[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: proofs and people

On Sun, 30 Dec 2001, Kelvin Bailey wrote:
> --- "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca> wrote:

> > > So the thininking is that if God made up His own rules to the game
> > > and then expects us to feel grateful to Him for letting us win by
> > > those rules, this supposedly makes him bloodthirsty, stupid,
> > > neurotic and masochistic.
> >
> > If he sets up bloodthirsty, stupid, neurotic and masochistic rules ...
> > well, yes.
>
> But they would only be bloodthirsty, stupid, neurotic and masochistic
> from your perspective.

Not so.  The phenomenon is what it is, no matter who observes it or how.

As I said before, I'm not an objectivist, but an inter-subjectivist -- or,
as N.T. Wright once put it (while discussing the work of historians),
there may not be "objective" truths, but there are "public" truths.  So,
we could publicly agree upon a definition of "bloodthirsty", or "stupid",
or "neurotic", or "masochistic", and then, once we've arrived at those
definitions, we can see how the observed theology fits those terms.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck, no?

> And your perspective...well...we've already covered that.

Yes, and we have covered God's perspective too, which, after all, *is* a
perspective.  Or is it?  Is it possible God has no perspective at all,
precisely because he sees everything?  If God *does* have a perspective,
then we might ask whether it, too, is not subject to limits, etc.

The question of God's subjectivity is one I ponder fairly often, and, at
the risk of being on-topic, :) I find I often ponder it now with Karin
Bergquist's voice softly intoning "Will it make a difference when I go?"
passing through my mind.  I'm not quite sure *how* that relates to the
present discussion, if at all, but it came to mind just now.

I guess the way it applies here is simply this:  Do our perspectives make
a difference to God?  Do they matter at all?  Do they sway him at all?  
Does he ever take them into account?  Is God busy pronouncing objective
decrees and examining us to see how we measure up, or is he engaged in
inter-subjective relationships with some or all of the rest of us?

Something like that, anyway.

If God *is* in some sort of relationship with us, then obviously, his is
not the only perspective that matters, even if we consider it the most
trustworthy (by virtue of the fact that he sees so much more than us).

But if we're just playthings that God can condemn and redeem however he
likes, then I guess our perspectives don't matter at all -- which might
make us wonder why he bothered to give us perspectives to begin with.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/
Follow-Ups: References: