Keeping It Simple

I read a lot of blog posts regarding God and religion. I don’t have the time (or the interest) to respond to them all. There are so many writers out there unapologetically using apologetics to attempt to prove the existence of God. After feeling satisfied that they have done so, they then will assign all sorts of attributes to this god, mostly from their scripture of choice. There is a debate going on that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Is God real? If so, what is he like? What is our purpose? What are our responsibilities to this god?

Rather than try to review every single hypothesis and theory out there about the existence of God or to try to answer these tough questions, I will instead pose one of my own: Why are we searching for answers instead of God giving us the answers before we have to ask for them?

There’s an old principle introduced in 1960 by Kelly Johnson of the U.S. Navy. It’s quite well-known and quite useful when dealing with topics like these. It’s K.I.S.S. Or, Keep It Simple, Stupid. This phrase was used primarily as a way to not overcomplicate things and instead keep them simple and easy to understand and easy to fix. Instead of making repairs for a jet engine using sophisticated tools, Kelly Johnson handed his team some simple tools and told his design team that mechanics in the field would have to be able to fix aircraft using only a handful of simple tools. Therefore, the design of the aircrafts would need to be kept relatively simple in order for the tools to work. Why make things so difficult to understand that only a select few would have the tools to use in order to figure things out?

This is where religion fails, in my opinion. No one is keeping it simple and it should be so simple that even a child should be able to understand it without having to be taught. However, that is not the case. God is said to be everywhere and obvious, yet we need to convince our children, teenagers and adults that he exists without using any evidence outside of words written that say he does. Why not be so simple that everyone would have the tools to understand? Why not use tools like our eyes, ears, hands and brains? If we can’t see, hear or feel something, our brains conclude it doesn’t exist. Yet we try to reprogram our brains in order to believe. Then we need to constantly fill that brain with reinforcing verses, platitudes and testimonies of others (who also have the same tool deficiencies that we have) in order to maintain our beliefs. “Less is more” is another saying that applies to religion.

If we were meant to believe, then our tools to do so should be simple. We would all have access to the same tools and be able to use them. That’s how a competent god who wants to be known should operate. Our tool belts should not have to have a compartment for ontological arguments, a compartment for metaphysical theories, a compartment for cosmological arguments, or any other overcomplicated method for just knowing God is there. Our tool belts certainly should not have any sort of blinders in them that shield us from the obvious and knowable and instead keep us focused on things we cannot prove and just want to believe.

Why do we feel the need to overcomplicate things? If something isn’t obvious, why do we make up excuses until we convince ourselves it is? Obvious things require zero effort to know they exist. Loving families require zero effort to know the love is there. If someone wants us to do something, they tell us, thus eliminating the guesswork. God is not like that. There is a tremendous effort to prove God’s existence rather than God simply revealing himself. There is a tremendous effort trying to determine what God wants from us and exactly how he wants us to do it and yet there is no proof of the first part; his existence. And there is an unbelievably tremendous effort to show us that not only is God there, but he actually loves us. Our experience here on Earth does not show the love of a god. If anything, it shows a god of cruelty and malice. But realistically our existence here on Earth shows that if God exists, he is indifferent to our lives here.

I think we should always use the K.I.S.S. method when dealing with religion. Basically, if it is not simple, it likely isn’t real. If we have to overcomplicate things and come up with elaborate excuses for why God himself isn’t simple, there’s a problem. We are promised a relationship. Having to prove the other party in a relationship actually exists is a huge red flag that you’re not actually in a relationship.

“Have you met my girlfriend? She is amazing, beautiful, intelligent and loving. She loves me more than anything else in this world. However, you can’t see, hear or touch her so let me give you several hundred reasons why I believe she exists and how I have come to know that, despite her reluctance to reveal herself to everyone else. By the end of our conversation, you too will be convinced this invisible being of love is real.“

Does that sound reasonable? Or simple? Sure doesn’t. But for God, we use this line of reasoning to conclude many unprovable things. Let’s just stop with the excuses and admit when we have nothing but our feelings and desires. God is a relatively simple concept, yet we try to use sophisticated methods to prove he exists and even then we fail. We need to stop trying to do the impossible and prove something exists that can only be proven when and if it reveals itself. We’re trapped by our beliefs and it’s holding us back. We need to be free from our indoctrination and live as we see fit. In other words, Stop Living As Prisoners, or S.L.A.P. Many people can’t see or understand this. Do the right thing and educate them…with a S.L.A.P. Help to free their minds by using simple logic.
theories, a compartment for cosmological arguments or any other overcomplicated method for just knowing God is there. There certainly shouldn’t be a spot on