If God and Only God Knows with Full Certainty...
Assuming that the historic Christian view of God's absolute, eternal omniscience is correct: Has Western man's desire for knowledge with absolute certainty been part of mankind's continued pursuit of the Serpent's Edenic offer to make us "like the gods"? Was the relentless pursuit of exhaustive lucidity a form of idolatry? If so, that would help explain why it leaves us feeling so empty. If it is inherently arrogant, that would help explain the difficulty we (OK, I) have holding a heated discussion without becoming smug, snide, and angry.
posted by David Finnamore at 1:20 AM
2 Comments:
I realize this response comes some 7 months after your post, and you may have forgotten about it all together, but this is my first visit to your blog, and the topic is of particular relevance to me, so....
The Enlightenment was far more damaging to culture and insulting to God than I think we realize. The attempted, and sadly accepted, separation of the knower from the known and the concept that things only become real in the knowers mind, has not simply served to not make man like God, but to make him God. A world full of gods, each determining his own reality. This has crept into our culture in small, yet prominent areas, including the church. There is a a dominant trend in the evangelical church to be successful. 7 steps to this, Purpose Driven that, etc. What has been forgotten is that success, and/or certainty, is not our concern, and it should not be our goal. God does not command us to be successful, He only commands us to be obedient. When we seek for certainty in knowing, it is more than pride, more than a lack of faith, it is more than idolatry. It is unbelief. It is denial. It is rebellion against God and an attempt to usurp Him. We are looking for truth other than God. It leaves us empty because it draws us further away from God and denies His image that we bear. Now, this is not to say that we should not strive to know as much as we can or to be well educated, informed, and confident in our knowing. In fact, I think we would find that if we exercised our responsibility of faith in the God we claim as right and true, we would see the pattern of that God through the clues of the created order which, in turn, would allow us to see more clues as we are conformed more and more to His image. Hope this makes sense. I'm at work so I can't take alot of time to really flesh it out.
4:17 PM
Thank you, Ian. Your confirmation of the direction my thought was taking gives me comfort and hope.
I hadn't noticed the success motiv in much of what might be called evangelical pop culture. (That really should be an oxymoron!) That's perceptive of you. The church has indeed followed the world off the path and seems to be hurtling downhill behind it at an alarming rate.
2:01 PM
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