God

God is for Hegel not the personal being of religion, but the fundamental order --- the absolute idea that unfolds itself in logic, nature, and spirit. Logic shows "God as he is in his eternal essence before the creation of nature" --- demystified: the structures of thought that underlie everything. Hegel makes the question of God scientifically treatable, without dogmatic pre-decisions (neither theistic nor atheistic). The absolute idea is the absolute that knows itself. Whether this order is personal remains philosophically open --- logic shows only the rational structures. Hegel's "theodicy" is a justification of rationality itself: reality is knowable. Practically: religion and science both seek the fundamental --- only in different form. Hegel makes conversation possible at a higher level of reflection.