Is it possible to authentically experience God?

Imagine that you've just woken up after a long relaxing sleep. You live with your Mum but she's left to go to work and won't be back for another six hours. It's almost lunchtime as you grab a big bowl, filling it up with cereal and milk. As you go to grab the sugar you notice a nice, big cake on the bench.

Mum baked you a cake! And it looks so very tasty as you quickly decide that a small slice can't hurt; it's lunchtime you reason, so eating some cake is fine.

So after seeing the mouth-watering cake, you decide to slice a piece and pick it up. It makes a soft sound as you pull the piece off the plate and it feels heavy, like a chocolate mud cake, only it's lightly coloured; like a banana cake. The aroma of the fresh cake becomes even stronger as you lift the piece and take a bite, and at once your taste buds are rewarded.

But your Mum never returned home that day. She died in a fatal car accident on the way to work that morning.

I suppose by now you're wondering where I'm actually going with this, and I'm going to tell you. In the story, you saw the cake. Then you touched it, pulling it off the plate, hearing it as you did so. The smell filled your nostrils and taste aroused your taste buds. You used all five of your senses as you enjoyed that cake.

However, the cake was not proof that you're Mum was alive. She was dead before you even woke. But nonetheless, you assumed that the cake was made by your Mum and that you're Mum was obviously alive. Or perhaps, you're Mum didn't actually bake the cake, someone else did and left it there for you. Maybe your sister, or your Dad, or someone sneaky trying to play with your mind. But if it really were your Mum it makes no difference - from that point on, you cannot have a relationship with her.

Though you used all five senses to enjoy her cake, you cannot enjoy her as a person. She's gone forever. And this is where it connects to Christianity, or religion for that matter.

Why is it that so many Christians insist that the intricately detailed world around us is evidence of God's reality? Sure, we can experience the whole thing with our five senses, but really, that's just evidence that we can sense something. God may or may not be real - he might have died millions of years ago, or the force that created this thing we're experiencing might be completely different to the God we're trying to imagine.

Just for a second however, suppose God is real, and he has created this amazing world for us to experience. We use our five senses and find great beauty spread wide and far around the globe. And even further the beauty goes, as we begin looking around the universe.

But Christianity is about a relationship with God; with Jesus. Christianity is about a sacred marriage between the church and Jesus. And if it is a relationship which this religion is concerned with, why don't they focus on building a relationship? It doesn't matter whether God created all this or not, unless one can experience him with their five senses, then a relationship is impossible.

How many people do you know who you can't see, hear, touch, smell or taste (for the more intimate...)? How many people have you spoken to who you have never sensed?

No one! If you can't see someone or hear them, then the basics of communication will not work, and it is impossible for you to have a relationship with them, whether they are actually real or not. Remember the story from the beginning? If you're Mum died, you would not be able to have a relationship with her. Some will beg to differ and say that they can feel their Mum though she's not alive, but that's beside the point. The fact of the matter is, your Mum's dead. Or at least a whole lot more less alive than your other friends and family, with whom you have a relationship with.

So if God is so big and powerful, if Christianity is about a relationship with this God, if Jesus came to earth, died on the cross, rose three days later JUST SO WE COULD HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, why is the relationship impossible in any rational sense of the word!?

Why is it that we have separate standards when relating to God? Sure, they will be slightly different, but in the end, shouldn't experiencing God and relating to him be far easier rather than harder than other people? Instead of approaching God with all five of our senses not sensing anything, why can't we see God? Why can't we hear God? Why can't we touch God? Why can't we taste God? Or smell God?

If this is what Jesus sacrificed his life for, if this is what his blood has paid for, then why oh why is it near impossible to have any realistic experience of him?

I know there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people who will say they've experienced God, and that therefore they are right. But why should they be right? Why is there experience any more valid than mine, or yours, or anyone elses?

If my experience says that God cannot be experienced with my five senses and therefore one cannot have a relationship with him, why should I believe someone else?

So if my experience says one thing, a Christian's says another thing, and everyone else's experiences say thousands of other things, is anyone really right? Is everyone right? Or does it mean that no one is right, that each person can create their reality for themselves? And if that's the case, then Christianity can't be true. If everyone his right, then no one is right.

If God and Jesus could be experienced with my five senses, then I would love to know. I don't really think it's possible, though people can tell me it is. People can also tell me it isn't. So who's right?

It's the thought that no one's right which is why I don't believe in God. It renders what anyone can say useless, and leaves me as an existentialist, creating my purpose rather than having my purpose dictated for me.