Detective Z Searches for God: The Metaphysical Detective 3

I’m Detective Z, and my last two cases were nutty. One had been to “investigate whether Karma was real,” and the other had been to uncover “the meaning of life.” I didn’t think anything could top those, but when a billionaire approached me with his request, I wondered what the hell was going on.

He wanted me to find God. And not just find God, but find concrete proof of God’s existence. I was a pro at finding missing people. After a year of searching I had even found the daughter of that real estate magnate high in the mountains of Sumatra. But this case took the trophy. I was supposed to find the Big Guy. The Big Guy who had not been seen in person for a couple thousand years.

At first, I thought everyone had gone mad. How could I find proof of Someone that many people believed to be intangible and unknowable? But the businessman was insistent and offered me a generous expense account, and if I succeeded, enough greenbacks to let me retire like a king.

I decided to take on the challenge and started my search for God. I traveled around the world, visiting the most prominent religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and even Scientology. I visited various locations like Israel, the Middle East, India, Tibet, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, and Japan. I prayed, fasted, shared, meditated, chanted, ingested psychoactive substances, read, celebrated the solstice, listened, and confessed.

But despite my best efforts over five years, I couldn’t find any concrete evidence for God’s existence. The more I studied, the more confused I became. I began to doubt whether I’d ever be able to solve the case. The struggle had taken its toll on me. I wanted a drink badly, but I knew what that could lead to, and I didn’t wanna go there again.

Just as I was about to give up and report my failure to the billionaire, I stumbled upon Spinoza’s philosophy in a used bookstore in Boulder, Colorado. Spinoza’s view of God was unlike anything I’d ever encountered before. God wasn’t an all-knowing, all-powerful being, but rather the universe itself. According to Spinoza, God wasn’t behind the universe; God was the universe.

It was like the answer had been right in front of me all along. If everyone agreed that the universe existed, then that was proof that God existed. It was concrete evidence, and I wrote a report explaining my findings and presented it to the businessman.

He wasn’t satisfied, and he refused to pay me anymore. Strangely enough, I didn’t care about the money anymore.

(Also see my non-fiction article "Einstein’s God” https://bill360.medium.com/einsteins-god-84ffee47ce60)