Assuming God's Existent, Can His Nature Be Known?

[The Sum of Awe]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

 

[Thief]

Some adjectives are easily placed....If that Spirit is God....

Bigger, faster, stronger, more intelligent and greatly experienced.

He cannot be pushed aside, circumvented, subdued, tricked or cheated.

Coupled with the power of creation......stacked deck.

In a word...Almighty.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Some adjectives are easily placed....If that Spirit is God....

Bigger, faster, stronger, more intelligent and greatly experienced.

He cannot be pushed aside, circumvented, subdued, tricked or cheated.

Coupled with the power of creation......stacked deck.

In a word...Almighty.

Perhaps those words do not apply to a non-physical entity, or if you do view God as physical, it still may not apply to divinity.

 

[idea]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

We can only truly understand what we become.

 

[Sha'irullah]

Natural theology. This is what Deism encourages. Judge the creator by his creation.

Using empirical reasoning we can conclude:

God does not love us.
There is no hope.
God does not intend for us to live for eternity.
God does not have any regard for human life.
God does not have any regard for any life.
God is bipolar as he gives what is needed to live and to suffer.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Natural theology. This is what Deism encourages. Judge the creator by his creation.

Using empirical reasoning we can conclude:

God does not love us.
There is no hope.
God does not intend for us to live for eternity.
God does not have any regard for human life.
God does not have any regard for any life.
God is bipolar as he gives what is needed to live and to suffer.

Unless, of course, we as a species are afraid of impermanence although that was just in the terms and conditions of making a physical reality.

 

[Sha'irullah]

Unless, of course, we as a species are afraid of impermanence although that was just in the terms and conditions of making a physical reality.

Dude, I do not know if I have to be intoxicated to understand what you just said or what.

 

[Quintessence]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

Why do you ask?

I'm curious because to me it is a very strange question to ask. Of course we can know the nature of the gods. As with any human knowledge, that knowledge is limited, but we can certainly know.

 

[Awkward Fingers]

Unless, of course, we as a species are afraid of impermanence although that was just in the terms and conditions of making a physical reality.

Be fair, we as a species just click "I agree" without ever reading the rest.
Everyone does it.

 

[Willamena]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

Known and understood are different things. One analogy of God's unknowability that I heard was how you can't taste your tongue. It tastes other things with its tastebuds, that's it's function, so it cannot have a taste unto itself. Anything it tastes is something else. Yet we can understand the tongue that tastes yet has no taste.

Our minds comprehend, that's what they do. Like the tongue that cannot taste itself, awareness cannot be aware of itself, because awareness is of other things, all the things of the world. The thought (consciousness) that is awareness of the world is a continuum of "now," right now. It is an unbroken stream of world, and we are immersed in that world of thought.

Mind also makes (what we call) 'thoughts' by chopping up that continuum. Mind (in contrast to consciousness) exists to analyse, to organize, and to make sense of the continuum of thought. It isolates a bit of the continuum--identifies it, names it, classifies it, stores it in memory, recalls it, compares it to other 'thoughts'--and we think we've "captured" a real bit of the world. But like a taste on the tongue that cannot taste itself, all that's really been captured is "a thought" about the world.

God is that continuum. It is the thought that is the world, and it is also in every way a 'thought' captured and named "God."

 

[Farrukh]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

Islam teaches that Allah, the one God, has 99 attributes. Although we can understand some of His attributes, His essence cannot be comprehended by a human's limited mental capacity. Allah has created mankind primarily so that they may know their creator through his creations.
when He want to do something, he just says 'Be' and the thing is done.

 

[1137]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

To an extent maybe, based on the tools we have. However, it's absolutely absurd to think we can understand something that's - by definition - beyond our understanding. I find it funny that most groups claim this then proceed to the us everything about god including his likes and wants.

 

[Windwalker]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

Do you understand your own nature? When you do, then you can answer that about understanding God.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

To an extent maybe, based on the tools we have. However, it's absolutely absurd to think we can understand something that's - by definition - beyond our understanding. I find it funny that most groups claim this then proceed to the us everything about god including his likes and wants.

I noticed that too. When I was a boy, still going to church with the family, I would always wonder why there were pictures of God when supposedly nobody can know a thing about him.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Dude, I do not know if I have to be intoxicated to understand what you just said or what.

Sorry I'm horrible at wording

I'm pretty much saying that maybe it's simply the nature of physical reality itself. If God wanted to created physical reality, he also had to agree to the laws of reality.

If you want to make physical reality, you must understand that the laws of existence would make it impermanent, that's the very nature of physical reality. Then God said "It's worth it"

 

[Thief]

Known and understood are different things. One analogy of God's unknowability that I heard was how you can't taste your tongue. It tastes other things with its tastebuds, that's it's function, so it cannot have a taste unto itself. Anything it tastes is something else. Yet we can understand the tongue that tastes yet has no taste.

Our minds comprehend, that's what they do. Like the tongue that cannot taste itself, awareness cannot be aware of itself, because awareness is of other things, all the things of the world. The thought (consciousness) that is awareness of the world is a continuum of "now," right now. It is an unbroken stream of world, and we are immersed in that world of thought.

Mind also makes (what we call) 'thoughts' by chopping up that continuum. Mind (in contrast to consciousness) exists to analyse, to organize, and to make sense of the continuum of thought. It isolates a bit of the continuum--identifies it, names it, classifies it, stores it in memory, recalls it, compares it to other 'thoughts'--and we think we've "captured" a real bit of the world. But like a taste on the tongue that cannot taste itself, all that's really been captured is "a thought" about the world.

God is that continuum. It is the thought that is the world, and it is also in every way a 'thought' captured and named "God."

Does this include that item....I think therefore I am.

With no other affirmation....could you be sure?
At what 'point' or line drawn can one be aware?....and be sure it's a 'thought'.

 

[Thief]

Sorry I'm horrible at wording

I'm pretty much saying that maybe it's simply the nature of physical reality itself. If God wanted to created physical reality, he also had to agree to the laws of reality.

If you want to make physical reality, you must understand that the laws of existence would make it impermanent, that's the very nature of physical reality. Then God said "It's worth it"

I would also agree....
If you create a rule called gravity, everything must obey it.

No matter how much you love your creation....if it steps off a high place...
it must die.

(and I walked away only to return to point out in question.....what about walking on water?

 

[Willamena]

Does this include that item....I think therefore I am.

With no other affirmation....could you be sure?

That "I am" is a thought (a thing) captured about the world. To be sure is simply a matter of things' relation to other things.

At what 'point' or line drawn can one be aware?....and be sure it's a 'thought'.

Just stop capturing.

 

[rusra02]

As the title of the thread.

Let's say for the sake of the thread God exists - Could we ever comprehend, understand, or even know without understanding, what God's nature is like?

If God reveals his nature, of course, at least to a point. Happily, IMO, God has done just that.(Acts 17:26-28) Thus, God invites us; "Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you." (James 4:8)

 

[Nakosis]

Does this include that item....I think therefore I am.

With no other affirmation....could you be sure?
At what 'point' or line drawn can one be aware?....and be sure it's a 'thought'.

I don't think and I still am. I go about life often not self aware. I go about doing things, I go about teaching, I go about arguing a point without self awareness.

To be self-aware I have to visualize a self. However that self I visualize is not me. It's a virtual image which I think myself to be. So what am I aware of really? Not the actual me.

A lot of people seem not aware there is a difference between the virtual self they create and the actual self. I know the "self" I am aware of is not the "real deal".

The "I" that exists cannot step outside itself self to see/observe itself. The self that you think you are aware of is not reality.