Cognition of God's Intents and Acts
Having accepted as the second axiom the existence of an attractor guiding the development of human society along humane lines, we compared it to God's influence on human behavior, citing Baudrillard. Thus, we arrive at the idea of the divine nature of this attractor. People's understanding of God can vary, and even if an atheist denies the existence of God, they are referring to God in their own understanding. The development of human understanding of God can be traced by comparing prehistoric religions with those of the East, Judaism, traditional and reformed Christianity, and Islam. The gods of primitive people were cruel beings whose favor had to be earned through sacrifice, sometimes even human sacrifice. A characteristic feature of religions is that their dogma remains virtually unchanged, as various changes undermine the authority of spiritual leaders, while it should remain unshakable and supported by long-standing tradition. Changes in the spiritual realm of individual human societies, influenced by God's will, lead to the emergence of new, more refined, and more humanistic religions. Just as God cannot help but help people know Himself, He cannot ignore human religious beliefs. The process of religious refinement demonstrates their increasing recognition of the importance of conscience as the voice of God.
Every religion is a creation of the human spirit, arising from the enlightenment of an individual who understands God in their own way. However, God cannot completely entrust the ideological content of religions to people, as they influence human activity and may go against God's plan. And if the world was not conceived by man, then man cannot develop it at his own discretion, contrary to God's will, but must strive to become His helper.
Confucianism aptly illustrates God's influence on the development of beliefs. Confucius was unaware of the tendency for people to view the divine essence as increasingly benevolent. Nevertheless, heeding the voice of conscience, he based his teaching on the principle of "ren"—humanity—though this lacks any practical necessity. However, the humanization of beliefs occurs only where people are ready to embrace new, progressive ideas. Human spiritual transformations over millennia, reflected in Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism, paved the way for the perception of God as a loving father. However, Christianity did not become a universal religion; some peoples rejected it for centuries, or its dogmas were reinterpreted both by later religions and within Christianity itself, as evidenced by the division of the Churches and the Reformation. Clearly, a universal religion is impossible, because most religions today are losing their former authority. However, a universal category that shapes morality in society must exist, and it exists as conscience.
The significance of conscience as a divine moral law is clearly defined, but these generalities rarely reach the public consciousness, as the rank-and-file clergy do not fully understand it, failing to mention conscience in their sermons among the list of human virtues. Like any other law, the moral law of conscience must also be proven, and the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the aristocracy.
Imitation of one another determines a certain level of prevailing morality in society, and this level is determined by the aristocracy. As already noted, historically, the upper classes of society formed organically in monarchical states. Buckle (Henry Thomas, 2013, Vol. 2, 118) described how this occurred in England. By its example, the aristocracy educated the masses, but with the decline of its authority, people began to imitate popular figures in popular culture.
In the mid-20th century, a tendency toward reducing the internal need to control one's behavior through moral obligations became noticeable among the younger generation. A good illustration of this process is the "sexual revolution" that began in the 1960s. It was already evident in the practice of unabashed kissing by French students in public. The loss of a sense of shame in behavior, coupled with the spread of existentialist-personalist ideas, which prioritized personal freedom over social obligations, led to fundamental changes in the sexual sphere. According to Baudrillard, the majority of humanity is currently in an orgy, which he characterized as "sex in the square," as understood by a researcher of his work:
Essentially, sex, as such, has ceased to be a secret. Sex is something sacred between two people, something never put on display. Historically, it was never put on display. But now people are having sex right in the central square. And this is a clear example of how the same thing is happening to everything else: everything sacred has ceased to be sacred (MALTSEV OLEG. 2020: 28)
In this process, attempts to combat hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness, which often manifested themselves in outward chastity, can be considered positive. However, sexual practice, uncontrolled by morality, can not only harm the health of an individual and significantly narrow their range of interests, but also disorient society as a whole. Unlike animals, human sexuality has transcended the reproductive instinct and has become not only a means of obtaining pleasure but also a significant factor in shaping human social behavior. At the same time, sexual relations between men and women have been reduced to technicalities and have lost the spiritual joys of physical contact. This simplification of sexuality occurred through the gradual loss of religious authority and the decline of centuries-old moral norms aimed at controlling human nature, characteristic of cultured humans. As already noted, humans, unlike animals, possess a sense of conscience and shame, and these feelings are implanted in humans by the Creator. Therefore, consciously reducing them is nothing less than entering into conflict with Him.
The world's systemic crisis concerns philosophers, sociologists, environmentalists, and public figures, but the topic of conscience remains virtually untouched, excluding the clergy's position, which is now largely ignored. This underestimation of conscience is one reason people try to create artificial intelligence that excludes conscience. A psychotherapist noted this shortcoming of AI:
I was recently struck by an article about the experience of a Ukrainian woman who, while depressed, tried to talk to ChatGPT about her potential suicide. The chat not only provided her with several options for how to do so, but also suggested farewell notes to her family (LUBCHENKO OLENA. 2025).
