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[[Page 143]] tors which could, under other circumstances, be<br />

means to the knowledge of God. But this is the same as saying<br />

that inference could, in such circumstances, move from nature<br />

to God: hence the very existence of a natural revelation that<br />

fails to present God immediately repudiates the denial that the<br />

knowledge of God is inferential.<br />

(ii)If nothing is revealed in the natural revelation, how, on<br />

neo-orthodox terms, can it be called a revelation at all? For<br />

revelation is held to be nonexistent until the message of God<br />

“strikes home.” But if nature fails thus to strike home, in what<br />

conceivable neo-orthodox sense is it a revelation? Any answer<br />

to this question will ipso facto destroy the denial of the inferential<br />

knowledge of God. For to call nature a revelation at all<br />

must mean that there is something about nature from which inference<br />

could be made to God.<br />

(5)Barth claims that the absolute of thought has nothing to<br />

do with God. Now not only is such a statement selfcontradictory,<br />

as anyone might discern from our previous discussion,<br />

but it practically destroys all knowledge of God. For<br />

thought does reach attributes for God that coincide with those<br />

of the God of the Christian revelation: attributes of omnipotence<br />

or eternity, for example. But every inferred attribute of<br />

God has, by definition, nothing to do with the true God: and by<br />

thus paring away one attribute after another, the knowledge of<br />

God will be largely destroyed.<br />

It might be replied that at least the attributes of which we<br />

have knowledge only from special revelation would remain: but<br />

(i)The intelligent understanding of this revelation will by that<br />

very process of understanding remove the whole content of the<br />

revelation to the sphere of thought. (ii)That very special revelation<br />

itself declares God to be eternal, omnipotent, etc.---and<br />

these attributes, being likewise posited by thought of the absolute,<br />

have no relation to the true God; and it follows that the alleged<br />

revelation is itself unreliable. (iii)It is questionable

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