Man in the image of God or God in the image of man?

Immanuel Kant, who demonstrated the invalidity of popular proposed arguments for the existence of God, offered a novel explanation for mankind’s insistence on faith. He theorized that when one looks upon the universe one feels a sense of unity and a sensibility behind it all which leads to the concept of God.  As Albert Einstein would later proclaim, “that deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.” (Although Einstein preferred to leave it at that; he didn't see the need to posit the existence of some kind of superman.)

Kant further suggested that indeed there is a reasoning power behind it all, ourselves, and this is mistaken for an objective reality, viz. God. In an effort to make sense of the various phenomena we encounter we formulate an interpretation of reality, a world model if you will. Thus, when speculating upon the universe we feel that there is a uniting force and a sense of reason and inherent order behind it all.

Indeed, theology is a way of making sense of the universe, of giving it a sense of order; this is theologies essence and its attraction. The source of this need for order, in a universe which is, in Einstein’s words, incomprehensible, is best understood in terms of our own nature; our nature as rational beings and as Kant says the fact that we perceive the universe only through giving it a sense of order. To be conscious would be impossible if all phenomena were perceived as distinct and unrelated; our nature as conscious beings includes a perception and model of unity and sensibility.

That this is the foundation of faith is recognizable from the nature of the preposterous circular arguments suggested for proof of God’s existence. All arguments presuppose objective order to demonstrate God exists, although it is absurd to talk of order without already supposing that the universe was designed and created intentionally.

The teleological argument is most apparent of this, by insisting the universe is designed, and then proving a designer, despite the fact that it can only be considered objectively designed after it is established that there is a designer.

However, other arguments are guilty of this absurdity as well. The cosmological argument, for instance, presupposes that there is a rationale for the universe’s existence and thus concludes God exists, in a sense it presupposes God exists to demonstrate God exists. Even the purely conceptual ontological argument presupposes the inherent symmetry between our minds and reality.

The argument from desire (which argues that there is no desire without an actual object of that desire in existence, it further insists that every man desires God, as such He must actually exist) also presupposes the order and sensibility of the universe, by presupposing that every desire must have an end, to demonstrate that God exists.

It is therefore quite evident that the presupposed order of reality is given form through postulating the notion of God.

St. Augustine argued for God’s existence from the existence of absolute truths which he felt could only be understood in terms of God’s ideas. This is explicitly arguing from the sense of reason behind all things.

For Plato this sense of reason and order caused him to postulate his famous doctrine of the forms; for theologians this causes them to postulate the notion of God. For Kant this caused him to recognize the nature of the human mind.