Thought Experiment for the Theists

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sonisis

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Quick thought experiment, I welcome ideas from all theists of all religions!

You meet a person who is and always has been deaf and illiterate. You must convey God to them using no words at all. How do you do it?
 
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Here's my counter thought experiment for you:

You must convey God to them using no words at all.
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^^ try doing that with words, and not failing.


But 4 the sake of your thread:

You meet a person who is and always has been deaf and illiterate.
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Even if they were blind on top of this, you'd still have to establish a system of communication before you can communicate. So teach them to read first. A physically challenged person still has a capable mind.
 
sonisis said:
Quick thought experiment, I welcome ideas from all theists of all religions!

You meet a person who is and always has been deaf and illiterate. You must convey God to them using no words at all. How do you do it?
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You lay hands on them and heal them in the name of Jesus.
 
"You meet a person who is and always has been deaf and illiterate. You must convey God to them using no words at all. How do you do it?"

I am puzzling over the use of the word MUST in the original post. What sort of compulsion are we to suppose ourselves to be under? ie. an external one (such as an instruction from a religious leader) or an internal one (such as compassion)? I will assume the latter since if I am not moved by compassion I see no point in responding to the former.

In certain respects I would treat such a person the same way as any other: Listen to what God is saying to me through them.

I think Wil's idea of a hug is good but it is not appropriate to initiate such a personal gesture with someone I only just met. For a stranger to behave this way could be considered patronising or otherwise suspect. I think I would start with eye contact and a smile and see what happens.

This approach worked with the Downs Syndrome people I used to have lunch with during my teacher training (OK, they were not deaf, but this is the nearest experience I have to draw upon) and simply demonstrating a will to communicate friendship was met with such joy, and being subsequently greeted with hugs so bowled me over, that I felt they were conveying God to me. There was no exchange of complex ideas since they could not grasp them, but neither were there any hidden agendas, just a sharing of joy at each others' company.
 
There is no way of knowing the outcome of the experiment, at least in terms of knowing whether that person has "experienced God." The person may or may not experience "God." Furthermore, because everyone's concept of God is different, what constitutes an experience of God is subjective.

I noticed that you didn't say anything about being blind. In that case, a picture of a gorgeous lady could qualify as an experience of God. If God is so beyond one's independent imagination, well, this deaf and illiterate guy could never have imagined this beautiful woman coming into his life. It must surely be an act of God ...... his hormones would be up to the ceiling.

I got this idea from watching American Dad! Steve Smith meets God in the form of a woman (he's in the desert thinking he's Moses and God comes to him as a "burning bush"). She undresses in front of him and ....... wow, what a wonderful sight.
 
Aardvark01 said:
I think Wil's idea of a hug is good but it is not appropriate to initiate such a personal gesture with someone I only just met. For a stranger to behave this way could be considered patronising or otherwise suspect. I think I would start with eye contact and a smile and see what happens.
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I start with a hug....regularly. And as I hug thinking Namaste, (the light (wisdom, Christ, Krishna, G!d) in me, sees, salutes, honors and respects the light (wisdom, Christ, Krishna, G!d) in you!)

Tis upto them to reject my hug. To which I'll reply handshakes spread germs, hugs spread love. For the deaf illiiterate example it is also said with my eyes...
 
Interesting response Saltmeister! I think I vaguely recall that episode!

Aardvark, the compulsion behind the 'must' is irrelevant so don't worry about that.

Wil, I'm afraid a hug is just a hug.

Being deaf and illiterate, this person has no prior definition of God. You are starting from scratch, you cannot assume they know what a deity or God is.
 
To pick up again on the subjective nature of God, in this experiment we are specifically referring to the God of the Abrahamic religions.
 
the entire thought experiment is in fact reducible to how communication takes place. if you can communicate at all in the first place, you can eventually communicate intangible concepts (or, if you prefer, imaginary ones) as soon as you develop an appropriate language for this. once you have done this, you can communicate about G!D, or cubist art, or heavy metal guitar solos, or neo-endogenous growth theory. i can't see how there is something specific about G!D that makes for a particularly insoluble problem.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
bananabrain said:
the entire thought experiment is in fact reducible to how communication takes place. if you can communicate at all in the first place, you can eventually communicate intangible concepts (or, if you prefer, imaginary ones) as soon as you develop an appropriate language for this. once you have done this, you can communicate about G!D, or cubist art, or heavy metal guitar solos, or neo-endogenous growth theory. i can't see how there is something specific about G!D that makes for a particularly insoluble problem.

b'shalom

bananabrain
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You might be on to something :) Can you provide an example of how it might be done?
 
sonisis said:
Quick thought experiment, I welcome ideas from all theists of all religions!

You meet a person who is and always has been deaf and illiterate. You must convey God to them using no words at all. How do you do it?
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You love them, and allow them to see your love for others. You be as Christ was, and shine your light so they too might see the love of God. Even a child can understand love. It is all God requires from us. It is written that God is love, and we being vessels of his Spirit extend His love (For him) towards our fellow man. We make up the body of the Lord, and it is through us and our actions that God is made known to others, even those who are deaf and illiterate.
 
I'm with Wil – I'd start with a hug.

We both come from the same tradition — that God is one who wishes to be known — so our notion of God (if I may speak for us both) is not a deist notion of a God who set the wheels in motion, and then 'walked away' as it were, but a God who set the wheels in motion as a vehicle for communicating Himself to His creature, it's His gift to us, and the gift says: "I care about you."

So the message, in our tradition, is 'I care about you', and the moral of the message is 'care about others as you would have me care about you.'

After that, it's all semantics. Half the time, when I talk about God, people look at me and seem to think ... 'what the hell are you on about?' :D

I get the impression that if we all cared for each other, God wouldn't be too bothered about what we think He is. I think He'd be delighted to hear what we think ... and greatly amused ... but it's how we think about Him that counts, not what we think.

God bless,

Thomas
 
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