[Roundtable] Welcome new members - Nothing and Doubt

[Jefferis Peterson]

Welcome to new and recently joined members...

All topics open for discussion. Nothing is being discussed currently.

Which brings up an interesting point. In language we often treat 'nothing'
as if it had a separate existence, i.e., as if the absence of a thing was a
thing in itself like a space or area that contained nothing. However
no-thing is actually the absence of something. It has no independent
existence and cannot exist on its own. Nothing requires the existence of
things to form its own concept or identity. Nothing requires an opposite
before the idea of nothings can exist.

It is the same way with atheism. Atheism requires the existence of God, or
at least the idea of  God's existence, in order for atheism to have any
substance. Atheism must be posited in opposition to the possibility of God's
existence before it can assert its claim to truth that there is no god or
gods. However, the belief in God does not require the opposite. There is no
necessity for the possibility of God's non-existence for God to BE, or for
our belief in him. Atheism requires the fact that people believe before it
can form its own identity, because it requires an opposite.  Theism does not
require its alternate.

Now, as with atheism and with nothing, we have also made a positive out of a
nothing when it comes to the word 'doubt.' We act as if doubt were something
we do, as if doubt were a substance or a substantial act or a state of
being. Doubt however, in the truest sense is not a positive act. "I doubt"
is not a thing, it is the absence of a thing - faith or belief. In fact, the
word doubt, from Greek and Hebrew, is not a thing at all.  The word we
translate as doubt is actually the  word

No Truth.    In Greek it is  a-pistsis [no faith, no belief]; in Hebrew, it
is lo-Amen, or No Truth.

So when Jesus asks, "Why did you doubt?" He isn't saying, why did you do
some-Thing, he was asking, Why did you no-Truth.  Doubt is the absence of
TRUTH, not a substance in its own right. To doubt is to lack truth.

Jeff 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jefferis Kent Peterson
http://www.scholarscorner.com
jefferis at scholarscorner.com

Feeling Guilty? Are you "Pardoned or Paroled?"
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Such is God's economy: "One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers lack." -  Proverbs
11:24