"Does God Exist?" Is that even a good question?

Thanks to Nathan for this great response.

Do you think that question will change? I don't even know if I like the question "does God exist?" It just seems lacking. Because if He/She exists, then how? Does he exist as we exist? I lack both the words and the idea to describe his existence. What I see much of Atheism doing, is a backlash to religious groups defining God to an existence of their liking. God is always on "our" side, instead of us being on "his" side. This is what bothers me so much about the phrase "God Bless America." We have the entire notion backwards. Who is God that he needs to bless us as though we are God? It's idolatrous. America should be blessing God.

God can't simply be contained by christianity. Your question about truth, and does the Bible contain truth. God's message is not fixed. Karl Barth writes extensively about this. God's word and the interpretation of scripture is always present, but what may be present today, was not the presence of the 1800's. There is a great Jewish parable (an updated form of an earlier version) that talks about this concept of "loosing and binding" (which Rob Bell talks about in his book Velvet Elvis).

A young man knocks on the door of the renowned scholar, Rabbi Shwartz. “My name is Sean Goldstein and I wish to study the Talmud.” “Do you know Aramaic?” “No.” “Hebrew?” “No.” “Have you read the Talmud?” “No, Rabbi. But don’t worry. I’ve an honours degree in philosophy and have just finished a doctorate at Harvard in Socratic Logic.” “I seriously doubt,” replies the Rabbi, “that you are yet ready to study the Talmud. But if you wish I will test your logic, and if you pass I will teach you the Talmud.” The young man agrees.

Rabbi Shwartz holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One with a dirty face and the other with a clean face. Which one washes his face.?” “The one with the dirty face,” he answers wearily. “Wrong. The one with the clean face washes his face. Simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the clean face sees his friend’s face is dirty so presumes his must be dirty too. So the one with the clean face washes.” “Very clever. Give me another test.”

“The Rabbi again holds up two fingers. Two men come down a chimney. One with a clean face and one with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?” “We’ve already established that. It is the one with the clean face.” “Wrong. Each one washes his face. Examine the logic. The one with the clean face washes his face because he sees his friend’s face is dirty. Then the one with the dirty face also washes his face because he sees even the clean faced man needs to wash his face.” “I never thought of that, please test me again.”

So the Rabbi once more holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One with a clean face and one with a dirty face. Which one washes his face.” “Both.” “Wrong. The man with the dirty face looks at the man with the clean face and thinks his face is clean so he doesn’t wash. When the man with the clean face sees that the man with the dirty face doesn’t wash, he doesn’t wash either.” The young man is now desperate. “Give me one more try,” he pleads.

“No, not yet.” said the Rabbi. “Perhaps you now see why logic and philosophy are an insufficient basis for studying the Talmud. Tell me how can two men come down the same chimney and one to have a dirty face and the other to have a clean face. The whole question is foolish.

Answers of subjectivity will change over time. This is a very Jewish notion, which doesn't fit our Greekified thought process of certainties. It's not the answer that is so important, but the process you take to arrive at a conclusion. You actually see this concept of the journey being more important than the destination in many eastern traditions. As Kierkegaard talks about God is radical subjectivity, and doubt is divine, while belief is human.