God Made Material
Descartes gives us a summary of his thoughts in his ideas
called Meditations of First Philosophy. Guiding us through these, he elaborates
his ideas by breaking things down, doubting them and then rebuilding them on
things that cannot be proved false. One thing he proves is the existence of
God, and how although things all work together, it was not the thought of one
person but of a supreme being. An infinite being must have thought of
everything, and created finite and material beings. However, man has tried to
give God an “image” and think of him as a human, giving him finite qualities.
Like using numbers to get to infinity or putting God into a man’s body, it
gives us the ability to conceive an infinite being as a finite one. I think
this is something we should not do because it causes God to become lower than a
finite being because it is something we have imaged and have an image of it in
our heads. Why are people constantly trying to solve things they do not
understand? Do you think putting a picture in your head of God allows it to
become more real in your head?
I think the last question you asked hits the nail on the head. Humans as a whole don't like when things are not understood, hence scientific progression, etc. Therefore, assuming the Cartesian model is true, then it is very natural to attempt to put something inexplicable in explicable terms, just like James and I repeatedly tried to do, or like how ancient polytheistic religions answered unknown questions of nature with stories of greater beings. I wonder, though, if Descartes himself is also following this model. It's possible that he too is uncomfortable with the idea of the unknown, and thus attempts to logically prove the existence of the infinite.
ReplyDeleteJust like in class, people tended to confuse this idea of the infinite (God) and the Christian God. Therefore it is hard to put the idea of the infinite into a man’s body, but when thinking of the Christian God, we often imagine a giant bearded man in white robes. I agree that we shouldn’t try to think of God in this way, but with that being said, I find it almost impossible to do so. Just like the idea of infinity we have in our heads; we have never experienced infinity, but we can come close to imagining it. We will never experience this infinite being, but imagining it comes with being human. As human beings, we have an incomparable capacity to think about ourselves and the outside world. Introducing this idea of an all infinite being will lead to people trying to imagine it. In addition to this, from Descartes readings we come to the conclusion that God itself has put the idea of the infinite in our heads. So it is possible that God wants us to try to imagine him, so that we become closer to him.
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