RE: Theists, what does faith mean to you?
August 10, 2015 at 12:09 pm
(This post was last modified: August 10, 2015 at 12:13 pm by Tartarus Sauce.)
Mystic Knight, I'm confused by your post. You mention the Quran as being testament to the undeniable wisdom of god, yet posit this is because it possesses "majesty beyond our creation and scope." This makes no sense; it's clearly not beyond our comprehension since it has been conveyed in words we understand, it's clearly not beyond our understanding since it has spawned numerous interpretations over the centuries by countless individuals, and it's clearly not beyond our capacity to imitate as the veritable number of translations bear testament to. So what exactly limits its authorship to a non-human source? What is preventing it from being man-made if all the viable prerequisites are in place for a human author writing a book for a human audience with a message crafted to be understood by humans?
You say we have the capacity to appreciate literature beyond our understanding and I'm inclined to agree. Case in point, the Voynich Manuscript. It has fascinated cryptologists and linguistics alike ever since its discovery. Despite intensive efforts by code-breakers to discern the contents hidden within the seemingly non-sensical symbols, it has so far managed to elude all attempts at deciphering. Yet we appreciate it anyway, we appreciate this very humanly made manuscript despite, if not for, it's enigmatic gibberish. There is one person that understands the message hidden within that book, it's human creator.
So if a human can create something like the Voynich Manuscript using only the powers of their imagination, how does that bear in relation to your very understandable Quran? How exactly is a message which can be understood by all be beyond our capacity to create if a message that can only be understood by one has a human brainchild behind its genesis? Furthermore, if god's wisdom and/or nature was so complex or wholly enlightened to the point that it was impossible to understand it in any manner, how exactly would writing a book to document its wisdom for humans be of any help? What would prevent that book from becoming just another Voynich Manuscript sans the human author?
You don't have another Voynich Manuscript though, your religion has the Quran, a very understandable and certainly translatable book. You could argue that your scripture reveals the inspired word of God or even the literal word of God, but to declare the contents of the book itself to be beyond the abilities of "human creation or scope" is counterintuitive at best and blatantly false at worst. The fact it can be conveyed, understood, and copied into various different human languages defeats that argument.
You say we have the capacity to appreciate literature beyond our understanding and I'm inclined to agree. Case in point, the Voynich Manuscript. It has fascinated cryptologists and linguistics alike ever since its discovery. Despite intensive efforts by code-breakers to discern the contents hidden within the seemingly non-sensical symbols, it has so far managed to elude all attempts at deciphering. Yet we appreciate it anyway, we appreciate this very humanly made manuscript despite, if not for, it's enigmatic gibberish. There is one person that understands the message hidden within that book, it's human creator.
So if a human can create something like the Voynich Manuscript using only the powers of their imagination, how does that bear in relation to your very understandable Quran? How exactly is a message which can be understood by all be beyond our capacity to create if a message that can only be understood by one has a human brainchild behind its genesis? Furthermore, if god's wisdom and/or nature was so complex or wholly enlightened to the point that it was impossible to understand it in any manner, how exactly would writing a book to document its wisdom for humans be of any help? What would prevent that book from becoming just another Voynich Manuscript sans the human author?
You don't have another Voynich Manuscript though, your religion has the Quran, a very understandable and certainly translatable book. You could argue that your scripture reveals the inspired word of God or even the literal word of God, but to declare the contents of the book itself to be beyond the abilities of "human creation or scope" is counterintuitive at best and blatantly false at worst. The fact it can be conveyed, understood, and copied into various different human languages defeats that argument.