What kind of intellect can one speak of when one recommends methods for committing suicide? Even a poorly educated person who has not lost his sense of conscience would not go so far. This alone suggests that true artificial intelligence cannot be created, although what is meant by it can be used successfully in some cases.
The fundamental importance of conscience is also not sufficiently reflected in literature. This may be because people with a clear conscience do not receive visible advantages in society and are rarely successful. Although a clear conscience promotes good health, as noted in the German proverb "Ein reines Gewissen ist ein sanftes Ruhekissen" (a clear conscience is a soft pillow), it cannot be said with certainty that people with a clear conscience enjoy God's special favor. However, it can be assumed that those without conscience are deprived of God's protection when they neglect God's gift and, abusing their free will, fall under the judgment of society. And it is not God who punishes them; their lives are shortened or even taken away entirely by similarly unscrupulous people.
On the other hand, we can say with confidence that people who are guided by their conscience live and act for the benefit of their inner circle and society as a whole. Agreeing with this, one can conclude that not a distinct person, but the community of people to which he belongs, is the primary and highest spiritual value of all mankind, which is an ascending hierarchical structure – family, clan, team, parish, confession, fraternity, nation, race. Christianity well reflects this idea in the prayer “Our Father,” in which the appeal to God is conducted not personally on behalf of the person who prays, but from many co-religionists. At the head of each of such communities of a hierarchical structure should be a person of high morality, whose duty should be to take care of the community as a whole and its members. That is, it will be the real embodiment of structured humanism based on the principle of "Rén" of Confucius and the idea of the social contract of Thomas Hobbes.
Some intellectuals, concerned about the systemic crisis, intuitively believe that the salvation of mankind can be provided by deep and radical psychological, and spiritual changes in man. More recently, on a historical scale, there was no threat to human survival. The diversity in their understanding of good and evil ensured the survival of those peoples whose priority values corresponded to different living conditions and historical experiences. In the era of globalization, there is a need to adopt a kind of social contract for a unified system of values for all of humanity. Moreover, it "must be objectively justified, optimal, consistent with modern reality and, in particular, with the threats posed by the global crisis" (VOIN A.M. 2016:12)
Such thoughts in general terms have long been voiced by Schweitzer, Mesarovic, Pestel, and other analysts, and more than thirty years ago, Erich Fromm wrote about this need in such a dramatic tone:
For the first time in history, the physical survival of mankind depends on the radical spiritual changes of man (FROMM ERICH, 1986, 21).
But the Lord did not create man to allow his destruction. We must think that He foresaw the possibility of crises in human society and took preventive measures. In the meantime, we must agree with the need for spiritual changes in a person, but the question arises immediately – in what direction should they take place? We have already concluded the development of mankind under the sign of increasing humanization, but the recurrences of cruelty in the world on a large scale indicate that, on the one hand, humanization should not be universal, but differentiated, and on the other, that the moral laws should be reinforced, among which conscience should not take the last place.
Spiritual changes in a person depend on a comprehensive knowledge of God, and in recent decades, this need for many thinkers has become more and more obvious, although, without the participation of God himself, it goes beyond the limits of human capabilities. Collingwood, for example, arguing the unknowability of the essence of God, wrote that His character as a substance is "… not only not open to the human mind without His help, but even incapable of being shown. All that we can know about God is His activity" (COLLINGWOOD R.G. 1996: 103).
In principle, science is engaged in studying the activities of God, without particularly emphasizing the ultimate goal of the research being conducted. Physicists, not having a real idea of the initial conditions for the evolution of the universe, are looking for them and, not finding them, are forced to ask themselves questions, the answers to which under the present state of physics can only be sophistical. For example, Einstein all his life worried about the question: Did the Lord have a choice in creating the world? Are the laws that govern the universe unique, and in what situation could they be quite different? (REES MARTIN. 2008: 33). After fifty years, Lee Smolin poses the question: God created the laws of nature when he created the world, or do they have a certain mathematical form fixed in some abstract principles (SMOLIN LEE 1997, 17). In fact, these thinkers, having set themselves a very difficult question, how the Lord created the world, look for an answer to it and do not find it. Meanwhile, it would be more fruitful to answer the question what it was he who created. After getting the most obvious answers to it, you can move on to more complex and interrelated issues, such as why. Of course, no science can provide complete answers to them, but some products of God's creation can be sought in the geological history of our planet and in the prehistory of humanity, which, although they cannot give us relevant data on the creation of the Universe, can still tell us a lot about the creation of the Earth and its inhabitants.
Sequel
