Retired Boards (Archived)
Nature of God
Posted by: jayceeii
« on: February 17, 2020, 02:23:00 PM »God is complex, but needed to be presented as simple in religion so that men could feel in control of the situation and that God was easily dominated. Humans were brought only to a cartoon God, nor have they asked for more. For instance one thing you never hear in any sermon is a lamentation by the preacher, that Moses should have presented ten thousand precise commandments rather than just a vague ten. Moses had time to write, but did not leave much more than a juvenile delinquent spray painting graffiti on a wall.
At the same time it can be argued that a certain simplicity is required at the highest levels of consciousness, for things such as peace, joy, and appreciation to arise. The Creator has levels and regions in His Mind, as possibly the angels may claim though in a lesser way, as the soul has some resemblances to the Lord from the sheer requirements of successful embodiment. If you want to think of God’s complexity, perhaps the body can be a useful analogy. Think of all the organs, cells and even enzyme reactions as being consciously controlled in individual ways. These are the distal, complex portions of God’s Mind. Above these are higher integrating and overseeing functions, where the Knowledge is housed. The soul is complex too, when you consider its distal memories overseen by rational functions of mind. Yet God’s Knowledge makes all the supercomputers of the world appear less than a child’s playthings, the One who is generating the many you see.
At the same time it can be argued that a certain simplicity is required at the highest levels of consciousness, for things such as peace, joy, and appreciation to arise. The Creator has levels and regions in His Mind, as possibly the angels may claim though in a lesser way, as the soul has some resemblances to the Lord from the sheer requirements of successful embodiment. If you want to think of God’s complexity, perhaps the body can be a useful analogy. Think of all the organs, cells and even enzyme reactions as being consciously controlled in individual ways. These are the distal, complex portions of God’s Mind. Above these are higher integrating and overseeing functions, where the Knowledge is housed. The soul is complex too, when you consider its distal memories overseen by rational functions of mind. Yet God’s Knowledge makes all the supercomputers of the world appear less than a child’s playthings, the One who is generating the many you see.
Posted by: Cletus Nze
« on: January 04, 2011, 11:56:11 AM »Dave Spor wrote: Dr. Craig argued on this website, contra Richard Dawkins, that God may be a fairly simple being while having complex ideas. I wonder if he or anyone who agrees with him would be willing to elaborate on that. It seems to me that any kind of complexity implies a certain contingency, and that therefore if God possessed any sort of complexity he would be a contingent entity.
Thanks.
Don't be silly! The less CONSTRAINED a thing is the more AUTONOMOUS it is and vice-versa!
The more AUTONOMOUS a thing is, the greater is its scope and capacity for action - as well as its SIMPLICITY!
When a thing is COMPLETELY AUTONOMOUS, it will also be UTTERLY SIMPLE - and OMNIPOTENT!
ONLY a free mind - unconstrained by prejudice - can create the most original and powerful thoughts! The more prejudiced and narrow a mind is, the weaker and more circumscribed will be its products also.
Posted by: Tim
« on: October 17, 2007, 12:29:17 PM »Shabi wrote: I'm just wondering, in case some of you can tell: Is there a place Dr. Craig deals with the issue of Divine Simplicity? Does he take Plantinga's position or something along the lines of Aquinas?
thanks
I've never read up on Plantinga's position on simplicity (unless, maybe, it's similar to Thomas Morris's), but Craig takes great issue with Aquinas' notion (property simplicity) for a number of reasons. I know he's written briefly on this issue in his book Time and Eternity. He likely has written more extensively on it in the more technical version, God, Time, and Eternity published by Kluwer.
Browsing through Time and Eternity, I'm notice that under his recommended reading section for divine simplicity and immutability, he lists Morris's Anselmian Explorations and Christopher Hughes's On a Complex Theory of a Simple God.
Posted by: Dave Spor
« on: April 25, 2007, 11:05:46 AM »Dr. Craig argued on this website, contra Richard Dawkins, that God may be a fairly simple being while having complex ideas. I wonder if he or anyone who agrees with him would be willing to elaborate on that. It seems to me that any kind of complexity implies a certain contingency, and that therefore if God possessed any sort of complexity he would be a contingent entity.
Thanks.
Thanks.