Posted by alexandra_k on August 28, 2004, at 20:30:11 [reposted on August 30, 2004, at 1:10:29 | original URL]
In reply to Re: the nature of god, posted by nicolas on August 28, 2004, at 19:44:14
> Well, in my faith I don't confuse logic with intuition. There are many planes of existence and some of these are experiences as spiritual truths, expressed through metaphor and mythology. They should not be tested through rationality but if I had to rely on my rational mind alone (!) I would be in great trouble.
Nicely said Nicolas, I think I agree with you, and I have been told that I am excessively rational too much for me to be able to (rationally) doubt it, ha!
I agree that faith is a seperate matter from logic, and there are also more alternatives than (a) concrete existance as a material object on the one hand and (b) non-existance, or existance only as an idea or concept on the other. (For instance consider voices, centers of gravity, or fields of force).
In studying arguements for the existance of god (and arguments against the existance of god) and considering the problems with all of the above, it would seem that there are rational grounds for concluding that belief in the existance (or non-existance) of god is not a matter of logic. That seems to leave faith, as you note.
One might do well to consider the function of religious discourse. Some maintain that it is an expression of emotion, or a language game that does not involve making literal assertions about the way the world actually is. As such religious claims are not truth evaluable, and so it is meaningless to argue about whether god exists (in the world) or not; to argue this is to try to make religious discourse do more than it is capable of doing.
But then when people do ask whether god actually exists or not, they seem to be asking whether he REALLY does exist or not, and so perhaps here they are attempting to make religious discourse and concepts do more than they can.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:383975
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040820/msgs/383978.html