Insatiable Desire: Ch.7 Desire for God

1. 2 objections

1.1. Desire: 'in love with her love and finds nourishment in the desire this generates'. An atheist can raise 2 objections to the introduction of God. 1.Some desires cannot be satisfied consumptively. The pursuit of them is fundamental to our humanity, but they don't express a desire for God. Instead expressing a desire for fulfilment, which can be satisfied through earthly pursuits. 2.Even if such desires do involve desiring God - it does not follow that God exists. It is insatiable because it is a desire for us to be God, which is an impossible ideal for us incomplete beings.

2. Desire for God

2.1. We have a desire for God because our desires are grounded in insatiable desires which demand satisfaction.

2.2. God has a human origin: Desire for God is my desire, voluntary action - source of desire may be external , if not it is self-generated. Self-generated desires form wishful thinking. S conception is a desire to be God. - but since God grounds everything, an infinite hunger for something out of reach is generated which will never provide fulfilment. Levinas thinks desire for God is a desire to relate to God - this involved moral relations to others. There is an incompatibility that arises from out way of loving/God's way of loving. Ours is selfish and God's is selfless. Human love is not iredeemably selfish - it contains an ingrediant of agapic love.