Did a God or Gods create the universe? EDITED

Alan Fraser

That doesn't advance your argument one bit. I'm not really concerned whether the Inquisition or fundamentalist christians represent the true face of christianity. Your original point was that non-christians are dead inside...that they have no love or empathy. That is total nonsense.
In fact atheists are generally more empathetic than anyone else...because they are fully aware that the here and now is all we have got...both for themselves and anyone else; so you need to get it right first time around.

You are telling me I only know about christianity from the Pope. How do you presume to know what I know about christianity? I was born Anglican, attended Methodist chapel and Sunday School, taught for nearly 20 years in a faith school, married a practising Catholic and have attended mass more times than I could possibly count. I bet I know rather more about christianity than you do. People don't tend towards atheism out of ignorance...quite the reverse.

And BTW quoting Tesla is pointless. Not seeing electricity is not remotely the same as not seeing God. Typical priestly deviousness. You can see electricity in action. It's results are entirely predictable and its mechanism perfectly understood. To say the same about God you'd have to be able to pray for a new car and get one, or pray for the recovery of a sick loved one and see them get better...every time...Poof! just like that...cause and effect.

Marian

IdahoJ

I love this quote from Men in Black:

@unknownuser said:

Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

1970: Eggs are good for you.
1980: Eggs are bad for you.
1990: Eggs are not bad for you ... new research supports this.
2000: Eggs are bad for you ... current technology has given us new tools to research this.
2010: Eggs might be good, or bad, we're not sure based on our current level of knowledge and technology.
2020: ...

So, for 40 years I've read and listened to "men of science" tell me about eggs ...

While one verse from John:

@unknownuser said:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Hasn't changed in 2000+ years ...

Cheers.

Marian

@idahoj said:

Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

That's not entirely accurate. It was more like 2000-years ago people, at least some, knew the Earth was round and 500 years ago they still believed that it was the center of the Universe and the Sun revolved around the Earth.

Both of those were accurate to observations made with the then available instruments and known mathematical calculations. Science is not afraid of admitting it was wrong and revising its views unlike religion which can only change if that change is shoved down its throat.

Plus unlike your egg example Science never changed its mind and said the earth is flat or the Sun revolves around the earth again.

The thing about food is that there are many factors involved, firstly biological and chemical secondly social and industrial. the quantity in which it is ingested etc. From that respect, food is both good and bad for you, all food any food.

michaliszissiou

@unknownuser said:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

OK.
What about the other dead, the no christian souls that walk in these caves-rocky galleries around the river Styx, all these chinese, indians, muslims, buddhists, etc etc, having the company of dead dogs, cats, monkeys, lions ... they cannot pass the river? Because they never heard about Jesus or any son of god?

This isn't the meaning of course. Perhaps is that others saw and listened the Word of god otherwise... they may not perish then. God has many ways. Or men have many ways to find god. To find a purpose in the creation. To find love. To accept death. To make space for new births.
They won't, the huge majority of men.
So, a community will always be a field of war.
Here another long living truth. War.
I can't say that a merciful god made another miracle, the only I know for sure.
How to convert war to peace.
It may be the miracle of men after all. It is called pure democracy and IMO is the only thing that changed the world of men. It made us individuals.
These days, many among us believe that it was an utopia. The "creator" of free minded men, it's an utopia...

BTW This egg story is funny. Around 1970-1980 there were 'scientists' that tried to convince mediterranean people like greeks that olive oil was full of cholesterol and terrible for our health. Some business on corn oil imports.
These all aren't scientists. They are doctors. Have you tried to have a nice conversation with one of them, ever? Like the one we have here.

IdahoJ

@unknownuser said:

Both of those were accurate to observations made with the then available instruments and known mathematical calculations.

Absolutely true. Hence the point of my quoting Men in Black (actual historical precision lacking as it may) and the egg "timeline". "Fact" as it may be, is predicated on the current knowledge and level of technology available at the time. As we advance our knowledge, and our means of observing and measuring "real things", our views, hypotheses, theories and facts change. So, what may be construed as accurate and "factual" today, may be revised at any time in the future.

@unknownuser said:

Science is not afraid of admitting it was wrong and revising its views unlike religion which can only change if that change is shoved down its throat.

Sorry boss, but "religion" and "faith" are two different things in my book. I don't have to be "religious" to have faith ... I certainly believe in the existence of God, but I don't belong to a "religion".

Cheers.

srx

@alan fraser said:

That doesn't advance your argument one bit. I'm not really concerned whether the Inquisition or fundamentalist christians represent the true face of christianity.

