Knowledge of God’s existence
Ancient Greece – how to gain true knowledge in a world of constant change and
motion
Plato – Theory of Forms, true knowledge is gained by the soul in an eternal world
beyond the physical. We have knowledge before we are born, when we think we are
gaining knowledge, we are recognising things we knew from the WoF
Aristotle – we can only learn anything meaningful through science, by looking at the
physical world and experimenting – empirical knowledge
We also gain knowledge through reason and logic as well as from sources of
authority such a parents, teachers, books… we have to have a degree of faith that
what they say is true
Within Christianity, there is discussion as to how much people can learn about God
through their own efforts – contemplation, meditation, observing the natural world,
reason – and also the ways in which we are limited and need truths about God
revealed
How can God be known?
God isn’t available to the 5 senses – God is not physical (can’t be discovered through
empirical evidence and knowledge also can’t be gained through reason and logic
since God is beyond the rational capabilities of the human mind)
Bonaventura considered how God can be known in ‘The Mind’s Road to God’. He
believed the human mind has at least 3 different ways of knowing. Used the analogy
of an eye to represent different ways of ‘seeing’:
1. The ‘eye of the flesh’ – the way of knowing that uses sense perception –
empiricism of science – we gain knowledge about the physical world
2. The ‘eye of reason’ – the way of knowing that lets us work out mathematical
and philosophical truths through using logic
3. The ‘eye of contemplation’ – a way of knowing that allows us to gain
knowledge of God through faith
John Polkinghorne also used Bonaventura’s metaphor of different eyes.
Polkinghorne often writes about ‘binocular vision’ or looking through two different
Ancient Greece – how to gain true knowledge in a world of constant change and
motion
Plato – Theory of Forms, true knowledge is gained by the soul in an eternal world
beyond the physical. We have knowledge before we are born, when we think we are
gaining knowledge, we are recognising things we knew from the WoF
Aristotle – we can only learn anything meaningful through science, by looking at the
physical world and experimenting – empirical knowledge
We also gain knowledge through reason and logic as well as from sources of
authority such a parents, teachers, books… we have to have a degree of faith that
what they say is true
Within Christianity, there is discussion as to how much people can learn about God
through their own efforts – contemplation, meditation, observing the natural world,
reason – and also the ways in which we are limited and need truths about God
revealed
How can God be known?
God isn’t available to the 5 senses – God is not physical (can’t be discovered through
empirical evidence and knowledge also can’t be gained through reason and logic
since God is beyond the rational capabilities of the human mind)
Bonaventura considered how God can be known in ‘The Mind’s Road to God’. He
believed the human mind has at least 3 different ways of knowing. Used the analogy
of an eye to represent different ways of ‘seeing’:
1. The ‘eye of the flesh’ – the way of knowing that uses sense perception –
empiricism of science – we gain knowledge about the physical world
2. The ‘eye of reason’ – the way of knowing that lets us work out mathematical
and philosophical truths through using logic
3. The ‘eye of contemplation’ – a way of knowing that allows us to gain
knowledge of God through faith
John Polkinghorne also used Bonaventura’s metaphor of different eyes.
Polkinghorne often writes about ‘binocular vision’ or looking through two different
