The God Mystery - A Personal Reflection.

Essay by sjramlUniversity, Bachelor's September 2003

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To borrow the title of a classic radio show, "I Love a Mystery!" That's because when you boil it down, the

mystery genre has one simple concept: trying to find all the answers. What really grabs me and keeps my

attention is trying to stay one step ahead of the detective, to see through the deceptions and come up with

the answers. Then comes the climax, containing the mystery in a tidy explanation.

As a mystery fan, I accept three assumptions:

That such a thing as the truth exists.

That it is desirable to find out what the truth is.

That it is possible to find out what the truth is.

Coming up with the truth is very satisfying for a mystery lover. But it is in the search itself that you find the most joy. You may want to know all the answers, but skipping to the back of the book would be cheating.

This seems paradoxical, but the whole mystery genre is based on paradox - the unknown becomes known.

I get a feeling of futility whenever I talk about the mystery of God. Right from the outset, only two of my assumptions bear weight. For while I believe that such a truth as God exists and desire to find out what that truth is, it is not possible to know what the truth is. It is the ultimate paradox: within the mystery of God lie all life's answers, yet this is a mystery that is impossible to solve.

I risk failure right from the start by using limited human language to describe the unlimited God. Flynn sums it up: "God is inexpressible mystery about whom we believe many things. Our beliefs, however, are affected by the limits of our finitude."(1) Still, I believe it is...