Aesopone
11-05-2003, 08:54 AM
this is one of my favorite pieces and would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this excerpt
"But you must note this: if God exists and if He really did create the world,then, as we all know, He created it according to the geometry of Euclid and the human mind with the conception of only three dimensions in space. Yet there have been and still are geomatricians and philosophers, and even some of the most distinguished, who doubt whether the whole universe, or to speak more widely the whole of being, was only created in Euclid's geometry; they even dare to dream that two parallel lines, which according to Euclid can never meet on Earth, may meet somewhere in infinity. I have come to the conclusion that, since I can't even understand that, I can't expect to understand about God. I acknowledge humbly that I have no faculty for settling such questions, I have a Euclidian earthly mind, and how could I solve problems that are not of this world? And I advise you never to think about it either, my dear Alyosha, especially about God and whether he exists or not. All such questions are utterly inappropriate for a mind created with an idea of only three dimensions."
Dostoyevsky opened my eyes with this passage, I've never read anything that is so succinct yet so well presented and makes so much sense. It's right there in black and white and influenced me in the way I approached the subject in a big way. Anyone elses thoughts on his reasoning?this is one of my favorite pieces and would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this excerpt
"But you must note this: if God exists and if He really did create the world,then, as we all know, He created it according to the geometry of Euclid and the human mind with the conception of only three dimensions in space. Yet there have been and still are geomatricians and philosophers, and even some of the most distinguished, who doubt whether the whole universe, or to speak more widely the whole of being, was only created in Euclid's geometry; they even dare to dream that two parallel lines, which according to Euclid can never meet on Earth, may meet somewhere in infinity. I have come to the conclusion that, since I can't even understand that, I can't expect to understand about God. I acknowledge humbly that I have no faculty for settling such questions, I have a Euclidian earthly mind, and how could I solve problems that are not of this world? And I advise you never to think about it either, my dear Alyosha, especially about God and whether he exists or not. All such questions are utterly inappropriate for a mind created with an idea of only three dimensions."
Dostoyevsky opened my eyes with this passage, I've never read anything that is so succinct yet so well presented and makes so much sense. It's right there in black and white and influenced me in the way I approached the subject in a big way. Anyone elses thoughts on his reasoning?this is one of my favorite pieces and would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this excerpt