I haven't seen it, so it doesn't exist!
The last blog had to do with truth and existence itself. Now we're going to discuss knowledge of truth. (These are two important distinct categories that people often mix together)
One of the more common objections I've heard from people who don't believe in God is where they say, "Well how do you know God exists? Have you seen Him?"
There's a hidden assumption behind these questions: they are basically saying if you see something, then that something exists; if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. Right now, I don't see Japan. Does that mean it doesn't exist? I've never seen, heard, tasted, or felt a single electron (for those of you who haven't taken chemistry yet, you'll learn about these. You can also look them up on the internet.) but yet scientists all agree that they're there. There's also your and my mind. You can't see it, taste it, touch it, smell it, and so on, but you can still see the effects of it. When someone thinks of 2+2=4, we're seeing the result of them using their mind.
So here's the thing I'd all of us to do for the next day or two...
can you think of things that we have no access to with our senses, but that we have good reasons to believe they exist? I gave a couple of examples that fit into this: the mind and electrons.
Labels: Apologetics Tools
posted by Heather R. at 6/16/2006 09:43:00 AM
3 Comments:
i've always used the great old fashioned wind analogy.
you can't taste the wind, you can't see the wind, you can't smell it, but you can see the effects of wind when it blows through the trees thus proving it's existence.
it's the same with god... you can't see him can't smell him, can't taste him, but you can see the effects of him, thus proving HIS existence.
6/17/2006 1:10 AM
WOOT!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! another person that is commenting on here.^.^
kudos to you, whoever you are.^.^
6/18/2006 8:47 PM
Hey GF and WB, great comments here! There are a couple of other things I'd like to add too.
Dreams & thoughts ... I can say I've had them, I've experienced them, and sometimes remember them. But YOU can't see my dreams. I can't show them to you. The only thing I can do is try to describe them (when I remember what happened 5 minutes after waking up) but any dream you have is completely inaccessible to other people via their 5 senses. Other people can't see your dreams or thoughts first hand (but God can as we know), but others can see the effects through tools such as brain mapping.
The Laws of Physics. They must exist otherwise the world would be in a state of chaos, but you can't see, taste, touch, hear, or smell the actual laws. You can only measure the effects and then figure out the law that is behind the effects.
6/19/2006 12:53 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home