A religious notion...

I once heard a quote from a religious sage, who said, among other things:

"We discover God not through his answers, but through our questions."

Huh? I mean, I understand the concept at all, but I'd still like to see some 'objectivist comments' (or rather refutations) on this quote.

Post 1

Monday, April 18, 2005 - 5:18am

I think the religious "sage" is saying that he does not know some things, therefore he knows God. He is saying that "God" is "the unknown". People who use the word "God" have a great deal of definitions of the word, which they change whenever it suits them. They say such things to help them to continue living in and spreading confusion.

Of course, I can never be sure exactly what information these people are trying to communicate, or whether they are actually communicating information at all.

Post 2

Monday, April 18, 2005 - 3:49am

See, it's like this: If they (we, or whomever) had the answers to all the questions, then "faith" would be moot. To keep faith alive there can never be any hard answers to the questions (of existence, of all the "whys," causation, etc.). And one can never "know" God because that would suggest a hard and fast "answer" rendering God as just another "thing" in the universe, an entity with an identity, an identity that can be dealt with by man, dealt with and understood, understood and controlled. It's all about faith.

That's my take on this old Catholic saying. :)

Post 3

Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 6:28am

The more sophisticated religionists understand the distinction between faith and reason and freely admit that their beliefs are taken on faith.

If you want to help get an ordinary religious person to start thinking for himself, I think this is the key. He may not fully understand what "faith" really means. He may be like Nathaniel Branden's mother who would tell him: "All the most intelligent people believe in God! Albert Einstein believes in God! They must know!"

If you can demonstrate to such a person that these authorities DON'T know and admit they don't know, that may be the start of a slow process of waking up.

Post 4

Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 10:51am

Substitute the word "ourselves" for god, and it makes perfect sense.

Post 5

Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 12:18pm

My take on the statement by the "sage" is that the questions represent the "search" for answers, and that it is only when one is searching that one allegedly finds gods.

From a personal point of view, it was only when I had questions about finding the best restaurant in Atlanta that I discovered Tu Tu Tango. Now, that is heaven.

Post 6

Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 3:41pm

This quote implies that God will provide us with no help in knowing of and confirming his existence. We must ask questions and discover that we do not have enough answers. This is supposed to create such an insecurity in us that we posit God's existence, put our faith in that supposition, and shut down our minds sufficiently that this gives us a false sense of comfort. God is still unknown to us and can be claimed to be all-powerful, though we see no use of power; all-knowing, though we know nothing that he knows; all-good, though we see none of his good values; infinite, though we cannot see either his infiniteness or any finite part; and ever-lasting, though we cannot be aware of even his instantaneous presence.

God has been reworked and reworked so that he cannot be discovered by science or the rational mind. The Christians are the most sophisticated in this effort. Fine, they have designed a god who does not want to be known, so let us honor that design by ignoring the unknowable god as we ignore anything else that is unknowable.

Post 7

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 - 11:11am

It has to do with the unique nature of each individual religious experience, and how each person comes into it. The total frame of the experience how it is worn, is unique to each person- we can only talk about commonalities, and even there language makes it challenging.

Post 8

Thursday, June 9, 2005 - 9:51am