by EJA_2 » Tue Apr 03, 2001 4:45 pm
Audiogirl, and others,<P>Apart from absolutes there is no possibility of knowledge. However, I do not say that beauty and perfection are absolutes in and of themselves. They are defined absolutely by their absolute Author, God. Furthermore, I might add that there cannot be any absolutes above Him, for then He would cease to be ultimate, which is impossible by His very nature. <P>So as far as examples, let us take perfection. In order to define perfection, one must be perfect. It is a necessity in the nature of the definition. Furthermore, because of the interdependency of knowledge, in order to know anything about anything, one must know everything about everything. So, obviously, God, being perfect and all-knowing, is the One who defines perfection. Circular reasoning? Yes. All reasoning is ultimately circular because man can only know what has been revealed to him. Without revealed knowledge, man has no starting point for predication. We all know that we predicate, therefore, we must have received revelation. This being assumed, we return to the concept of perfection. Perfection is a meaningless word apart from a definition thereof. The usual definition, agreed upon by society as part of language, is a string of words that describe a concept. That concept is either an original concept revealed to us, or a derivative concept based upon predication involving other derived or orginal concepts. To make a long story short, what I am saying is that, if taken to its source, anything that we can conceptualize, or predicate upon, must have been revealed to us. Furthermore, in order for our predication to continue to be possible, the Revealer must remain constant and immutable. As a result, there is an absolute standard for <I>everything</I>. <P>Now, beauty is a more prickly beast, as the level of subjectivity is greater. I would posit that beauty is something that we are able to appreciate based on the Divine imprint present in all of us. I also submit that in view of the infinity of the Divine nature, none of us are capable of appreciating the full spectrum of beauty -- or many other concepts -- but rather are each uniquely sensible to specific aspects thereof. There is, however, an antithetical concept to beauty to which we all have a certaing sensibility, once again not in all its aspects, and in which those who rebel against the inescapable authority of God delight in reveling, for they know that it displeases Him. This reveling, I believe, is the source of such music, art and (im)morality as is prevalent in our society today -- offensive to the very most basic part of our natures, yes, even to those who revel in it. The tragedies of their lives have their cause herein, for God will not allow rebellion against Himself, and, though He is patient, judges it decisively and irreversibly. <P> -- EJA<P>P.S. I recognize that some will be offended by this post, however, I think it is better to offend and save a soul than to never offend and never save a soul. <p>[This message has been edited by EJA (edited 04-03-2001).]
Well you know my take...God (She) is doing just fine!