Limitations of God? ( Was Re: Question on method of arriving at conclusions )

[M Suresh]

Kartik wrote :

> Suresh wrote:
>
> > Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya at CCO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote :
> >
> > > [stuff deleted]
> > > This is correct. With respect to the criterion of truth, Sankara maintains
> > > that non-contradictability, not just non-contradictedness should be the
> > > criterion of absolute truth. Non-contradictability means that the truth
 can
> > > never be denied by anyone at any time, which holds for the Self. "Non-
> > > contradicted"ness only means that it has not been contradicted hitherto,
>  which
> > > does not mean that some argument cannot be given to contradict it in the
> >  future.
> > > Contradiction here is obviously more than a statement that contradicts a
> > > previous one: it assumes that the other statement has been proved to be
>  true,
> > > which necessarily means that the original statement must be false.
> >
> >   Only Brahman seems to satisfy the requirements you have given above. I was
> >  arguing
> >   from the standpoint of logic alone.
> >
>
> Actually, no. I mean: even mathematical truths like "2+2=4" cannot be denied
 by
> anyone at any time, not necessarily the Self alone. As Kant said
 (paraphrased),
> "We may conceive of a world in which fire does not burn wood, but we cannot
> conceive of anything ever contradicting the fact that two and two make four."

  I did not read the remaining stuff on western philosophy in great detail as it
  would take me over an hour to do so, because I have no foundation in western
  philosophy. I understand that analytical thinking and logic play a very
  important role in it.

  Regarding your statement on mathematical truths, it does seem that they are
  equal to God atleast as far as infalliability and self-evidence are concerned.
  So it does seem that God is enclosed in a cage of logic since he is confined
 by
  logic.

  The self evidence and transcendence of mathematical truths had come up in SRH
  a long time ago. I do not remember how it ended.

  I remember you had raised a related question "Can God Change the past?" in
  SRV. I think that might be possible if past is viewed as what present says
  about the past. So if what the present has to say about the past, ( i.e the
  memory ) is changed then past would change.

-Suresh.