You should be concerned about the topic if you bring an important opinion based on it.

@alan fraser said:

Your original point was that non-christians are dead inside...

It was not my point. That was not my words. I said: "The society without God is so primitive, and dead despite all the science and technology." talking about the Flatland. It is the way to The brave New World http://www.huxley.net/bnw/.
Maybe you misunderstood me because of my bad English for which I'm sorry. I personal don't think that God sees atheist different from theists, they both have Love in them, and no one has more.

@alan fraser said:

You are telling me I only know about christianity from the Pope. How do you presume to know what I know about christianity?

From the examples you used for it.

@alan fraser said:

And BTW quoting Tesla is pointless. Not seeing electricity is not remotely the same as not seeing God. Typical priestly deviousness. You can see electricity in action. It's results are entirely predictable and its mechanism perfectly understood.

The point here is that man's science can describe with some mathematical model some laws of nature, and use it inside the borders of this model, but can not explain the very essence of it, the root. And that's the meeting point.

@alan fraser said:

To say the same about God you'd have to be able to pray for a new car and get one, or pray for the recovery of a sick loved one and see them get better...every time...Poof! just like that...cause and effect.

It's not how it works. I see why are you an atheist. ) Joke.

TIG

As I said, around page#1...
'God' would have to exist... if we hadn't invented him...

srx

“If someone proved to me that Christ
is outside the truth, and that in reality the truth were outside of Christ, then I should prefer to remain with Christ rather than with the truth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hieru

srx,

The Tesla anecdote was concerned with evidence for the existence of electricity. Most scientists would have responded by explaining the scientific method and the means by which we can establish the existence of electricity and measure it's influence etc. etc.

Failing to point that out, or equating evidence for the existence of electricity with that of God, was very 'dumb' in my opinion. I imagine that his comments had more to do with his spiritual beliefs than his understanding of science (otherwise it could have been irony).

If evidence for the existence of God (or God's creation of the universe) were as strong as that for the existence of electricity, we wouldn't be having this discussion

srx

@hieru said:

If evidence for the existence of God (or God's creation of the universe) were as strong as that for the existence of electricity, we wouldn't be having this discussion

You can not see the electricity, but its manifestation. The same with God. Its manifestation is all around you, including the electricity.

Solo, the video you showed is not for smart Christians, it's not for Christians at all. It is for Catholics. It's primitive like Madonna's "Like a Prayer" video. God is not a market for buying things. I suggest you find more about Orthodoxy, the native Christianity, and you want be so disappointed.

IdahoJ

@unknownuser said:

If evidence for the existence of God (or God's creation of the universe) were as strong as that for the existence of electricity, we wouldn't be having this discussion

Does "love" exist? It's as much part of this world as electricity, yet, I've never seen "it" ... Only it's manifestation.

Cheers

IdahoJ

@unknownuser said:

It comes down to the quality of the evidence.

Quality of the evidence is subjective. One man's meat is another man's poison kind of thing. So we can rule this out as a qualifying or quantifying argument.

Cheers

Hieru

If all evidence was subjective the sciences wouldn't exist. Phenomena such as electricity are supported by objective repeatable and predictable evidence. Even something like love can be reduced to the mechanics of the human body which are subject to physical laws that can be verified through objective experimentation.

The problem with God/gods or any other seemingly exotic phenomena is that they supposedly defy the materialistic physical laws of the universe and are only supported by weak subjective and unreliable anecdotal evidence. That's why the existence of electricity is a matter of objective scientific fact and belief in the existence of God is a matter of faith.

brodie

To hit a bit on both sides, studying God and studying electricity are certainly different things. We don't study psychosis, the battle of waterloo, or what makes a good marriage in the same way we study electricity either so that's not really a proof of anything.

I think the question, then, would be if the Christian God does exist, what might you do to study Him in a way that would satisfy you?

-Brodie

michaliszissiou

@unknownuser said:

20 pages in, lots has been said...any answer yet?

Did man create God?

