Sunday, March 9, 2008

Locke- "God"

From what I have read about Locke's opinion on God, he seems to question whether God is innate. When reading Book I chapter 3, I found that Locke made a very clear point. He said that if young children were put onto an island and "fire" was never mentioned, they would know nothing about it. He then compares this to people and religion. He does not believe that we are born with believe in a God, but that we become exposed to one and then believe that there is a higher power. He descibed God as superior, powerful, wise and invisible, which is how most people preceive God. Locke states that if we are exposed to God being a certain way, then that is the way that God will be imprinted on us. But later on in the chapter on page 48-49, Locke goes and questions that maybe God does imprint on us "with his own finger" when we are born. Then he goes back to say that he does actually believe that the imprinting is by experience and thought. He goes and names a few religions that show this. For example, Roman Catholics believe in one God and that he has done certain things for us to believe in him. We learn this through our church and then when we are old enough we make the decision on believing it or not. If God is innate, then we would not be able to make our own decisions we would already have believed in something the moment we were born.

1 comment:

Gabrielle Pescatore said...

Yeah, that's a good way to put it into perpective. If you never introduced something to a person, than obviously they would have no knowledge on it. This is a given and I believe it is not interchangable. Therefore, the same applies the idea of God. If the idea of God is innate , then how is it so that some believe in no God, and other believe in multiple Gods? It could not be innate if there is a diverse opinion on the subject and belief of God.