This ties back to Berdyaev; imagine physical reality as a calcified objectivization of spirit, and the need for God's All-Knowledge to apply to that realm is null; All-Knowledge doesn't apply to a form of reality that's only an empty husk. — Noble Dust
That a good parent doesn't shield their child from all possible negative experiences doesn't entail that they don't shield their child from any possible negative experiences. Parents may allow their kids some leeway in getting into scrapes with each other and learning conflict resolution skills, but if one tries to stab the other with a pair of scissors, no "good parent" would fail to intervene, I should think.I always think of it like this: does a good parent shield their child from all possible negative experiences in the world? No, the parent trains the child to have autonomy, and through that autonomy, the child comes to experience the negative things in life through his/her own eyes. The parent can't prevent this, only train the child for it. — Noble Dust
What does Christianity look like when God no longer holds our fate in Her hands? — Preston
That a good parent doesn't shield their child from all possible negative experiences doesn't entail that they don't shield their child from any possible negative experiences. Parents may allow their kids some leeway in getting into scrapes with each other and learning conflict resolution skills, but if one tries to stab the other with a pair of scissors, no "good parent" would fail to intervene, I should think. — Arkady
(As a side note, those who are bothered by what they perceive to be the over-anthropomorphization of God probably shouldn't lean on parent/child analogies when explaining the nature of Man and God's relationship.) — Arkady
You say quite a lot of good things in this post. — Preston
I think the point about God's intervention is that, just like parents, God wouldn't allow his children to be raped if God could stop it. — Preston
It helps me stay on target when constructing my thoughts about God and God's ability to intervene. — Preston
I take a process panentheistic position these days, when my radical theological mind isn't flared up. That is, I see God as limited by love, but not because God can do anything. God is a weak God who cannot intervene but can only persuade and lure, never coerce. — Preston
So, my point was about placing limits on God, reasonable limits to preserve our freedoms and God's goodness. — Preston
It represents nothing in particular: only a form of evil so severe that it would warrant the parent's (or "parent's") intervention.So what does getting stabbed with scissors represent in your analogy? Intense emotional pain, death, or what? — Noble Dust
There was nothing in the remainder of your paragraph which bolstered your point. You simply made unfounded assertions and ad homs against those who might disagree with you, calling them "weak-minded." You are free to believe that "pain is a gift," but that doesn't advance the discussion one bit, or speak to the problem of evil.All analogies break down eventually. In the second half of my paragraph which you didn't comment on, I explained more of my thoughts on the topic of God intervening in our pain. You seem to have critiqued my analogy without noticing that I addressed your point directly afterwards?
Not only against you: the anthropomorphization of God complaint arises with some regularity in these parts. X-)"those"? Is this passive-aggressively aimed at me or something? >:O
Christians literally anthropomorphized their God (in the form of Jesus Christ), and even the God of the OT is routinely spoken of as having a will, desires, emotions (e.g. anger), etc. It's not merely a "Biblical analogy": it's what the Bible says, and what Jews and Christians believe. Christian eschatology involves God standing in judgment of mankind at the end of days, for instance.Anthropomorphization and analogy/metaphor are different. Analogies are self-conscious; when we use them, we know full well that they're ONLY analogies. An analogy is a way of imagining a theoretical idea, it just happens to not be a very popular mode of thinking in academic philosophy. Anthropomorphization, on the other hand, is unconscious; the Biblical analogy of God as Judge, for instance, is an anthropomorphization because it's so ingrained in Western and even Eastern Christendom's conception of God that it isn't even questioned, by and large. Anthropomorphization of God is corrosive because it shapes the very framework of how Christians imagine God; it closes off countless possibilities of wisdom.
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