It's obvious. Isn't it ?

jeff hammond

@irwanwr said:

@unknownuser said:

... the tao which is basically what all other religions are built upon..

how did you come with that conclusion? all other religions?

i'm generalizing.. and i'm not trying to say the idea of the tao spread it's way through the world and certain groups of people took that idea and based their religion off it.. i'm saying the roots of religions start off the same.. it's just with the tao, it's understood that the more words you try to use to describe it, the further away you get from the truth.. with religions, it seems the more ideas/myths/descriptions/whatever you pile on top, the better/more believable/truer it becomes..

we don't have words to describe a lot of things in nature.. and attempts to wordify(?) it weakens and cheapens it.. then with religions, i think a lot of the words (such as those in the bible) started off as being written by people in an attempt to communicate, metaphorically, their thoughts/feelings to others.. then somewhere along the lines, people hearing these fictional tales starting believing them as truths — meanwhile missing out on the whole idea trying to be said in the first place.. then other people started adding other tales (many of whom probably did so for personal reasons (power/money/control).. and now, a few thousand years later, we have this stupid book that people are quoting as real, killing people over, using as a tool for power/money/control, arguing about etc... and it's all bs.. it's a stupid work of fiction that in it's current general interpretation, misses the point entirely..

and there's more than one version of these books.. the one you're quoting i assume is the quran.. same sht, different day.. but comparing those two makes the case of people missing the point/reading the words as fact/believing the words as truth etc then twisting them into the own bojangled interpretations and using them for motives of power/money/control..

in this country (u.s.) allah = devil.. osama bin laden = allah.. saddam hussein = allah.. brown people = allah... and we must kill allah for he is the devil threatening to ruin our beloved god...
and maybe that sounds harsh but it's straight up the truth of what most christians are able to be morphed into believing by our almighty savior george w bush et.al.. the u.s. govt has the support of the majority of our country regarding blowing up the middle east based on this alone..

and it works the other way too.. to most muslims, i'm the devil.. i'm the person threatening to overcome their almighty allah.. etc..

it's fooked.. i'm not even an ist, or an ian, or an ic, or what ever stupid label people need to put on others.. why can't i just be instead of be something?

@unknownuser said:

about those things. living or not. they do or response to their surrounding. with certain kind of laws or orders. i agree on that since the beginning. until today, i've never heard anything like a bee pursuing a degree in architecture or PhD in physics. even if they've been doing that "hives building" since thousands or millions of years ago, they're going nowhere else with that. so they just got some kind of that "blueprints" implanted in their being. they just do what they've "told" to do.

and the main difference between us human and those other things is most probably our high "free will" and "mental" capabilities combined.

huh?.. i was trying to make an analogy about you saying you won't stop believing in god until a computer suddenly creates itself (or whatever weirdness you were talking about).. i just don't get the thing about 'since man makes computers, there is a god' idea.. it makes no sense.. but hey, that's your story and you're sticking to it (which is pretty much why these discussions will never conclude.. we're an incredibly stubborn species)

@unknownuser said:

then, yes it seems we've come onto some sort of agreement there.
that there is "something" beyond all of these. you may call it mother nature, father nature, the jedi knight's force, tao, or whatever that is.
since i don't know and don't have any proof of what gender that "thing" would be, i might stick to know "it" by god.

no, we don't agree.. there is nothing 'beyond'.. nothing 'superior'.. no 'supreme being'..
in the same way i'm no more superior than, say, a cow or a speck of dust..

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

one of the problems with religion, as i see it, is that it's an attempt to describe what isn't know to us..

i don't know about electricity, nuclear things either. let alone cosmology. but that doesn't make me not to believe that electricity or nuclear things do exist.

not you as an individual.. you as a species.. and one of the benefits of us having a society is that we can figure these things out collectively.. you trust your fellow human beings that are, individually, interested enough in electricity to harness it and make it useful to you that you ,individually, don't have to worry about it..

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

.. and i think the reason why everyone locks onto god so hard is that it explains what happens after death.. death being the single greatest fear humans experience..

i might have different opinion or feeling towards that matter. since every living thing will eventually die. but falling from a cliff i might fear of. because there should be options before every possibilities to choose.

yeah, maybe there should be a choice and i bet if there really was, god wouldn't have been invented.. but we can't choose if we want to live or die.. our only choice is death
the whole good death/bad death thing is pretty much irrelevant..

@unknownuser said:

i have a little thing about that. you might consider it as just fairy tales, myths, etc. or you can give it a little thought.

@unknownuser said:

Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that....

you're absolutely right.. those words are a fairy tale.. tell me your own ideas and i'd be more inclined to listen but when you start telling me your misinterpretation of somebody else's ideas/metaphors, meanwhile missing their original idea then hey.. i don't care to hear it..

you might as well tell me that the universe's speed limit isn't the speed of light because you read about han solo going from galaxy A to galaxy B in 5 seconds.. i'm interested in the possibilities that we can travel faster than currently assumed (or even in other ways than pointA->pointB) but if you're going to base that discussion off a book of fiction then so what.. go talk to a trekkie about it or something..

brodie

@hieru said:

If you want to study anything objectively then there are common approaches to reasonig and deductive logic regardless of the subject, whether it's electricity, history or paranormal claims.

