Philosophical Discussion.

**Shurt** · 04-23-2008, 09:32 PM

I don't know how many of you might have seen this, but I figured it'd turn out a good discussion. The website is here. I know it's long, but it is definitely an interesting read.

Personally, the story made me think quite a bit about where we stand. Being an atheist myself, I was wary of reading it at first, just looking at the title, however it is in no way spiritual.

I'll put in my view in a little while... Don't have time, just wanted to go ahead and see what other's thought.

**Parasitic** · 04-23-2008, 10:07 PM

Reading it now, favorite part is:

‘so what, exactly, makes you god?’

‘I did’

‘Why?’

‘Seemed like a good idea at the time’

I'm with shurt, I'ma post my opinion on this later, needa let it run around in my head a bit first.

lucifer4 · 04-23-2008, 10:25 PM

omgggggggggggg nice

even tho i beleive in god i am Catholic

i have one question!!!!!

If God created everything then who Created GOD??

does he have parents??

I have to Ask priest next time is see him...

**Amano** · 04-23-2008, 11:06 PM

god is a tool human created to support their mentality.
When in most despaired situation... "we turn to god"

had any1 watched Dogma?

god is invented by human to control human.
best example for this is Abu l-Qasim Muhammad? u know they guy who created Muslim.
not to bash the Muslim, but he did claim himself emperor of the Muslim empire. His bloodline runs until they get pwned by the Mogolian.

Look at the catholic church in the olden day.. they hold vast vast amount of powers, the popes were the mastermind behind those so call *holy crusade*... they fought for their believes but in the end its for land and wealth (kingdom of heaven)

sometime... quote from fictional movies are very true. :P

so... in the end, I have faith, but not in god.

**Danny** · 04-23-2008, 11:09 PM

If God created everything then who Created GOD??[/b]

G-d created time, therefore -- the answer to your question is; humans will never know due to the lack of intelligence.
There are some things we will never know, and everything happens for a reason.
Going a bit off topic, but sorry I haven't read it...

banaanc · 04-24-2008, 07:40 AM

god doesnt exist :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcncPpQ8loA

**0000000** · 04-24-2008, 08:30 AM

It's a fun read and obviously i agree with most of it but most of the idea itself is silly. I'll try to elaborate.

This kind of God that comes and chats with us and intervenes in the universe is known as a Personal God. This type does not exist. All the religions are predicated upon the existence of a Personal God, yet there is no evidence for any intervention and on the contrary, mountains of evidence of bad things happening to "good believers", and good things happening to the sinners. Prayer has absolutely no effect. Thousands of religions contradict each other. So forget about this flawed concept. The god in the short story is a Personal God masquerading as an Impersonal God.

On the other hand there is an Impersonal God. This is a god that simply created the universe, and let it take its course. It does not have feelings, it does not intervene. it has no interest in our evolution. For all intents and purposes it is not a God. There is no point worshipping it. Now since there is a possibility that we never know what started the big bang, there might always be a possibility that this type of Impersonal God exists. Einstein is famously misquoted by theists as a Christian, when in fact he was Atheist. The reason is that he uses the idea of an Impersonal God as a personification of the start of the universe. "God doesn't play dice". Stephen Hawking did the same thing in Brief History of Time. Both are Atheists but they are happy to use a God personification to describe the unknowable universe.

The reason it does not matter is because we cannot possibly know. What difference does it make if there is an impersonal God, or some other kind of scientific phenomenom that started the big bang? None at all. They might aswell be the same thing. Calling it a God is deceiving because all it is really is a placeholder for science that is beyond our understanding. Now imagine in the future we discover what caused the Big Bang. Imagine that we know there are infinite universes. This does not rule out the possibility of an Impersonal God who created all those universes. In fact, it is impossible to disprove an Impersonal God. For this reason, the notion will always exist although as I have stated, it is just a human necessity to plug the gap in our knowledge, nothing more.

The reason i feel Atheism is a better position than Agnosticism is because i KNOW there is no Personal God. On the other hand i do not feel that an Impersonal God is in the theist domain at all, as i have explained.

**bomb5hell** · 04-25-2008, 02:02 PM

How do you know that there is not a "Personal God"

**Parasitic** · 04-25-2008, 05:22 PM

How do you know that there is not a "Personal God"[/b]

Lets just say he doesn't believe that there is, in order to avoid another ENORMOUS discussion.

Gr33ntumb · 04-25-2008, 05:57 PM

back in the day, the church,or religins or whatever used to hang / execute / kill scientists that made scientific discoveries because the church wanted to control the people.

but , who knows, anyway ,

the indians had it best, living at peace with nature

every living thing has life , or a soul / spirit , human , animal , plant , whatever .

btw i didnt read the link yet, maybe im not making any sense, and i got smoked a good one

**0000000** · 04-26-2008, 09:24 AM

How do you know that there is not a "Personal God"[/b]

Because intentional intervention is an absolute requirement for a Personal God to exist. All supposed interactions have been shown to be false. Prayer has no effect on the outcome of events. Miracles all have mundane explanations. For every child that crawls out of the wreckage of a car supposedly thanks to God, there was no god to rescue his virtuous, christian parents. If this God is a god that decides the outcome of events based on random chance like this, then he is no longer a Personal God, but merely a personification of luck itself.

To explain more simply; a Personal God will have an agenda, whether it is good or bad. This has never been enacted in any human events. Human nature is such that we would rather believe that good or bad things were intended to happen to us, rather than accept pure chance.

banaanc · 04-26-2008, 09:34 AM

Because intentional intervention is an absolute requirement for a Personal God to exist.[/b]

why this is so important for a god to exist ?

**Shurt** · 04-26-2008, 10:36 AM

why this is so important for a god to exist ?[/b]

Because by "Personal God" he means the type that religious people worship. I don't know much about religion, but every religion I have heard some info about always claims that their god has an "agenda" or that "he knows what he is doing."