The Idea of God cont.

Perhaps the most important philosophical concept about God is that he is not a man, He is spirit. God is above the physical, and is beyond the grasp of men in understanding. We can attempt to understand the nature of God, and as we learn about Him, we will come to know Him, but we can never fully understand the mind of God.


Ideas

Philosophy contains the sciences of logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology.

1. Logic is the science of reason and the practice of principles of reasoning
2. Ethics is the study of morals (right and wrong)
3. Aesthetics is the study of beauty, perception
4. Metaphysics investigates the nature of first principles, reality (meta = "after" or "beyond"; things after or beyond physics) - includes study of being (ontology) and study of the universe (cosmology)
5. Epistemology is the science of knowing
   

Since all of these are of concern to God, and are part of His nature and His creation, naturally Christianity is a philosophy as well as a religion.

The questions become: Does Theism (and thus, Christianity) stand up to reason? Does it have a good philosophical foundation?



The heart of this apologetic approach is that the Christian is interested in defending the truths that Christ is the Son of God and the Bible is the Word of God. However, prior to establishing these two pillars on which the uniqueness of Christianity is built, one must establish the existence of God. For it makes no sense to speak about an act of God (i.e., a miracle) confirming that Christ is the Son of God and that the Bible is the Word of God unless of course there is a God who can have a Son and who can speak a Word. Theism, then, is a logical prerequisite to Christianity.

Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics, Baker, 1997