Is God unknowable?

[wtfNeedSignUp]

So unknowable glancing him would turn you to salt

 

[Lindy64]

He is unknowable to the degree that He reveals Himself. Sure, He could reveal Himself anytime, and He did, He became a man. Yahweh revealed Himself through divine revelation passed over thousands of years, culminating in the arrival of His Son, Jesus, whom is part of the trinity.

I'll just link this video actually, it's a neat little animation, and sort of explains this. l

and maybe this

 

[Mothra1988]

Anyone can learn and interact with the spiritual realm in a general sense. That you can at least have direct contact with. I don't know about God being "unknowable," but prayer can work and has worked for people.

 

[Mad_Dog]

I'm with Thomas Aquinas on this one, the Doctor Angelicus. The man is a big brain, he pretty much shaped most of the Catholic Church's theology and set the foundations of Western thought. He did this by harmonizing faith and reason, when he combined the core tenets of Christianity and Greek philosophy and came up with some pretty solid arguments for the existence of God. Here are his five arguments, just to give you a taste:

1. The "Unmoved Mover" - Things move, so there must be something that started the motion, and that something can't be moved. That something would be God.
2. The "First Cause" - Everything has a cause behind it but that can't go on for ever, so there must be a first cause that set everything in motion. That's also God.
3. "Contingency" - Certain things exist, certain things don't, so there must be something that isn't decides what get's to exits and what doesn't and isn't dependent on anything else. That's God.
4. "Degrees of Perfection" - There are different degrees of goodness, truth, and beauty, so there has to be a thing that maxed out all those stats, and that thing is God.
5. "Intelligent Design" - The world appears to have order and purpose, so there must be some kind of engineer behind it all – that's God.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

God (with a capital G) is the Absolute. The foundation. God exists because God cannot fail to exist. God is the being which, by definition, nothing can be greater than. Even calling God "a" being is misleading. God is just... being. The Alpha and the Omega. I AM that I AM

There's an infinite universe in that concept, but hopefully that's a halfway useful starting point.

 

[Strix454]

I'm with Thomas Aquinas on this one, the Doctor Angelicus. The man is a big brain, he pretty much shaped most of the Catholic Church's theology and set the foundations of Western thought. He did this by harmonizing faith and reason, when he combined the core tenets of Christianity and Greek philosophy and came up with some pretty solid arguments for the existence of God.

Another important set of ideas from Greek Philosophy is Plato's Allegory of the Cave which, for its age, remains probably one of the best critiques about the limitations of observational-based science to explain the world.

I would also give St. Augustine partial credit as a precursor to Thomas Aquinas.

 

[frozen_runner]

I have realized over time that I believe God, if he exists, is unknowable, yes. That's why faith is necessary.

dEeP nErD tHoUgHtS: the world of the game Blaphemous is what would happen to Christianity (or any religion) if the existence of God was clear and obvious to everyone. It would destroy the world.

 

[AbyssGazer]

You can't "see" God/the ultimate just as you can't directly observe your own eyes.

 

[Stan]

There seems to be a prevailing theory that the form and structure of God will forever be incomprehensible no matter how much our understanding of science and the universe advances. I don't consider that to be true. I recognize the Bible to be an metaphor to explain concepts that were poorly understood during the Bronze Age, but it shouldn't be an excuse to reject the new things we learn just because it doesn't make sense in the context of the Bible. For God's history is written on the bones of the earth and His laws are etched into the laws of physics and causality.

The standard answer to this question per Thomas Aquinas is that the will of God is not knowable to man.

 

[Otoya Yamaguchi]

god is not unknowable, he just chooses not to tell us everything.

humans are just babies, like any good parent, god knows humans dont need to know everything

he tells us whats important, we'll probably figure out the rest later i new jerusalem. or not. by the time we get to that point, nothing about this reality will even be relevant anymore

 

[Lemmingwiser]

I probably should've clarified, but that was the point of this thread. We did have valid and important discussion though.

If, for example, a multidimensional alien introduced itself to us and explained that it created our universe with a subspace computer or something and ocassonally interjected with us to influence our development; would it be a God? Even if it took the time to explain its nature to us and the nature of our creation in a way that we could work towards building ourselves up and creating our own universe or universes?

The christian definition of god goes a lot further than define god as just the creator. If such an alien introduced itself, and his word is taken as truth, it would be at odds with christian theology.

I think it was thomas aquinas who defined god very simply as pure good, and that everything else derived from that. An idea I find very compelling. But in truth we don't have even have the capacity to hold the full definition as christians defined god in our head at once. You need a document to organize all aspects, as omniscient or omnibenevolent are just two traits how god's defined.

Your post exudes hubris, arrogance, and blasphemy. Humbling yourself before the Almighty and recognizing your place in relation to God is the most liberating action one can take. Learning the ways and workings of His wonderful universe is a gift bestowed upon man that should be encouraged and appreciated, but never forget how insignificant, yet simultaneously incredibly important each individual is to God and His plan.

Maybe it's just me, but I found this post quite arrogant and not a humble appraisal at all of another's thought process.