Ways of knowing God

[mgoforth]

Ok my point in asking that is Thomas Acquinas is not the most easy to read philosopher, were there anything specifically that you wanted to point out. I understand who Thomas Acquinas is thank you.

He’s really no harder to understand than many of the points being made in this thread. It’s just old-style language. But the answer is there.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

You really need to define your question better. I am assuming you mean " how can we come to the knowledge that God exists and what this means?" If that is your question I would refer you to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part 1 on the Creed. It lists the usual ways this can be done. vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM The pertinent part is only a couple of pages long, read it and see what you think. Of course one may come to this knowledge in other ways I suppose. For example, some came to know God exists because their parents, whom they trusted, taught them God exists and what he was like etc. That is a perfectly valid way. It’s like trusting that E=MC squared because we trust Einstein. Or some may believe that God exists on the authority of the Scriptures because they see the Scriptures as a proven historical account of how God came to reveal himself in the history of the Jewish people and Jesus. Or some may have come to this knowledge because they learned it from the Church whose authority they have come to trust . And it is possible that Gad may have " tapped someone on the shoulder. " All perfectly valid ways to God.

 

[jochoa]

I think there is some confusion here on the goal I set for this thread. These may be perfectly valid paths to knowing God in the three senses but while it tells you the path to travel it isn’t how you get there for example do you walk on the path, run, crawl, etc.

Please consider the following concepts regarding how do you get there:
Although it is best to run as fast as you can because the sooner one knows God, His Heavenly Kingdom, His Purpose for Creation, and practices His ways, the sooner one experiences an extreme abundance of joy and peace in life, regardless of the difficult struggles in the life of the child of God. However, in my experience, I would have never come to know God without walking, running, and crawling in the belief in God, followed by walking, running, and crawling in self-fulfillment, followed by crawling, walking, and running in the knowledge of God, His Kingdom, His Purpose for Creation, and His Ways.
Therefore, there are many paths of which not one in particular is the right way.

Ok may I ask why you included these I don’t see how they relate, I probably am missing something, also if I am not mistaken True Friends’ Society refers to Quakers I believe. Anyways could you perhaps explain your point here?

Although the Quakers may have a very friendly society, my point is: The Writings, Doctrines, Teachings, and Practices of Catholicism are the solution to: How to create an ever-lasting society of a limitless number of true friends, given the Creator gets to participate as a friend in the society, and the Creator initially exists in complete solitude.
Since this society fulfills the greatest purpose of living for any being, it is the fullness of Truth.

When you say you know someone you refer to several things, you can refer to them being a friend, or that you know of them, etc. Just like you can do this with humans you can do this with God, in thinking about the ways your can relate (as in a relationship) with God I cam up with three distinct realms the logical and emotional where rather evident as they are applicable in human relationships (which is why I gave the examples of Bob and Sarah in the OP) however I wasn’t sure about spiritual, I was sure it existed for God but then why not in human relationships (or did it and if so how). Anyways my goal was to extend these ideas of realms and how they can be developed as well as discussion on the validity of these being three realms of relationships with God (and perhaps humans maybe with exception to the spiritual (maybe because of temporal aspects here it isn’t applicable but is for God ) ).Thank you for explaining further. I apologize for my misunderstandings of your intentions. Thank you greatly for taking the time to consider my missed-marked responses.I appreciate you discussing with me further.

 

[Zimm3r]

Ok thank you all for your most helpfulness in this but I think my point is being completely missed. My fault not yours bad wording, sorry. If you want to continue posting here I’ll try to keep on replying though I am not sure exactly where I or you are going. Seems mgoforth and Linusthe2nd are going at logical truth (which is definitely (can never spell that word) good but only 1 of the 3 realms I attempted to describe). As for jochoa I’m not sure what you are getting at something that in the end is good for something I am sure but do to the wording in my OP I can’t hope that it is the same place as me.

Thank you all for your help but I feel this thread is me and you (mostly you) are :banghead:. My apologies again for my poor wording.

On a light note, I do not think your work and :banghead: are going in vain, I will post another thread hopefully explaining this much better and link back to this for historical referance.