- Does God Work Logically?
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- Moshe Ben-Chaim
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- Reader: The world works through logic. So G-d obviously
created the world with logic that now is. Do you feel G-d was bound
(like the examples in Can G-d do
Anything? ) create the world with the logic that now is?
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- Mesora: Since God desires that
all mankind understand reality - reality being truths about God and
creation - God therefore designed man with the apparatus of the mind
or soul, which functions precisely to understand worldly phenomena and
metaphysical truths.
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- Our mind operates through cause and effect relationships, and we are
therefore limited in our understanding in comparison to God.
Additionally, our mode of understanding is, as Maimonides states,
"that of the observer", whereas "God has knowledge of
the Creator". This is very important, as it teaches that God's
method of knowing does not depend on perceiving, but is qualitatively
different than man's method of knowing which is exclusively derived
from perception. Without perception via the five senses, man cannot
"learn" anything. God however has knowledge of all, as He
created everything. By definition we cannot know how God knows, as His
knowledge is not a derived knowledge, it does not function by cause
and effect, and therefore, it is beyond the scope of human
intelligence.
- Proof that God does not perceive is based on the fact that all
physical matter was created by God subsequent to Himself. This means
that God existed in His perfect, all-knowing form before His
introduction of physical matter which He originated from nothingness.
His all-knowing state existed before anything perceptible by the
senses existed. His knowledge then is not based on perception, as He
had knowledge before the possibility of perception existed.
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- Based on these arguments, we must say that God does not function
with "logic" as we refer to it, as our logic is sequential
in nature, and God is not bound by the rules which He created, i.e.,
cause and effect, and sequence.
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- We cannot have any positive knowledge of God in our existing form,
as stated by Maimonides, all man's knowledge of God is only negative
knowledge, that is, we can only know what God is not, but we cannot
know what He is. The reason being, all our thoughts are tied to the
physical world in one way or another. As God is in no way connected to
the physical, there is no way man can have any true, positive concept
of God.
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- Our use of the term "logic" in reference to God's mode of
function must be used euphemistically. It simply teaches us what God
is not. "Logic" would then only be used in reference to God
to teach that He does not act haphazardly and without perfect reason,
or without justice.
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