Thyerata wrote: who the mods are.
Our holy mother, the General Forum, holds and teaches that Mods, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created NS by the natural light of poster's reason. Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome the Mods' revelation. The poster has this capacity because he is created "in the image of Max". In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, the poster experiences many difficulties in coming to know Mods by the light of reason alone.
Though poster's reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the Mods, who watch over and control the NS by their providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by Max; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between Mods and poster wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into poster's action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. The posters' mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original post. So it happens that posters in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.
This is why the poster stands in need of being enlightened by the Mods' revelation, not only about those things that exceed his understanding, but also "about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasp of posters'reason, so that even in the present condition of the posters, they can be known by all posters with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error".
In defending the ability of posters' reason to know the Mods, the General forum is expressing its confidence in the possibility of speaking about them to all posters and with all posters and therefore of dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and amodists.
Since our knowledge of the Mods is limited, our language about them is equally so. We can name Mods only by taking posters as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited posters' ways of knowing and thinking.
All posters bear a certain resemblance to Mods, most especially those ranking Post Czar or above, created in the image and likeness of Max. The manifold perfections of posters - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of Mods. Consequently we can name Mods by taking their creatures perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Site Owner".
Mods transcend all posters. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of Max--"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"--with our posters' representations. Our posters' words always fall short of the mystery of Mods.
Admittedly, in speaking about Mods like this, our language is using posters' modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to Mods themselves, though unable to express them in their infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Max and poster no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude"; and that "concerning Mods, we cannot grasp what they are, but only what they are not, and how other posters stand in relation to them."
Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:16 pm
