In Eight Chapters by Maimonides, there seems to be a lot of confusion when dealing with the existence of God and man's perception of him. Maimonides was trying to provide a strong basis for the belief that God was above man, but instead he only succeeds in stating obvious facts that fail to show a complete understanding of the subject.

Maimonides does admit to the fact that metaphysics has yet to correctly identify exactly what God is. Are God and knowledge one? Maimonides espouses that metaphysics has already explained the fact that God, "does not know by means of knowledge nor is he alive by means of life, such that he and knowledge are two different things, like man and his knowledge"(Ethical Writings of Maimonides,94). This means humans are the only ones to discover and learn through knowledge, and exist in a certain life. God does neither of these things. Maimonides continues to say that if God were known through knowledge, "there would necessarily be multiplicity and the eternal things would be multiple-God, the knowledge by which He knows, the life by which He is alive, the power by which he is powerful, and likewise with all of his attributes"(94). One cannot even try to im

Another important aspect of Maimonides arguments, was his view on the existence of God, or more accurately, our ability to perceive him. Once again Maimonides weakly defends his position by explaining that this "is due to the perfection of His existence and the deficiency of our intellects"(95). It would seem top me that a God so great would have the ability to more effectively influence society or people, with or without making his presence known. It can be argued that God influences people every day through decisions they make, but this statement is wrong according to Maimonides. This follows from his logic that the soul and God are two different things. He never mentions God being inside a person. Therefore God does not influence a person's actions. Even science fiction writers have thought up aliens that have influenced people without making the person aware of it! So, why can't there be a god this powerful? If He is as powerful as Maimonides would lead us to believe, then what would hold Him back from presenting himself to us? Why would he communicate through a person such as Moses instead of communicating directly with us. Maimonides provides a weak supporting example that compares God with the sun. He likens the human inability to stare directly at the sun with our inability to fully comprehend God. He declares that the sun is not weak, but it is merely our eyes that are weak. This is an unfair comparison because, while our eyes are incapable of clearly viewing

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Approximate Word count = 1004
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)