Proving God Exists Part II: I AM

By Ken Levi

The Universe is God. God is the Universe. What follows is the evidence. We need to show the Universe is: Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. Omnipotence and Omnipresence are easy. But what about Omniscience?
My book "Proving God Exists" (2018) argued the Universe is Omniscient. But something was missing. And that something was: consciousness. To be Omniscient, the Universe must be Conscious. It must be Self-aware.
The challenge then is to put forth good, concrete evidence that the Universe is Conscious, and if Conscious, then Omniscient; if Omniscient, then Omnipotent; if Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, then God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Levi
• Release date: Apr 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224663125

Ken Levi

I grew up in Boston, moved to Ann Arbor, where I received my Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Michigan, then moved again to San Antonio, where I taught Sociology at the University of Texas. I am the author of seven books: “Violence and Religious Commitment” (Penn State Press), about the suicide and murder of over 900 members of the People’s Temple Church in the Jonestown massacre; “Proving God Exists: Physics, Cosmology, and the Universal Mind,” about scientific proof for God’s existence; “The Moral Symmetry of Good and Evil,” about the scientific derivation of morality; "Knowing: Consciousness and the Universal Mind," a composite theory for solving the “hard problem” of consciousness; "Mind of God," addressing the question, "Does the Universe think?" "Scandal in the American Orchid Society," about treachery and betrayaI in a volunteer organization; and "American Hitler," about Trump and his fanatical followers.I have also published a series of six articles on human consciousness in "The Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research," in addition to several other articles on violence, crime, and delinquency, including "Becoming a Hit Man" (Sage Publications), which has since been cited in over 110 other books and articles.

Book preview

PROVING GOD EXISTS

PART II:

I AM

By Ken Levi

Copyright 2024 Ken Levi

Smashwords Edition

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PREFACE

The concept of God presented here differs from that of major Western religions. For that reason, some readers may be offended. But this book is for people who refuse to take anything on blind faith. It’s for skeptics – people who require solid evidence to back up any claim; not just minor claims, but the most important claim of all – the existence of God.

This book uses the pronouns He and Him for God because that’s the common usage; not to designate gender.

Special thanks to powerhouse English teacher Jamie Whitfield for editing and critiquing this book. Her detailed corrections and challenges were invaluable.

This volume is dedicated to Luis Valdez

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION ONE

INTRODUCTION

THEISM VS. NATURALISM

DUALISM VS. MONISM

SECTION TWO

CONSCIOUSNESS

HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

SECTION THREE

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: INDIRECT EVIDENCE

SECTION FOUR

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: DIRECT EVIDENCE

SECTION FIVE

FINAL THOUGHTS: SUMMING UP

FINAL THOUGHTS: THINKING

FINAL THOUGHTS: PANPSYCHISM AND COSMOPSYCHISM

FINAL THOUGHTS: ARISTOTLE

REFERENCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SECTION ONE

INTRODUCTION

God is the Universe. The Universe is God.

What follows is the evidence. Certainly, the radical notion of God-as-Universe runs counter to the concept of Him as separate and apart from the Universe; the concept of Him as Father, and of us as His children; the concept of Him as Spirit living in a transcendent realm, looking down on the rest of us from above. It also runs counter to the image of God as a man: an elderly gentleman with flowing white beard surrounded by adoring putti. But the Universe? The Universe looks nothing like a man.

Wikipedia defines the Universe as,

all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of energy and matter, and the structures they form, from sub-atomic particles to entire galaxies (2024).

We see the Universe in the seemingly infinite vastness of space with its billions of stars and galaxies winking at us from a great black void.

Yet, the thesis that God is the Universe is not entirely new. For example, Bernardo Kastrup posits, . . . an all pervading cosmic consciousness as the single cosmic ultimate (2018). Hassan Ajami states, . . . the Universe is a living organism (2022). Juha Sorsa agrees: The entire Universe is a single living conscious organism (2014). This sentiment echoes that of Anaxagoras in 480 B.C. that, All things are created and bound together by nous (Curd, 2019).

I arrived at the conclusion God is the Universe after reading a debate between a theist and an atheist (Moreland & Nielsen, 1993). The atheist, Professor Kai Nielsen, had – in my opinion – by far the better argument. He maintained the notion we have of God is incoherent. The problem is linguistic. When we invoke the word God, he argued, we really don’t know what we’re talking about. It's like saying, Prove to me poozle exists. Well, how can we do that if we have no idea what poozle is?

After all, in the general view, God is unobservable. He is invisible and inaccessible. He is a spirit transcendent to the world we live in. We can have no idea who He is, what He is, or what He does. All has to be taken on faith. So, Nielsen concludes, how can we know if God exists, if we don’t know who or what we’re talking about in the first place.

Now, one might argue there are plenty of invisible things we believe to be true. Take love, for example. We can’t see it or touch it. However we’re sure it exists. But here is the difference. Love and other sensations are subjective by definition. And we do have ways of detecting those sensations. But God is more than just a sensation. Our major religions define God as a personality – in effect, as a person. And persons are objective. Persons should be able to be observed.

For example, consider Tom. Suppose he were not only invisible, but resided in an invisible and inaccessible realm. Suppose it would be impossible to see him, hear him, or communicate with him in any conceivable way. And finally, suppose no one has ever observed him. So, how could you possibly know if Tom is real?

Nielsen sets up a challenge: How can we prove God exists? Well – following Nielsen – linguistically, what exactly is it we mean by God? Let’s come up with a definition. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam may differ on many aspects of the Deity. But all agree on three fundamentals: God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient (Casillo, 2021; Blakely & Sullivan, 2021; Afsarrudin, 2023).

Concerning Omnipotence, whatever else we mean by God, He is All Mighty, All Powerful, Supreme. And any being who is less than All Mighty, could not be God. Such a being might be a demi-god, like Zeus or Vishnu or the Egyptian god Osiris, who gets killed by his evil brother Set. He might be Superman or Flash or Batman. But He couldn’t be what we mean by God.

So, the defining features of our God must be: He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. In order to be those things, is it