Trouble understanding ray optics

[AStaunton]

The sun emits radiation in all directions. On the Earth, the rays from the sun are approximately parallel. Whatever side of the Earth is facing the sun at any given time is completely bathed in light.
When I look at the sun, I can see it as an object..ie. my eyes can figure out where the rays emitted from the sun originated from, but the rays are coming from infinity, so how can my eyes figure out that they come from a specific object? It feels like a contradiction, how can I make out the sun when I am only looking at a tiny portion of its rays..it feels like only one or the other should be possible,1) if the sun emits rays in all directions and if any object (like the Earth) is in the way it will be bathed in light, then I should not be able to resolve it as an object.
2) If I can resolve it as an object then how can it be emitting light in all directions..surely it should only emit light in a "searchlight" type way ie. a beam of light.?

I know this is stupid question but I just can't figure out what I'm misunderstanding, and I hope that I have made clear what my question is.

I'm fairly certain that it stems from not really getting to grips with geometric optics that I'm having this problem.

 

[Sciurus]

Try thinking of the eye as a pin-hole camera -- a box with a hole in one side to let light in.

 

[androidx219]

The question is NOT stupid at all. What's taught in schools can create such confusions. The distance is very large, but so is the diameter of sun. Therefore, the rays are NOT strictly parallel. Rays coming from two diametrically opposite ends DO make an angle on our eyes. Thus you resolve the sun as an object. Now let's take a case of a truly near-infinite situation, which would be the case of stars. We resolve them as POINT objects, i.e. it can be assumed that only one ray of light pointed towards us met our eye.