Posted on 11/13/2006 7:34:14 PM PST by betty boop
Well said, Lexinom! Evidently for some people today, this is a very difficult point to grasp.
Thank you so much for your kind words.
God's existence is not subject to scientific inquiry but rather prequisiste thereto.
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I would also argue that one of the great confusions of the modern era brought in through Bacon (I think) by way of a french 17th century philosopher (at the time Decartes tried unsuccessfully to prove scientifically that God existed)--is that theology and philosophy are along the same branch of knowledge. They are not. Theology is God centered whereas philosophy is man centered. These are two very different kinds of propositions: God is the measure of all things. Man is the measure of all things.
From this it can be properly inferred that science is a branch of philosophy. And further, you can infer that the reason you can't prove scientifically that God exists is because the knowledge of God is not in the same (philosophical) category as science. God is outside the scope of science by definition.
Which God?...
This used to be the common understanding, ckilmer. Science used to be called "natural philosophy." That is, before Francis Bacon established the techniques of methodological naturalism that constitute the modern scientific method. Thereafter, many people have come to believe that the scientific method as a way of knowing is superior to philosophy. That particular bias is very evident today.
BTW, I certainly agree with you here: "Theology is God centered whereas philosophy is man centered. These are two very different kinds of propositions: God is the measure of all things. Man is the measure of all things."
Thanks for your very fine post!
[ God is outside the scope of science by definition. ]
Which God?...
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In the western judeo/christian tradition God has always been outside of nature and time. He is the creator of nature and time but himself remains outside of both. He is, in the terms of the US Declaration of Independence.."nature's God"
I know a teenager that worships his car.. and a twenty something that worships himself.. The God of the Jewish Bible is a God but many people invent their own.. There are even many people that take the Jewish God as a base concept and create a hybrid God..
"You MUST be born again"- Jesus.. You can't do that yourself..
Then who is God is a non sequiter..
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