Thought Hinders Man's View of God

[Lancaster]

For us to relate to any being, deity, or idea, it helps to associate attributes to it. I can say that dirt is brown, or that pudding is mushy. I can say that my friend is angry, or that he is generally nice. If we cannot add these sort of terms to something, it loses definition. Most things in this world are observable, which allows us to place descriptive words on them. I can watch a man die, and call him dead.

 

This creates some issues with God. Christians often call him "loving", or "merciful." These are regular human words that can be placed on normal things. I can call my father merciful if he chooses not to punish me for wrong doing. So, if my father can be called merciful, then is his mercy the same as God's? There's no change in words or definitions as far as I can tell. I can call God "powerful." But I can also call George W. Bush "powerful."

 

So, to help the comparison, Christians often apply the term "infinitely" to attributes of God. He is "infinitely powerful" or "infinitely loving." This creates a serious problem. We cannot possible comprehend the idea of an infinite attribute. If I call an object infinitely stinky, all this really means to me is that the object is really, really, stinky. In reality, it is not that it is as stinky as possible, but that it is endlessly stinky, there are no limits to its stink. I cannot imagine that, so I have to dumb it down. Some even go as far as to say that God is generally infinite, all of his attributes lack limits. Whether they are speaking of infinite chronologically, or whatever, the idea is limited by human thought.

 

So where does this leave God? His attributes are dumbed down for us to understand (or not understand). In reality, all Christians (the one's that acknowledge that God is infinite) are worshiping a dumbed down version of the real God, sort of like a God Lite.

 

So the true, infinite God is not something we can talk about. If we cannot imagine him or think about him (using the term "him" for practical purposes), we cannot speak about him, because we think in words. We are stuck worshiping God for dummies, or, accepting the fact that God is not generally infinite, or possessing any attributes that are infinite.

 

(Before responding, remember that this post goes under the assumption that Christians assign infinite attributes to God.)

[moosegal]

Well it seems I should have popped into this thread before I posted in the other one. B)