Understanding the Concept of God
Journal Entry 1
The human mind has evolved to facilitate survival in the natural world. It is adapted to deal with finite objects. God, on the contrary is infinite and of a completely different order of being from what our minds can grasp. To expect our minds to corner the infinite is like asking a dog to understand Einstein’s equation with its nose. I found the concept of God as infinite to be very similar to what I have been taught my entire life. This quote reminds me of how God was described to me as a child. I was told that humans could never fathom God in any realistic way. I feel the biggest reason for this is because as humans when we think about something or someone we have the instinct to associate an image with our thoughts. When trying to think of God, we would have to completely empty our minds and try to imagine an entity with no bounds, no limits, and no form. I agree that God is a completely different then human, therefore we have no idea of how to form God in our minds. Using the image of a dog trying to think about Einstein’s equation is already impossible because dogs thought processes are completely different then a mans. But then to imagine a dog using his nose to think I feel gives a good image of what a human’s ability to understand God would be.
Works Cited
Smith, Huston. The World 's Religions. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Harper One, 1991.
The human mind has evolved to facilitate survival in the natural world. It is adapted to deal with finite objects. God, on the contrary is infinite and of a completely different order of being from what our minds can grasp. To expect our minds to corner the infinite is like asking a dog to understand Einstein’s equation with its nose. I found the concept of God as infinite to be very similar to what I have been taught my entire life. This quote reminds me of how God was described to me as a child. I was told that humans could never fathom God in any realistic way. I feel the biggest reason for this is because as humans when we think about something or someone we have the instinct to associate an image with our thoughts. When trying to think of God, we would have to completely empty our minds and try to imagine an entity with no bounds, no limits, and no form. I agree that God is a completely different then human, therefore we have no idea of how to form God in our minds. Using the image of a dog trying to think about Einstein’s equation is already impossible because dogs thought processes are completely different then a mans. But then to imagine a dog using his nose to think I feel gives a good image of what a human’s ability to understand God would be.
Works Cited
Smith, Huston. The World 's Religions. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Harper One, 1991.
Cited: Smith, Huston. The World 's Religions. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Harper One, 1991.