Is There a God Who Writes Our Stories?

When Abdu’l-Baha spoke during his travels in the United States in 1912, he often used the comparison of a writer’s ability to write as proof of the existence of an intelligent creator.  

For many people, the existence of God, which cannot be seen or known by physical evidence, has been a major problem. In one of his American speeches, Abdu’l-Baha simply explained: 

Consider the lady beside me who is writing in this little book. It seems a very trifling, ordinary matter; but upon intelligent reflection you will conclude that what has been written presupposes and proves the existence of a writer. These words have not written themselves, and these letters have not come together of their own volition. It is evident there must be a writer.

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Then he expanded the analogy: 

And now consider this infinite universe. Is it possible that it could have been created without a Creator? Or that the Creator and cause of this infinite congeries of worlds should be without intelligence? Is the idea tenable that the Creator has no comprehension of what is manifested in creation? Man, the creature, has volition and certain virtues. Is it possible that his Creator is deprived of these? A child could not accept this belief and statement. It is perfectly evident that man did not create himself and that he cannot do so.

Therefore, our human existence provides every evidence of one Creator.

In his writings Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, describes the Creator simply by saying: 

To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress.

This theme flows throughout the Baha’i teachings – that human beings attempting to comprehend God, an “unknowable Essence,” would be like a book attempting to comprehend its creator. Yes, the writer wrote the book – but the book is only one very limited expression of the writer’s entire reality.

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The Baha’i teachings also point out that the moral and spiritual guidance human beings need, described metaphorically as a “city,” comes from this unknowable Essence in the form of all the prophets and their messages. In his Book of Certitude, Baha’u’llah wrote: 

That city is none other than the Word of God revealed in every age and dispensation … In these cities spiritual sustenance is bountifully provided, and incorruptible delights have been ordained. The food they bestow is the bread of heaven, and the Spirit they impart is God’s imperishable blessing. Upon detached souls they bestow the gift of Unity, enrich the destitute, and offer the cup of knowledge unto them who wander in the wilderness of ignorance. All the guidance, the blessings, the learning, the understanding, the faith, and certitude, conferred upon all that is in heaven and on earth, are hidden and treasured within these Cities.

This imponderable question of the existence of God has a simple explanation: humans write, therefore a Creator, an unknowable Essence, created us with the ability to write. That Creator, logically, must be greater than the creation.