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Introduction

This article describes a basic syllogism of the following format:

All things that exist are discoverable.
God is not discoverable.
Therefore, God does not exist.

The conclusion is irrefutable if the two premises are correct. The minor premise, about the discoverability of God, is generally supported by both christians and atheists, as we shall see. Therefore, the thrust of the arugment must be in showing the major premise to be true. This, as we shall see, is no simple task.

Discoverability

What does it mean to be discoverable? It seems to me that something can be discovered if someone can come to know its existence through independant observation. The moon is discoverable, because anyone can look up into the sky at the right time (usually the night) and see it. Likewise, we say that the moon exists. On the other hand, things that did exist but no longer exist, such as the birthday cake I made and ate (and thoroughly enjoyed) some many years ago can not be discovered, and we likewise say that it does not exist.

Discoverability seems to be a property of things that exist. Things that exist are discoverable. This does not mean that we have discovered them, or that we must discover them, only that they are possibly discoverable. Perhaps the chance of discovery is so slim that it is nearly impossible to discover the thing, but I cannot think of anything that exists that cannot at all be discovered. For, if there were such a thing, how would we even come to know it exists?

Discoverability also does not seem to be a property of things that do not exist. Usually, if something does not exist and we come to know it, we use a different word, we call it invention. Discovery and invention are usually opposed terms, where the first refers to coming to know about something that already existed, and the other refers to coming to know something by bringing it into existence. We say that we discover, rather than invent, natural laws, such as gravity. We invent, rather than discover, human creations, such as the wheel.

However, the question remains whether something could exist but not be discoverable. What would it mean to be indiscoverable? What sort of existence would that be? And what, exactly, exists?

Indiscoverability

I have argued that things that exist can be discovered. I must nevertheless explore the possibility that something could exist and not be discoverable. God is one such example of an indiscoverable existence. However, I cannot think of anything else that fits this criteria. No scientific object or property could rightly be said to be indiscoverable, since science is predicated on the discovery of things that exist.

But let us conduct a thought experiment. Let us say there is an object, X, which is indiscoverable. How do we come to know anything about X and that it cannot be discovered? In other words, how do we discover that which cannot be discovered? Even if something could exist that could not be discovered, we could not know about it and ponder its indiscoverability. Unless it somehow revealed itself in an indiscoverable manner.

God is known because those that believe in him believe that he reveals himself while remaining indiscoverable. There are two main categories of revelation: historical revelation and interpretational revelation.

Historical revelation refers to historical events in which God revealed himself. For example, events recorded in the bible include God speaking to people. One would assume that, during these encounters, God would be discoverable, but God always made sure to cover his tracks, as it were, such that once the event was over he was no longer discoverable. Sadly, this testimonial evidence is meaningless in the search for the existence of God since none of it can be reproduced or analyzed in any meaningful way. One can either believe it happened or it didn't.

Interpretational revelation refers to continuing and ongoing events in which God reveals himself. For example, if someone prays to God for guidance, then some event occurs that guides the person to act in a certain way, the person might interpret this event as a revelation of God's will answering a prayer. However, this is purely interpretation, and is about as effective as interpreting events as being influenced by luck. Anything can be interpreted as anything else by a sufficiently creative mind.

What does this tell us about God's existence? They tell us that God is believed to exist beyond our universe and can influence our universe at will; indeed, he created it. This leads me to three questions: can something exist within our universe without being discoverable, can something exist outside our universe and affect our universe, and if something exists outside our universe but cannot affect our universe, do we care about it?

Existence

Before I can discuss these questions of existence, I must try to define what I mean by existence.

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