[Bread-Baking Typewriter] How Can the Existence of God Be Proven?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The intellectual of the era was the late Yi Eo-ryeong, but even he could not escape illness. One day, while battling cancer, a reporter came to him and asked, "It is said that when the late Chairman Lee Byung-chul faced death, he asked priests twenty-four questions about religion, God, and death. Could you answer from the perspective of someone confronting death and fighting illness?" At that moment, a faint smile crossed Yi Eo-ryeong’s lips. Chairman Lee Byung-chul was a world-renowned figure who had accumulated vast experience in insight, knowledge, and wisdom about worldly matters, but when it came to memento mori, he felt a “peculiar pride as a senior.” That was the moment this book began.

Chairman Lee Byung-chul asked many questions about proof. How can the existence of God be proven? How can it be proven that God is the creator of the universe and all things? In response, Yi Eo-ryeong mentioned the enormous fortune Lee had amassed and asked if money could be proven. People might say it can be proven by a bank balance, but Yi explained that was only possible during the gold exchange era.

To explain the value of 50,000 won and 5,000 won, one would have to materially prove these two, but since the gold exchange system that converted currency to gold was abolished, this became impossible. Now, people believe not in material things but in the financial system. To those who do not use the US dollar, it is just a piece of paper, but when there is a belief that it can be exchanged for a certain value in the society one belongs to, then value exists. He then explained, “Originally, the existence called God is an invisible system, not something that can be proven materially.”

Part 2 introduces a conversation held from July to October 2019, while Part 3 presents a dialogue from May 2021, during the height of COVID-19. Here, Yi Eo-ryeong mentions the term “quarantine dictatorship.” Referring to Europe’s experience with the plague, he said, “When COVID-19 spread, ‘quarantine dictatorship’ reappeared,” adding, “In the past, when they said ‘I will kill you!’ people resisted or fled, but now, when they say ‘Listen to me. The vaccine will save you,’ people obey and return, becoming slaves by their own will.”

Part 1 is the most recent conversation, held last December. It concretely depicted the post-COVID world through 25 questions. Among them were many fundamental questions about proving God’s existence, such as “How can the existence of God be proven?” Regarding this, Yi said, “Let’s replace the word ‘God’ with ‘parents.’ How can we prove the existence of our parents? (...) If the word ‘proof’ comes up between a parent and child or lovers, it’s already over.” He added, “The relationship between God and me is not one of proof but of faith, and God is the object of faith,” further explaining, “That is the world of faith made up of love in families, love between men and women, and the faith and love spoken of in religion.”

“Even if the end of the Earth comes, I want to be the last witness and leave a record saying ‘This is how the Earth ended.’ (...) If you write about the end, that record comes after the end, so you live 0.1 seconds longer than the end. That’s why I write and leave a word. It is not an apple tree but the seed of language that I sow in the universe.” This book is the first volume in a series related to Yi Eo-ryeong, with 19 more volumes to be published in the future.

Memento Mori | Written by Yi Eo-ryeong | Yeollimwon | 244 pages | 15,000 won

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.