Darth Wong wrote:It's counterproductive to try to imagine what such a creature would think by using Aristotelian abstract reasoning. It makes more sense to look at the world and ask ourselves if there is an evidence that this god cares about us, and there really isn't. The Black Plague alone was a good indicator of that.
Unless the god or gods are a bunch of people who enjoy inflicting these harms for drama. Even then, knowing if God care about us or not is not going to change anything to begin with. So what if God care about us? Life still have to go on and we still need to work for the things we can enjoy in life.
I have no idea if I am getting too cynical in regards to religious issues.
Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.
Christopher Hitchens brings up a similar idea to this, usually to Christians. Supposing one could somehow prove that there was a first mover- a Grand Architect of the Universe- as a theist you still have the bulk of your work ahead of you. You then have to show that the god is a personal, intervening god who cares what you do, what you think, how you treat him, and will answer your prayers. Then you are a theist- there is an intervening god. But if you could somehow show reasonably sufficient evidence of that (good luck), you then have the task of figuring out the mind of your intervening god. Maybe you can do a lot of peyote, maybe you can listen to the nearest and loudest snake oil salesman, but most likely you will go with what your parents drilled into you at an early age.
Einstein and Spinoza would answer your question by saying that there might be a god who created the universe, but is utterly indifferent to the affairs of man. And honestly, if I could watch supernovas and compose house music to the beats of the radio transmissions of pulsars, I probably wouldn't be too concerned about who should win the eighth season of American Idol .
To be a bit of a Heretic here,
How about the possibility (I don't really believe it but an interesting thought exercise) of a God (or Mulitiple Gods) which are actually created by human thought. That is a fairly common theme of some fantasy. The gods in effect are created by us.
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine
"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV)
Kitsune wrote:
How about the possibility of a God (or Multiple Gods) which are actually created by human thought?
If the god exists only inside someone's head and is aware of this fact, wouldn't that god be concerned with the person's well-being? I mean, said god would be dependent upon the physical body of the person they "inhabit."
