A question came up in a discussion: when in our journey up from the primordial ooze did human beings begin to have an awareness of God? That’s interesting, but impossible to discern as far as I am concerned. What it implies, however, is that spiritual awareness is progressive. I believe that is true, individually and collectively.
Another statement often heard: the existence of evil and suffering proves that God cannot exist. Actually I think it is the experience of suffering as an evil that has propelled human beings on spiritual quests to find meaning which has led to faith in some superior spiritual being.
“Faith is the conviction of things unseen.” (Heb. 11:1) Most of the time when I refer to faith I am referring to a vision of something that has not yet been experienced except perhaps on a momentary basis, namely that unconditional love (Christian idea of “grace”) is the governing criteria for relationships. Faith may include the vision as well as the commitment to work for the actualization of that vision.