As part of my Ancient Western Philosophy class with the first year students at Karunapuram, I was telling them about the arche (basis) of the universe as proposed by the early Greek philosophers. Anaximander states this arche to be something without form or shape, a limitless aperion. It all went on well, till the next day one of the students asked, "How can a non-physical reality give rise to, or cause, physical reality?"
I threw open the question to the whole class. Even after much cajoling and offering some pointers, they were clueless. After a while I softly told the one who asked the question, "Now get ready for an avalanche of answers!" I then rephrased the question. Honestly I only added one word before the 'avalanche' commenced. "How can God a non-physical reality give rise to, or cause physical reality?" As the barrage of answers flowed in, I was laughing and laughing. All of them the typical pietistic answers about God being the creator and maker...
As I challenged their answers, the look on their faces was worth every bit of it. How convinced are we about our understanding of God? While we think we are sure, we actually know nothing much! But in our ignorance is our bliss!
I threw open the question to the whole class. Even after much cajoling and offering some pointers, they were clueless. After a while I softly told the one who asked the question, "Now get ready for an avalanche of answers!" I then rephrased the question. Honestly I only added one word before the 'avalanche' commenced. "How can God a non-physical reality give rise to, or cause physical reality?" As the barrage of answers flowed in, I was laughing and laughing. All of them the typical pietistic answers about God being the creator and maker...
As I challenged their answers, the look on their faces was worth every bit of it. How convinced are we about our understanding of God? While we think we are sure, we actually know nothing much! But in our ignorance is our bliss!
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