Posted by Misagh (47.248.0.41) on October 10, 2002 at 20:16:28:

In Reply to: Anyone who waits for proof of God is lost. posted by Stuart Gilman on October 10, 2002 at 17:04:59:

Hello,

Just off the bat, I'd like to give some mad props to Jonah Winters for this absolutely fantastic site. Keep up the good work buddy!

Read with interest the previous two postings. I attended the first in a cross-Canada lecture tour of Dr. William Hatcher's "Logical Proof of the Existence of God". Just so you know, this event was organized by the Campus Association for Baha'i Studies at the University of Ottawa, in Ottawa, Canada. It drew a very large crowd, predominantly graduate students in the university and interested faculty. Of course, the Baha'i turnout was notable as well, except I think the topic was above most of the people's heads (including my own!). At McGill, the same lecture was held, and drew a crowd of over 900 (!), mostly university students and facutly. Dr. Hatcher in fact drew on resources from the Writings of Abdul'Baha, as well as a great deal of resources from Islamic philosophers (ie. Avicinna) and Aristotle. The talk was very interesting, and I still have the notes somewhere in the entropy experiment fondly known as "my room".

I don't think the purpose of the presentation was to necessarilly push the idea of a God to the unbelieving masses. In my humble opinion, it was a scholarly endeavour aimed at showing people that the existence of God was in fact a great part of the philosophical thought of antiquity. But more importantly, it brought the name of Abdul'Baha to the attention of experts in the field of logic and philosophy. Some of the equations and thoughts were very very interesting, and are probably the closest to the Divine that our mathematical and material means can ever take us. Please note, that this is all my opinion, not the official stance of Dr. Hatcher's presentation, or anything like that... plus, this lecture was several years ago, my memory doesn't get better with age...

And, just as a side note, there are infinite paths to the Divine. Mirza Abul'Fazl, the great Baha'i scholar, entered the Faith "through his head" before allowing the Teachings to soak into his very essence. I don't think the Faith teaches us to discourage scientific, mathematical, and logical thought. And if that's the way someone will discover the Divine Truth, then I say "Kudos!"

Thnx for your time and patience,
-Misagh

PS: Stuart, your poetry is the bomb! Keep it up!

this topic is closed - post at bahai-library.com/forum