in·ef·fa·ble
/inˈefəbəl/
/inˈefəbəl/
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METAPHYSICS 101:
My last semester in Undergraduate studies, I took a class named "Metaphysics." My friends and I determined it wasn't a real class because nobody could explain what it was about, including myself. It wasn't until I did an extensive study on the term metaphysics (and went through a couple of weeks in the class) before I started to understand what the subject meant. Here's the gist of what I remember metaphysics to be: "beyond physics." As in, physics is the stuff we can explain using science, metaphysics is the stuff we can't (VERY broad and not extensive definition). For example: take the term "personal identity." Physics can explain a person in the terms of a body, or chemical make up, or something like that. Metaphysics asks: what makes a person the same person throughout a span of time? Can we really say the phrase "I'm not the same person anymore?" Is "personhood" defined by someone living in the same body over a span of time? Well what if you did a brain transplant? Is it still the same "person?"... this goes on and on. That is your intro to metaphysics. You passed!
Metaphysics is denied and ridiculed by a large number of philosophers because the questions it asks cannot be answered with science. What makes a person a "person" (different from the term "human being") cannot be settled on by science or philosophy. In fact, the last day of class was entitled "What is metaphysics?" And we, as a class of 8, determined we didn't really know exactly what it was, even after an entire semester of studying it extensively. Such is philosophy. Although I left the class thinking, "What just happened...?" I loved the professor, I was challenged to come up with my own theories, write papers that mattered, and had the freedom to challenge all that I thought I knew. I started to think, do we have to be able to explain something to believe it to be true? Some would say "absolutely yes," (especially the justified true belief theorists) and I can respect why they feel pulled to that answer. But where the rubber meets the road for me, is when I, as a believer apply how I feel about knowledge confirming existence to the God I believe in. The very definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 writes, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."
I've been reading The Knowledge of The Holy by A.W. Tozer, and he writes about the things we can know about God. He says that we can know what He reveals through his Word, nature, and Son, Jesus. But we cannot know Him in His entirety. In his book, there is a quote on page 18 from Thomas Carlyle (who studied under Plato) that is written so well that I kind of got the jitters.. I went back to my philosophical roots-- I just HAD to write about it! (Hence this blog post..) I added the definition of "Nescience."
"Science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience (lack of knowledge), whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a superficial film. In this world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."
Translation: Earlier in the chapter, Carlyle is quoted in his writing about lightening and how instead of being amazed by it, we reduce it down to an electricity, something science should deal with. That we try to explain everything with lectures and science, but forget to wonder in amazement.
Don't get me wrong-- I LOVE science. I was that kid in high school that thought of science as a hobby, and wanted to be really good at it just for fun. I ended up going a different route in life but my love for science still flutters within. I am not saying science is something we should throw out or that it's useless, I'm just simply saying maybe we should challenge throwing out the things that can't be explained by science, such as God. I don't want us to lose our sense of wonder in the name of science.
Tozer writes, "Some persons who reject all they cannot explain have denied God is a Trinity... These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead."(Tozer, 17)
I would challenge those who claim God is not real because He cannot be explained. I would challenge those of us who are believes but try to explain God. If we could fully explain God, then He would be one of us. Do we want a Creator we can fully explain? Maybe we think we do. God has a response for us, it's found in Job 38-39, where He shares with us some of the inner workings of the world. Here's my favorite quote: "Who shut up the sea behind closed doors... When I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt." (Job 39:8,11). God is the one who defined the lines of the sea. Isn't that.. amazing? Now, when I see the photo below, I think.. the ocean stopped in that place because God told it to.
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| Southern California beach, taken by yours truly ;) |
This is how Job responds, and I love this: "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things that I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." (Job 42:2-3)
I didn't create the sea. I can't even explain it a little bit, even though there are some people who can. Yes, I took oceanography and remember learning about the ocean floors and plates and lava and cliffs and all of that. But there are some questions that can't be answered, the metascience if you will. What is beyond the plates? Where did all of the water come from? Science can lead to wonder, and vice versa. But wonder doesn't need science to survive.
won·der /ˈwəndər/
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