Now that we have clearly established that a superior being or force exists in our midst, the remaining question is whether we can establish a channel of communication where both parties actively participate. Prayers and worship, as we understand them, are but forms of one-sided communication, where humans do most of the talking. At the end of this communication, all they are left with is faith that God will answer their prayers.
The concept of God communicating directly with human beings was introduced to the world primarily by Europeans and Arabs. In African religious beliefs and practices, there is no record of a supreme being directly communicating with people. Instead, they acknowledge that communication with God is one-sided, where humans speak, and God responds through events such as a good harvest, successful births, victory in wars, and the like. Conversely, misfortunes are interpreted as signs of God's anger, prompting them to change their ways.
However, this contrasts with the beliefs of Europeans and Arabs. Their religious traditions provide written accounts of God speaking directly to individuals with clear words. Examples include God speaking to the likes of Moses, Jacob, Jesus and Abraham. These are but a few of the figures in history that claimed to have conversed with a superior entity beyond human comprehension.
However, since the conceptualization of the Bible and Quran, there has been no verifiable evidence of a superior being audibly speaking to humans. These texts do not provide a clear reason why God could not speak to someone audibly today. According to Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, he believes that this is because there can be no direct relationship between God—the unknowable ultimate reality—and human beings. He argued that direct communication would imply equality between humans and god.
Many individuals have claimed that God has spoken to them directly. Experiences of hearing voices or seeing visions while alone, which others cannot perceive, are reportedly quite common nowadays. Around 30% of people globally claim to have had such experiences. However, this cannot be taken as proof, because if God were to speak, it would presumably be in a way that all could hear and confirm, as the scriptures suggest.
From my understanding, even though a superior being exists, we are still unable to communicate directly with it. This may be because, in our understanding of what a superior entity is, we tend to humanize it. We ascribe human features, like a voice or a mouth, to something that transcends our comprehension—an approach that seems fundamentally flawed.