How did the first person figure out that God existed? Before there was a Bible or Koran or other scripture to tell us, what was it about the world that tipped us off?
It may have been something miraculous like the Voice coming from the burning bush. Exodus 3: 1-4. Or we might have been persuaded by the deeply moving splendor and complexity of life and nature. These might account for our belief in God's omniscience and omnipotence, but they would not explain why we came to believe God to be benevolent.
The candidate I would propose is the tendency for things to work themselves out better when we accept them as they are than when we try to change them to suit our preferences. The religious now know this as faith: that we are better off letting God govern what happens to us than we are when we try to change what we don't like. (Those unfamiliar with this often dismiss it as the subjective delusion of the already-persuaded religious who see only what agrees with their beliefs: More on that in another post.)
The pre-scriptural ancients would have been able to account for this only by positing an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent being operating outside physical reality who can be relied on to arrange events to our benefit, but only when we get out of the way and accept whatever does or doesn't happen.
The young would never expect this and so would continually explain away why their efforts at changing and improving things are so often thwarted. But an older person reflecting on life might come to admit that trying to subdue the world is a fool's errand and doomed to frustration, whereas somehow, problems that are left alone will inevitably work themselves out.
To explain this, how reality can be so benevolent when left alone, the ancient might have concluded that there must be Someone who oversees everything (omniscient and omnipotent) and who will work everything out to our benefit when we resist the urge to interfere: ie, God.
See Jacob's Mirror: A Reconciliation of Science and Religion on YouTube or at Amazon. #scienceandreligion
before adam and eve sinned. there was no boundaries between God and man/woman.. But because of their disobedience they were forced to go out of the Garden of Eden.
The very first Encounter with God is with them. :)
check this out. https://www.youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject?&ab_channel=TheBibleProject
Whoever wrote the Bible already believed in God. And yes, the Bible can help non-believers discover God. But my question is: how was God first discovered before there was a Bible or even anyone else who knew?
My best idea (admitting that this is not something I can ever know for sure) is that humans have an innate drive to understand experienced events (such as lighting/thunder, birth/death, etc) as well as connect with things outside themselves such as other people, nature, etc. When survival isn't threatened people have time to potentially focus on connecting with the rest the universe. We are after all a part of the same energy system in which things are merely transformed, not created or destroyed.
There is a school of thought that our brains have an interpretor module
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mJKloz2vwlc
that is solely there to create a best idea on experiences, even if they are completely wrong (i.e. flat earth theory. ) People seem to feel more comfortable simply by having some idea to run on versus an absolute feeling of powerlessness.
The Bible is full of accounts of people who God interacted with directly. Adam had daily contact before he disobeyed. Noah, Abraham, Issaic, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, numerous judges, Kings Saul, David, Solomon, dozens of kings and prophets, and the Apostles to name a few. That's in fact where the Bible came from - such folks writing down the accounts of their encounters.