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CeaselessMedik
Guest
I read in my research “good and evil” might be a merism for “everything.” If it is or isn’t, why would God create us with an insatiable curiosity if he didn’t want us to know everything?
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End_Timer
Guest
God does want you 2kno the way to Eternal life (the way 2Heaven)
but maybe not the “way the heavens go !”
but maybe not the “way the heavens go !”
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Edward_H
Guest
to give glory to God.
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Eric_Hyom
Guest
Before the creation of the universe began, imagine God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit looking out into the vast empty void of space. They are thinking, we have the power to create anything we want, what is the greatest good thing that we can create?
God could create all the stars and planets and be a builder. He could create plants; and be a gardener. God could create life with more intelligence like the animal kingdom; and he is a farmer. God could create children in his own image, children who could love in the same perfect way that God loves and be a Father.
Could God create anything greater than children in his own image?
God could make a covenant with himself, and say he will love each and every one of his children as he loves himself.
Can there be any greater purpose to create children?
God could sow the commandments of love in our hearts, (conscience). God could give us the greatest commandment to love God in exactly the same way that God loves us. Because God loves everyone as he loves himself, he has given us the second greatest commandment to love all of my neighbours as I love myself.
Can there be any greater purpose to create the universe and life?
This is just a collection of words to challenge the mind to think,
God could create all the stars and planets and be a builder. He could create plants; and be a gardener. God could create life with more intelligence like the animal kingdom; and he is a farmer. God could create children in his own image, children who could love in the same perfect way that God loves and be a Father.
Could God create anything greater than children in his own image?
God could make a covenant with himself, and say he will love each and every one of his children as he loves himself.
Can there be any greater purpose to create children?
God could sow the commandments of love in our hearts, (conscience). God could give us the greatest commandment to love God in exactly the same way that God loves us. Because God loves everyone as he loves himself, he has given us the second greatest commandment to love all of my neighbours as I love myself.
Can there be any greater purpose to create the universe and life?
This is just a collection of words to challenge the mind to think,
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Arbovirus
Guest
I’ve always wondered why it was wrong to want to know the difference between good and evil…isn’t that a good thing?
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Gorgias
Guest
Umm… what, exactly, do you think God doesn’t want us to know?why would God create us with an insatiable curiosity if he didn’t want us to know everything?
After all, the ‘fall of man’ account is figurative (the catechism even says so!). So, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is a device that demonstrates to us not that we shouldn’t know stuff… but that we should know it from God, and not from our own actions. The tree stands for knowledge of morality. “We don’t get to make it up ourselves”, is what the story tells us.
(In other words, I don’t think it’s a merism for “all knowledge”, so much as it means “knowledge of morals”, and therefore, the story is about how we come by that knowledge.)
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Edward_H
Guest
Here is something to think about.
The Greek philosophers were very precise in their thinking…they thought about the human virtues and vices an awful lot. We owe them a lot, but most people have no idea what they gave us.
They considered “curiosity” as a vice, a negative, a defect.
“Studiosity” (a word that spellcheckers don’t recognize, not because it’s not a word, but because “we forgot about this concept”) is the virtue.
Virtues as the Greeks learned “sit in the middle” between other vices. Virtues are always the “golden mean”.
So “studiosity” sits in the middle of “curiosity” and “indifference”. Curiosity is an excess of interest, leading to an inability to study any matter to depth.
Indifference is a deficit of interest in matters, with no attention given to any matter.
Studiosity is attention in depth; it’s where all real learning takes places of any depth.
So when parents brag about their children being curious, or when the liberal press rags on some republican president for being “incurious” a wise person understands that if these statements are true, then the child has problems, and the president isn’t necessarily a dolt.
Studiosity is a sub-virtue to temperance.
So the Greeks would say we weren’t born curious…we were born intemperate, and through the practice of virtue we can grow to be studious.
Or if we don’t apply temperance to such matters, we can grow to be curious (bad) or indifferent (bad).
The Greek philosophers were very precise in their thinking…they thought about the human virtues and vices an awful lot. We owe them a lot, but most people have no idea what they gave us.
They considered “curiosity” as a vice, a negative, a defect.
“Studiosity” (a word that spellcheckers don’t recognize, not because it’s not a word, but because “we forgot about this concept”) is the virtue.
Virtues as the Greeks learned “sit in the middle” between other vices. Virtues are always the “golden mean”.
So “studiosity” sits in the middle of “curiosity” and “indifference”. Curiosity is an excess of interest, leading to an inability to study any matter to depth.
Indifference is a deficit of interest in matters, with no attention given to any matter.
Studiosity is attention in depth; it’s where all real learning takes places of any depth.
So when parents brag about their children being curious, or when the liberal press rags on some republican president for being “incurious” a wise person understands that if these statements are true, then the child has problems, and the president isn’t necessarily a dolt.
Studiosity is a sub-virtue to temperance.
So the Greeks would say we weren’t born curious…we were born intemperate, and through the practice of virtue we can grow to be studious.
Or if we don’t apply temperance to such matters, we can grow to be curious (bad) or indifferent (bad).
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Lea101
Guest
This was something I wondered too
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CeaselessMedik
Guest
Okay…semantically different, then. Why would he make us desire knowledge of the universe?
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Edward_H
Guest
Oh…God made us to seek Him…He is the source of all beauty, goodness and truth.
He made us for Him, for unity with Him, out of love.
So He put in us various “attractions”…to draw us toward Him, magnets if you will.
So we are drawn to things of beauty, goodness, and truth. Our intellect, for instance, has a bias for the truth, but that can get corrupted just like our appetites.
So we don’t really “desire knowledge of the universe”…we instead desire to be with God, who created all this stuff, and left His odor if you will on them so we would be drawn to the source of the universe!!
How cool and grand is that?
Aquinas in fact defined our intellect as a “rational appetite”…in contrast to the sensitive appetites.
Appetites are thus more general…we are drawn to some good.
In the case of our intellect (a rational appetite) we are drawn toward the “good of truth”.
He made us for Him, for unity with Him, out of love.
So He put in us various “attractions”…to draw us toward Him, magnets if you will.
So we are drawn to things of beauty, goodness, and truth. Our intellect, for instance, has a bias for the truth, but that can get corrupted just like our appetites.
So we don’t really “desire knowledge of the universe”…we instead desire to be with God, who created all this stuff, and left His odor if you will on them so we would be drawn to the source of the universe!!
How cool and grand is that?
Aquinas in fact defined our intellect as a “rational appetite”…in contrast to the sensitive appetites.
Appetites are thus more general…we are drawn to some good.
In the case of our intellect (a rational appetite) we are drawn toward the “good of truth”.
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Usagi
Guest
Because knowledge of the universe (God’s creation) is good? Why would He not want us to seek such knowledge?
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phil19034
Guest
I would say this: God created us to seek out the truth. That’s why we are curious, as we are always seeking out truth.I read in my research “good and evil” might be a merism for “everything.” If it is or isn’t, why would God create us with an insatiable curiosity if he didn’t want us to know everything?
As for are God not wanting us to know everything, I don’t think that’s true. I think He’s find with us learning more about the universe as we mature and when we are ready. But sometimes, we humans get ahead of ourselves, we start doing things we are not ready for. Children do this all the time, and society does this too with science & technology.
God bless.
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