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Transcript

Is Aquinas' analogy adequate?

Analogy part B question

Biblical support

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.- Genesis 1:27

God is beyond us

Gives us an idea of God using our god-given knowledge

We are made in God's image after his likeness, not univocal, equivocal but analogical

Stanislaw Lem in his novel 'Solaris' describes a new planet explaining that because this new planet is beyond human experience the scientists are only able to express their theories of the planet through the language of Analogy. Ultimately the scientists are incapable of truly understand the planet, even if they can find parallels between that planet and our own. How can they be sure that any analogical description of the planet matches his properties? Our knowledge and language is too limited,

"God reveals himself in a way that is comprehensible to men. Even though, in the nature of the case, divine truth has to be refracted and expressed in terms of human words and finite images, nevertheless it can be expressed in meaningful terms"- Colin Brown

"Transposed into any human language, the values and meanings involved lose all substance; they cannot be brought intact through the barrier"

St Paul

God reveals himself

St Paul suggests that we may have to wait until we see God in order to know what we are talking about when we speak of God. This is because if God is so different from humans than surely even analogical language could fail to describe him properly.

What about other qualities?

Religious believers will tell you that God isn't wholly outside of our realm as he reveals himself to us in many ways and so, he is knowable. Using analogy we can express what God has revealed to us. For example, some see God in the harmony of the world so will compare God to an artist. Or some have had revelation or comfort through prayer and so compare him to a father. Religious believers say God is the light of the world so to call him good is not meaningless.

Gives us a greater understanding

If we assume that all things come from God, as Aquinas' analogy of attribution does than surely that means EVERYTHING? If not, where do those things come from? What about bad qualities? Do they come from God?

"For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known." 1 Corinthians 13:12

God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists- Einstein

Fredrick Ferre says that Analogy of Attribution is excessively permissive for 'If God is the cause of all things, theists should be willing to apply all conceivable predicates to him... as the cause of the physical universe He must be (virtually) hot, heavy, multi-coloured and so on"

I believe that God has revealed himself in many ways and through men and women- Nevill Francis Mott

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