Friday, April 4, 2008
Locke- "God III" -His existence
Locke proves to us why he believes God exists in Book IV, chapter X. The name of this chapter is "Of Our Knowledge of the Existence of God". He goes through and uses great examples to prove to us that there really is a God. In order to believe in another existence you must first believe in yourself. Locke say that if you doubt your own existence you are nothing, until something crucial in your life happens and you realize that you really do exist. He bluntly says that he exists (meaning God). First off, Locke speaks of the beginning of life, which had to be produced or created by something else. If this is so, then he who created must be very powerful. He then goes on and says to create you must be knowledgeable and knowledge had to come from somewhere therefore, God must be very knowledgeable, too. Examples he gives are helpful to explain why he believes and why other believe there exists a God. Nothing in this chapter mentions innateness, but this chapter just goes to prove that Locke is not afraid to state that he is a believer in God. On that note, I will leave you with this quote on page 535 at the bottom, Locke says, "It is not possible to deny the power of an infinite Being because we cannot comprehend its operations."
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That last quote is really good, I like it. It holds true to many things in society too, and not just God. Its pretty similar to the quote of "just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there". As adults, it is our job to help chldren have an imagination and believe in Santa, and the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny and so on.. now don't we lead the children to believe in these made up things? And so how is this any different? We know for a fact that these are made up things, but yet still convince children to believe...now God we have no evidence that he is not real, and is a fairy tale, so what reason would we have to refute the idea of him?
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