Originally posted by robrecht
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Your original phrasing made it seem that if I showed you by natural proof that God exists, then he didn't exist.
We are definitely on the same page that human knowledge of God falls infinitely short of His essence. That's the difference between theology, which can at most only offer very simple truthes about God, and the beatific vision where we see God as he is.
On Earth we can only ever know him by a suitable analogy.
I'm not sure what 'human' certainty is here, and I'm not sure why you (as you seem to) believe that something is only proven when the proof is universally accepted. That seems a rather weak point to make. Yes there are people, even Christians who dispute that we can know that God exists. This has some implications for evangelisation, but it doesn't change that we can prove God's existence and the rejection of those proofs tend to be irrational.
John Martin is a great counter-example. But really there are others. The traffic law for instance. Unless you're severely mentally handicapped, then you can't claim mere ignorance in the court of law. You can be expected to know.
The same holds for God and the moral law. People are culpable for their ostensible ignorance in many cases. And we can debate how much this culpability derives from supernatural inspiration, which I believe is the typical way people come to know God, or natural reason which is sufficient even if the faith it produces isn't iron clad.
At any rate all would be held culpable for not knowing God, because His work is made manifest.
The Catholic Church this also implies that God's existence can be known by reason.
Also, even if our knowledge falls short of what God truly is, we cannot say that what we know is false. Further knowledge, even the beatific vision would not render God not triune, it would on the other hand allow us to see the Trinity as it really is.
That's at least how I'd see what knowledge we can rightfully claim to have about God. Something to be deepened and clarified, but never repudiated.
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