> From: Brian Siano <siano at mail.med.upenn.edu>
>
>>> Man's mind is finite. God is infinite. The finite cannot grasp the
>>> infinite.
>>
>> Who says God is infinite? Upon what evidence are we basing this
>> assumption?
>
> It's a generally accepted thesis in monotheism... God is assumed to be
> infinite in the sense of possessing every perfection in the highest
> degree (unless you want to take the negative theology route and just
> say he possesses the negation of every possible negation in the
> highest degree).
That's one thing I love about theological speculation. The argument Chris mentioned above rests on an interesting elision. Despite our limitations, humans are capable of referring to things which are outside of our limitations-- not that they exist, or even make sense. This enables us to make claims such as "God is infinite" even when we are finite.
In other words, the finite _can_ grasp the finite.
It's a neat feature of human intelligence that we can create these descriptions that may not, and probably do not, and can not, exist. If I described God as "that which humans cannot comprehend," well, that's just word gymnastics; one could just as easily refer to "things which disappear when you look at them," "economics which cannot be understood within Marxism," "an intelligence which understands the whole of the Universe with complete clarity," etc. In fact, it actually takes away any need for me to define God beyond that point because, well, he's incomprehensible, isn't he?
BTW, I do not know what Chris's actual opinions are regarding God; he may have cited the above argument out of intellectual interest.