Our increased scientific understanding makes it difficult to take the creed literally. But we need a shared authority in our minds at an emotional level. Do we harm our concept of God if we recognise Him or Her as a rationalisation that is a therapy?
That’s a great question Alick, and I think it gets right to the heart of something many people wrestle with. This is my take on it!
I am not sure recognising the ways we understand or experience God necessarily harms the concept of God itself. If anything, it might make us more honest about the lenses through which we’re looking. The risk, perhaps, is not in asking the question, but in reducing God only to something we can fully explain or contain.
At the same time, I think you are correct that we do need something that speaks to us at more than just a purely rational level. Faith, at least as I’ve come to understand it, seems to sit somewhere in that tension, engaging the mind, but not limited to it.
So maybe the question isn’t whether God is a rationalisation, but whether our rationalisations are sometimes pointing toward something real, even if they don’t fully capture it?
Thank you, this is really helpful and adds to the conversation.
Our increased scientific understanding makes it difficult to take the creed literally. But we need a shared authority in our minds at an emotional level. Do we harm our concept of God if we recognise Him or Her as a rationalisation that is a therapy?
That’s a great question Alick, and I think it gets right to the heart of something many people wrestle with. This is my take on it!
I am not sure recognising the ways we understand or experience God necessarily harms the concept of God itself. If anything, it might make us more honest about the lenses through which we’re looking. The risk, perhaps, is not in asking the question, but in reducing God only to something we can fully explain or contain.
At the same time, I think you are correct that we do need something that speaks to us at more than just a purely rational level. Faith, at least as I’ve come to understand it, seems to sit somewhere in that tension, engaging the mind, but not limited to it.
So maybe the question isn’t whether God is a rationalisation, but whether our rationalisations are sometimes pointing toward something real, even if they don’t fully capture it?
Thank you, this is really helpful and adds to the conversation.