A goldfish analogy

[CazPerth]

I've been reading a lot of articles and listening to quite a few podcasts on the Intelligent Design Vs Evolution Vs Creation debate (I used to be an atheist but switched to agnostic then became Christian). I've come to the conclusion that the atheistic position is mostly that there is no "proof" of God, whilst they claim evolution is perfectly rational in spite of the odds against "something" coming from "nothing". However, what they are mostly saying is that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a being with apparent supernatural abilities because it just does not make sense in light of what they can observe.

Well, similarly, I doubt that the goldfish in our pond can conceptualize my reality; that I live out of water, have opposable thumbs with which to create things, drive a car, have a special relationship with the cats that poach them and worse, I actually have the power of life and death over them! However, I choose not to reveal myself to the Goldfish, even though I feed them (manna from heaven?) so they don't really know any better. Does that mean I do not exist? No, it just means that goldfish have a limited ability to conceptualize my existence.

Thus is the human ability to conceptualize God's being. He makes foolish our wisdom.

God Bless

[Silvertusk]

I've been reading a lot of articles and listening to quite a few podcasts on the Intelligent Design Vs Evolution Vs Creation debate (I used to be an atheist but switched to agnostic then became Christian). I've come to the conclusion that the atheistic position is mostly that there is no "proof" of God, whilst they claim evolution is perfectly rational in spite of the odds against "something" coming from "nothing". However, what they are mostly saying is that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a being with apparent supernatural abilities because it just does not make sense in light of what they can observe.

Well, similarly, I doubt that the goldfish in our pond can conceptualize my reality; that I live out of water, have opposable thumbs with which to create things, drive a car, have a special relationship with the cats that poach them and worse, I actually have the power of life and death over them! However, I choose not to reveal myself to the Goldfish, even though I feed them (manna from heaven?) so they don't really know any better. Does that mean I do not exist? No, it just means that goldfish have a limited ability to conceptualize my existence.

Thus is the human ability to conceptualize God's being. He makes foolish our wisdom.

God Bless

Nice analogy.

[PaulSacramento]

Well said.
What is natural is subjective, what is "supernatural" is also subjective.
It is silly to believe that our understanding of the universe as it is RIGHT NOW is complete and that it is perfect and that we know all there is to know about how the universe works.
What we may deem "supernatural" today may be viewed as natural 500 years from now.
In 1513, if a man came to you and said that humans could fly to the moon and back, that we could "sky dive" and land safely, that we could create life in a woman's womb without her having sex, that we could harness the power of the sun, that we could take a rock and with another element create a force so powerful it can destroy a whole city, what would he have thought?

[Danieltwotwenty]

Hope you don't mind but I posted your analogy to my facebook page, brilliant, love it.

[CazPerth]

No worries, DanielTwentyTwo, I put it on my Facebook page too. Some replies from atheist friends got bogged down in the actual goldfish, as expected, but I hope they take away something from it.