Discovering God: Questions

This is part of continuing series of theological questions.  We will give some description, but the purpose of these posts are not to answer questions but to ask them.  You may answer some if you like in the comments section, but I will keep myself in the questioning mode for now.

Many of us desire to find God, and some spend their whole lives just doing this.  But why?  Is God so the center of the meaning of our lives that we should be seeking Him?  Is God the Source we should be seeking, or is there another Subject that is more true, more to the core of our being?  Some have said that we should not be seeking God, but ourselves, humanity, reality, love, economic stability, truth, power....  If we find God will we find all these as well?  If we find these will we find God?

Is God even an object to be discovered?  We can discover most things within our own universe, eventually, but if God is outside of our universe, then can we truly discover God?  Can we only describe God through what God is not, because we cannot see or measure what God is?  Is it possible to describe or communicate God at all, if God is beyond our imagination?

What would be the tools to discover God?  If God is beyond human comprehension, then perhaps God is the only one to describe what or who God is.  But what is this revelation in which God describes God?  Is it creation, made by God, but ravaged by time?  Is it physics, the building blocks of creation?  Is it the human mind, the most sublime creation?  Is it a text in which God laid out the most important thoughts about God?  Is it a person, who communicated God most sublimely through both words and action?

Who are we to make such choices?  Can we grab onto one of these tools and call it the ultimate revelation?  Or should we live our lives and hope that God is some rock that we will stumble upon and everything will make sense? Is such a search ultimately futile or fruitful?

God's Sovereignty: Questions

We will be starting a series of theological questions today.  We will give some description, but the purpose of these posts are not to answer questions but to ask them.  You may answer some if you like in the comments section, but I will keep myself in the questioning mode for now.

All the monotheistic religions hold that God is Sovereign-- that is, He rules the universe.  But there has been much disagreement as to how much and to what extent God rules.

Does God rule every aspect of the universe?  Or are there portions of the universe He never had control over?  Are there portions that He relinquished control over?  Is God the god of this world or did He give it over to Satan?  Or did he give it over to humanity?  If God is not really in charge of the earth, then why complain to God if things go bad or if there is evil?  Shouldn't we take it up with the current management?

Is God specifically ruling every single atom of the universe, or just the general flow of things?  Is every aspect of what has happened and what will happen under God's control?  Is the movement of every atom directed by Him?  Did he set the universe up and let it go, still understanding exactly what would happen, every day, for the rest of eternity?  If that is so, then is God responsible for every evil that took place, because He set it up that way?  If God is responsible for evil, doesn't that ultimately make Him evil?  Or at least part evil?

It says in the Bible that God sustains life.  Is it speaking about in the general sense, in the way that God provides food and other sustenance for those who need it?  Or does it mean that without God no life would exist, that God is somehow holding all of creation so that it doesn't fall apart, and that without God holding things together, nothing could continue to exist?