Defining God

One of the tenets of analysis, which I was reminded of yesterday in a response to one of my previous videos, what that before any serious enquiry can begin one should 'define your terms'. I have a lot of sympathy with this idea, and have cited it myself in other contexts, but it is a little bit troubling at the same time. I read recently (I can't remember where) that scientific enquiry, contrary to popular expectation, often does not begin with a definition of terms but rather with a set of ill-defined and quite vague intuitions that are then explored, firmed up, mapped and occasionally discounted by other processes of enquiry. There is something very attractive about this understanding I think. That the rigour of empiricial or scientific enquiry comes out of procedures which begin in mist and the feeling of uncertainty. In relation to the idea of god, which is about as undefinable a concept as you can get, I'm wondering if it is useful to think of this term as a placeholder not for any specific ultimate explanation but for the spirit of enquiry itself, the hypothetical endpoint of this upward progression of knowledge and sense that we seem to be embarked on; the metaphorical light at the end of all tunnels.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• god
• religion
• science
• knowledge
• empiricism
• enquiry
• philosophy
• language
• linguistics
• define
• definition
• progress
• unknown
• metaphor

[Formlessexpressions]

I think the term god is left open to interpretation by the one observing the idea of a god.

[LKxDESIGN]

Love your vids, keep them up!