Scan barcode
A review by beaconatnight
The Power of Words by Edgar Allan Poe
4.0
In the beginning was the Word. Notwithstanding the interpretational issues of this notoriously difficult statement of biblical metaphysics, it's fairly certain that the opening passage of the Gospel of John is about creation. The subject of yet another conversation in the afterlife is about the exact sense of divine inception.
If you take the Bible literally, then God created humanity, animals, plants, and things of numerous other kinds. Agathos thinks this is mistaken: "In the beginning only, he created [i.e., as opposed to later creative intervention]. The seeming creatures which are now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being, can only be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct or immediate results of the Divine creative power." Things come into existence and turn into what they essentially are by natural processes that follow the laws of nature or by the creation of free agents.
Naturally, it was God who gave the first impetus and who defined the laws of the universe. Agathos add an additional belief in strict determinism. To his mind its obvious that the one effect follows its cause with certainty. According to him, it's for this reason that mathematicians and scientists (in the days that he wandered the Earth) were able to predict developments with high confidence. However, from here it's not difficult to imagine a being whose algebraic powers are capable to follow the chain into even further futures – or back to the very beginning.
It's often observed that John 1:1's word is a translation of the highly ambiguous Greek logos, which might very reasonably be rendered as reason. So, in the beginning there was reason, the all-powerful reasoner. So, to make a highly Aristotelian point, in Agathos's picture God would see back into the very beginning and thereby think itself. Even God's power is limited, though: He might not forget, but Agathos emphasizes that never would his knowledge of things be complete, as this would make eternity quite boring (is this the argument?). There is an infinity of facts for God to think, so to say.
Unlike some of Poe's other philosophical writings, even as a non-believer I found this dialog highly engaging.
If you take the Bible literally, then God created humanity, animals, plants, and things of numerous other kinds. Agathos thinks this is mistaken: "In the beginning only, he created [i.e., as opposed to later creative intervention]. The seeming creatures which are now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being, can only be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct or immediate results of the Divine creative power." Things come into existence and turn into what they essentially are by natural processes that follow the laws of nature or by the creation of free agents.
Naturally, it was God who gave the first impetus and who defined the laws of the universe. Agathos add an additional belief in strict determinism. To his mind its obvious that the one effect follows its cause with certainty. According to him, it's for this reason that mathematicians and scientists (in the days that he wandered the Earth) were able to predict developments with high confidence. However, from here it's not difficult to imagine a being whose algebraic powers are capable to follow the chain into even further futures – or back to the very beginning.
It's often observed that John 1:1's word is a translation of the highly ambiguous Greek logos, which might very reasonably be rendered as reason. So, in the beginning there was reason, the all-powerful reasoner. So, to make a highly Aristotelian point, in Agathos's picture God would see back into the very beginning and thereby think itself. Even God's power is limited, though: He might not forget, but Agathos emphasizes that never would his knowledge of things be complete, as this would make eternity quite boring (is this the argument?). There is an infinity of facts for God to think, so to say.
Unlike some of Poe's other philosophical writings, even as a non-believer I found this dialog highly engaging.