Towards the Truth

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basis of Christian Religions? It is history seen through the eyes of
tradition, history, written not always as it was but as it should have
been.
Having thus seen the internal difficulties and divergencies in this
divine self-disclosure or revelation, we may finally settle the matter
by excluding a priori the very possibility of God communicating with
man. Even if there existed a supreme deity, it would be impossible
for him to come in relationship with others. For by entering into
relation (and revelation, creation, salvation, sanctification are all so
many modes of relation), he would lose his absoluteness and thus
would cease to be God. For absoluteness is not a quality of that
supreme Being, called God, but it is God himself. It is his very
essence. If he is not absolute, he is not God. Well, absolute and
relative are two terms in direct opposition, excluding one another.
Science, e.g. teaches us that we cannot talk about absolute motion,
because motion includes a change of place in relation to something
else, supposed to be at rest. Owing to relative positions there is no
question of absolute rest or motion. Similarly, our knowledge of God
through his self-revelation would have brought him in relation to us.
If this part is admitted, then at the same time his absoluteness is
denied. He who has spoken cannot be God. If there is a God, he
cannot be known; if he is known, he cannot be God.
Also, the fact of creation constitutes a relationship which did not
exist before. A father as such is not older than his child, because
before the child’s birth he was not its father. Similarly before the
creation, God, if he existed, was not a creator; thus he became
one when creating. But this involves a change and relation, which
are incompatible with the idea of God. Hence, if there has been
some sort of revelation to man, it cannot have been divine; and if
revelation is not divine it has lost its intrinsic value.
Having set aside the claim of divinity for the historical person
of Jesus, having refuted the possibility of divine revelation, we still
have to deal with the prime cause of all, God himself. In this connec-