear phrases such as "harmonies of nature", "music of the spheres", and "Cosmic Symphony". Its no wonder why String Theory, which probes the very fabric of the universe is hinging upon the metaphors provided by music. Our universe simply screams of such archetype patterns for us not to notice.