The truth is God can neither be proved or disproved, so will all of you quit quarreling now?

Question

Negative theology - also known as the Via Negativa (Latin for "Negative Way") and Apophatic theology - is a theology that attempts to describe God by negation, to speak of God only in terms of what may not be said about God.

In brief, the attempt is to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is. The apophatic tradition is often allied with or expressed in tandem with the approach of mysticism, which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion.

In negative theology, it is recognized that we can never truly define God in words. All that can be done is to say, it isn't this, but also, it isn't that either. In the end, the student must transcend words to understand the nature of the Divine. In this sense, negative theology is not a denial. Rather, it is an assertion that whatever the Divine may be, when we attempt to capture it in human words, we must inevitably fall short.

Contents [show]
1 Apophatic description of God
2 In the Christian tradition
3 In the Jewish tradition
4 In Hinduism
5 In Buddhism
6 In other Eastern traditions
7 See also
8 External links and resources



[edit]
Apophatic description of God
In Negative theology, it is accepted that the Divine is ineffable - that is, humans cannot describe the essence of God - and therefore most descriptions if attempted will be false:

Neither existence nor nonexistence as we understand it applies to God, i.e., God is beyond existing or not existing. (One cannot say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; nor can we say that God is nonexistent.)
God is divinely simple. (One should not claim that god is one, or three, or any type of being. All that can be said is, whatever God is, is not multiple independent beings)
God is not ignorant. (One should not say that God is wise since that word arrogantly implies we know what wise means on a divine scale, whereas we only know what wise means to a human.)
Likewise, God is not evil. (To say that He can be described by the human word 'good' limits Him to what good means to humans.)
God is not a creation (but beyond this we do not know how God comes to be)
God is not conceptually definable in terms of space and location.
God is not conceptually confinable to assumptions based on time.
Even though the via negativa essentially rejects theological understanding as a path to God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only in terms of what he is not. One problem noted with this approach, is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not.

Answer 1

AMEN!

Answer 2

Indeed, the existance of god or gods can not be disproved. Religions CAN be disproved though. The Bible says that the Bible is perfect. If anything the Bible says is incorrect, then the Bible is all wrong. The Bible says that if you ask for anything in prayer, it will be given to you. No prayer has ever been answered, thus the Bible is incorrect. This is all the argument you need to disprove Christianity and Judaism. I don't know much about the Koran, but I know that it is not probable and that it has no proof. This, to me, is the same thing as being false.

Answer 3

actually, i did not and probally will not read all of that,
i agree with you that god\gods cannot be proven to disproven.

to a believer no proof is needed, to a skeptic no ammount of proof is enough.

however it is in my nature to argue so i will say that i disagree with you and will state that i believe that the presence of the gods can be proven. by the similarities of religion.

several different religions started up in differently in several different regions of the world at about the same time...

so i would ask how does primative man come up with the same basic belief structure in several different parts of the world with no contact with each other.

native americans/ celts/ african / euro Pagans.....???

Answer 4

Why do you think you can not define GOD?
Let me ask you a question.
Can you define George Washington? He lived a little over 200 years ago and we have history books about him and he is confirmed to be our 1st president; you know about his life and what he did from books.

Now if you learned about him and can define him from a book why don't you believe about Jesus and GOD from The greatest history book ever written, The Bible.

Read the Bible, Study the bible prove to yourself it is wrong, I don't think you can.
Be honest when you study, which means be open minded.

Let me know your thoughts once you have completely read and studied.

Answer 5

Really ! the exhistance of God can certainly be proven all of creation speaks of a creator even you theonly thing I will agree with you on is that you cant prove he doesnt exhist there is too much proof that he exhists even more than is for your exhistance interesting isnt it Gorbalizer

Answer 6

It's all about faith. A person chooses to believe no one makes him.

Answer 7

Your thesis is true, but the correct answer to your specific question is: "NO"

Answer 8

Well atheists firmly believe he does not, so I guess not.

Answer 9

EVERYONE HAS HIS STYLE OR WAY FOR PROVE OR DISPROVE GOD EXISTENCE ...
SHOULD WE USE EINESTEIN'S OR NEWTON'S WAY...
( I DO NOT MEAN EXACTLY THESE TWO SCIENTISTS) ..
SHOULD WE USE PHILOSOPHY ...
SHOULD WE USE THE PROPHET'S WAYS ...
SHOULD WE USE HOLY BOOKS ...
EVERYONE CAN CHOOSE HIS WAY ...