Within the Jewish/Christian/Islamic tradition a key text is that God created human beings in His own image. (Genesis 1:27) It is unlikely this means that God is a biped because humans are bipedal. Image here cannot mean physical image. Traditionally this has been interpreted to mean humans were created in God’s image, regarding their rationality. “God is incomprehensible” then amounts to the claim that human rationality fails in attempting to understand God. If so there is no sense in which a belief in the existence of God makes sense. If the concept of God is incomprehensible, then all beliefs about God are empty of cognitive content, i.e. are essentially meaningless. In the early twentieth century this was the view of the logical positivists. They believed that one could have emotional feelings about God, but not any true or false beliefs. The view that God is incomprehensible is then intellectually self-defeating.
Kenneth
Essays by Month
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Recent Essays
- Polygamy versus Polyandry
- The Essences of Prayer
- Questioning Salvation
- A Minority View
- Most Assuredly a Curse
- All Are Okay
- It Depends
- Policies Should Evolve
- Reincarnation
- Too Much Money
- Both Are Vital
- Godless Items
- My Heresies
- A Gift
- The Defenseless Theist
- Nothing is Unforgivable
- Contemporary Prophets
- Enhance Social Involvement
- Learn From It!
- A Truly Nasty Person
- A Bird in the Hand …
- A Dark Vision
- Life’s Intrinsic Values
- Imminent Death
- The Argument From Design
- The Young Jesus
- Self-Knowledge
- No More War
- No Single Role
- God’s Pick
- A Mistaken Assumption
- Two Queries
- Fear Not Death
- The Cult of the Market
- Variable Religious Responsibility
- Inappropriate Gratitude
- A Thirst For Religious Knowledge
- Try Something New
- Secular Meditation
- Consider the Evidence
- The Sources of Life Satisfaction
- Prayer & Meditation
- God Talk
- Some Religions Promotes Wealth
- Harry Confronts Evil
- A Phony Choice
- A False Dichotomy
- Joyful Engagement
- No Love & No Hate
- No Taxes = No Politics
- “God will provide”
- The Occult Reported
- Multiple Possible Causes
- It Depends …
- God Is Both
- Lost Serenity
- The Religious Poor
- Violent Sects
- Secular Virtues?
- Unmarried Sex
- Blessed Silence
- False Religions
- Language Askew
- A Dubious Generality
- A Faulty Assumption
- Holy Foods
- Secular Trends
- Absolutely Not!
- Religious Flux
- Rules Rule
- Tough Choices
- Justified Fear
- Tears of Joy?
- Yes & No
- Conditions on Friendship?
- The Stillness of Meditation
- Parsing Piety
- Hell Yes
- Spiritual Alzheimers
- A Vexed Issue
- Deist or Theist
- It Is Neither
- An Open Question
- Parental Influence
- Mercy: No Cure All
- Confusions About Neutrality
- The Eye of the Needle
- The Relativity of Kindness
- Distinct Divinities
- Why We Err
- An Agnostic’s Position
- A Ban Achieves Little
- Approaching Death
- Pro Education about Religion
- An Open Question
- Avoid the Doctrinaire
- Conflicting Beliefs
- Goodbye, Joe
- Hell Denied
- Time’s Puzzle
- Veiled Liberty
- Literal Texts
- My Unhappiness
- Sin Requires a Deity
- Spiritual Irritants
- Religion Not a Panacea
- Who Knows?
- A Middling Sin
- Divine Law in Flux
- Views of Jesus
- No Necessary Standards
- Universal Liberty
- Complicated Desires
- Denying Evil
- Assuredly Imperfect
- Divine Dress Codes
- Naked Is Good
- Spiritual Alzheimers
- The Perplexity of Death
- Religion Won’t Matter
- Elusive Truth
- Parsing Pornography
- A Religious Dilemma
- No Programmed Belief
- A Scary Prospect
- Intellectual Sloth
- Religion In Flux
- The Puzzle of Miracles
- Water Rites
- Names & Their Power
- Is God Listening?
- Don’t do it!
- It Depends
- Parental Challenges
- Time’s Perplexities
- Religion, Gender & Surveys
- Unfree Speech
- Religious Fanaticism
- “Dukkha” & the Grim Reaper
- A Philosopher’s Resolution
- The Blame for Ebola
- Critiques of the Curia
- A Cultural Lag
- Unethical Bankers?
- A God Beyond Belief
- Not God’s Doing
- Evil Is Real
- A Vexing Question
- An Uncaring God
- Dropouts