Simplicity and Complexity of G-d and Religion

[meltzerboy]

A Muslim student of mine once said to me, in defense of Islam, that neither Christianity nor Judaism can be the true faith because both religions are much too complicated to be representative of G-d, who is basically a “simple” albeit omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent Entity. Perhaps a deist or an atheist would say the same thing about all religions: too much dogma, too many doctrines, customs, practices, too much mysticism.

This got me thinking about all that is required to be a faithful Catholic, or Protestant, or Jew, or Hindu, etc. Catholicism, for example, asks believers to have absolute faith in a Trinitarian G-d, a hypostatic union of the human and divine within the Person of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Sacrament of the Eucharist (trans-substantiation), the infallibility of the Pope when speaking ex cathedra, but not at other times, and so on. Orthodox Judaism requires the devout Jew to practice 613 commandments of the Written Law (Torah), as well as follow the authoritative teaching of the Oral Law (Talmud), without a central authority in matters of interpretation, and that both were divinely inspired and directly given to Moses by G-d Himself. Protestantism, in addition to dogma, asks one to believe that among the multitude of denominations, theirs is the closest interpretation of true Christianity. None of these religions is simple, and yet the dogma, doctrine, and rituals are principles that must be believed and practiced for one to be considered a Christian, a Jew, and, I would argue, a Muslim as well.

Any thoughts about the apparent disparity between the complexity of religion and the simplicity of G-d?

 

[SonCatcher]

Are you familiar with fractals? Fractals are largely a mathematical concept where a whole is composed of parts that are similar to itself. Crystals such as snowflakes are excellent examples of this. Another good example could be some of the mosaics used to decorate mosques.

The pattern of the fractal is actually quite simple. However, as it grows, it accumulates much apparent complexity and beauty. Both the complexity and the simplicity express the same fundamentals. Ice crystals are 6-sided. Snowflakes grow radiating 6 equal arms. Mosaic patterns have also been found to conform to mathematical rules.

 

[tonyrey]

The Greeks were preoccupied by the problem of the Many and the One. The concept of one Creator is far simpler than any other interpretation of reality. Religion is necessarily complex because otherwise it cannot do justice to the complexity of created reality which consists of an immense multitude of individuals pursuing different goals.