Friday, February 29, 2008
Locke Book 1 Existence of God
Locke definitely believes in God’s existence. In Book 1 on page 3 he says, “ Men have reason to be well satisfied with what God hath thought fit for them.” Then later, in Book 4 on page 44, he says, “That “God is to be worshipped” is, without doubt, as great a truth as any can enter into the mind of man, and deserves the first place amongst all principles.” Even though he believes in God’s existence, he does not believe the idea of God is innate. In Book 1 in chapter 4 on pages 44 to 50 he goes into the reasons why God is not innate and due to this why no other can be considered innate. First, he provides information claiming that whole societies had no notion of God. How could whole societies have no notion of God if God is an innate idea? It is impossible. Then he says even if everyone had a notion of God this still would not prove God to be an innate idea. He purposes that names such as sun, fire and heat are names known amongst men as is God, and it may feel like those ideas are innate when they are not.
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3 comments:
I see how how Lock is saying that religion is learned and is not innate, but i have had a hard time figuring out how he says god is innate. He does explain how you have to be taught everything in every type of religion but besides in the title of the section he never really says that God isn't something that is natural in someone who believes in God. maybe someone can clear that up?
Locke believes God is not innate. If you read pages 44-50 he really explains the reasons why he believes this. In those pages he realizes it is easy to mistake God as innate, but he refutes this belief. My second post identifies some of those reasons. It makes sense that God is not innate. Religious people may believe God is innate because He is who created us. However, I don't believe everyone knows there is a God when they are born. However, as Professor Thompson discussed in class, although Locke uses convincing examples we must question their authenticity (i.e. Peru example used in class). In pages 44-50 he talks about history and the groups that did not know of a "God." But who knows how true those examples are.
I just posted a blog on Locke's point of view of the existance of God. Now I would think that Locke does belive in God, obviously, but does not believe taht his is innate. As in my blog, I do believe that this has a lot to do with whether you have morals or not, according to Locke. It seems as though Locke feels that everyone knows of "a God", but does not worship and respect him/her as they should. Whole socities may have no notion of our Christian God, but it is certain they have some notion of A God. Perhaps because it is agreed that God is not an innate idea, that he is learned about once brought into this world, just such as sun, fire, and heat maybe taught as a child. YOu get the idea of what each word symbolizes, then apply the meaning to each. For God, each culture mayy have a different idea of what their God is, but all will have some idea...whether they choose to put faith and respect into this is up to them, and their morals...
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