Philo is very snarky in the end of Part 2 as he asks, " Have worlds ever been formed under your eye; and have you had leisure to observe the whole progress of world-making from the first appearance of order to its final consummation?" , calling out Cleanthes for his own theory of the nature of God. Cleanthes believes that God resembles human mind and intelligence, which I believe is false. Philo's statement that "Our ideas reach no further than our experience. We have no experience of divine attributes and operations." is plausible. God is a supernatural divine being. As humans we can not even come close to His majesty and awesome power! He created everything out of nothing, and blesses us with inconceivable miracles everyday.(Genesis 1) Philo's ending question should quiet Cleanthes and his low image of God.
I commented on Abbie George's post.
I believe you are in the right with this. As humans, we think all things must think like us or be designed like us. But as God is beyond humans, there is no way God can be anything as low as a human.
ReplyDeleteI second the opinion. As Philo states, we as humans can only go off of experience, but God is not trapped by that low standard of thinking. When we observe other organisms on Earth we jump to the assumption that it is either like us or not like us, what are the similarities/differences? God however, the creator of all living things doesn't see it that way.
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