I'm not sure how a study of God could be objective if you start out with the assumption that he exists. If however you remove that bias, any proof of God's existence would have to stand up to the scientific method and cannot defy the material laws of physics. The problem is that any God that could be shown to exist under those conditions would not resemble the God described in the Bible or any other religious text.

However I'm not saying that seemingly paranormal phenomena cannot exist, only that if they do exist then they must operate acvording to materialistic mechanisms that we simply do not understand yet. Proof that such phenomena exist would cause us to rethink the laws of physics, but ultimately any new paradigm would still be materialistic in nature and subject to the scientific method.

I don't understand your starting point. Why impose the limitation that if God did exist he must work within the material laws of physics? On the contrary wouldn't we presume that this God had created those laws and therefore MUST exist outside of them?

Your only caveat is that God might do something that SEEMS paranormal but only in that we've yet to comprehend the mechanism. What if that mechanism isn't comprehensible from a naturalistic standpoint though? What if it were simply an all powerful entity acting within the bounds of our natural world. It's at least conceivable isn't it? And yet you've ruled it out as a point of worldview.

-Brodie

irwanwr

actually i don't feel like i am interested to make more lines with this topic.
but, after reading some replies. i'd like to say a little more. but i doubt i can make it even half of the idea of communicating. let alone to reach understanding with my foreign language capabilities. i don't think to write in my own language would be a better idea either. so here we go again. although this is "pointless from the beginning". since no one here really are scientist in physics, philosophy, or any field of science. but just some of people who read some writings.

@alan fraser said:

And BTW quoting Tesla is pointless. Not seeing electricity is not remotely the same as not seeing God. Typical priestly deviousness. You can see electricity in action. It's results are entirely predictable and its mechanism perfectly understood. To say the same about God you'd have to be able to pray for a new car and get one, or pray for the recovery of a sick loved one and see them get better...every time...Poof! just like that...cause and effect.

now that would be a tool i'd like to have. just do anything that i want it to do.

god otherwise is not one of those things you can call a tool or plugin. that you may program it to do whatever you wish. what you wanted and described there is a tool.
to fulfill your needs and desires. god is not something that do whatever you wish him to do. if your father who lives overseas doesn't give you what you want, does that mean he doesn't exist? cause and effect? what about x-factor or any anomalies scientist admit? entirely predictable and perfectly understood mechanism?
say, if a tool or "plugin" doesn't gives us a result as it's expected to have, based on predictable mechanism perfectly understood, we should as good as just dump it. don't even think to have it tested again. to do more evaluation or research. it's just failed. drop it dead. no need for debugging.

common argument we'll see from those so called atheist usually.
their disappointment of god, and probably their religious teachers and leaders.

everything is material. can be measured, qualify and quantify.
quantify your soul. does it really there? qualify and quantify your mind, your feeling, etc. then. next you'll be saying manifestation of it. "electricity in action.." i can see god in action too if you say that. as if you are saying any government "is just fact that it is there merely exist" popping out of nowhere and running by itself.
if you tell me that a stone, element, planet or nuclear cores just popped out of nowhere, you are just like talking bs. the same way if i told you that i just got a car or a planet came out of nowhere for me in front of my door. even with infinite time were given for that thing to be.

so, whether you like it or not. atheist do have gods. those are science, materials, and their own desires and limits combined at least. those things seems responsible that drives atheist lives.

irwanwr

@hieru said:

I'm not sure how a study of God could be objective if you start out with the assumption that he exists. If however you remove that bias, any proof of God's existence would have to stand up to the scientific method and cannot defy the material laws of physics. The problem is that any God that could be shown to exist under those conditions would not resemble the God described in the Bible or any other religious text.

However I'm not saying that seemingly paranormal phenomena cannot exist, only that if they do exist then they must operate acvording to materialistic mechanisms that we simply do not understand yet. Proof that such phenomena exist would cause us to rethink the laws of physics, but ultimately any new paradigm would still be materialistic in nature and subject to the scientific method.

assumption? i still remember when i was still in university that they told me to do research and write something to present it and later become thesis. thesis itself means

@unknownuser said:

the·sis (thss)
n. pl. the·ses (-sz)

A proposition that is maintained by argument.

A dissertation advancing an original point of view as a result of research, especially as a requirement for an academic degree.
3. A hypothetical proposition, especially one put forth without proof.

The first stage of the Hegelian dialectic process.

even any science start from a scratch of assumption, proposition, without proof. are you sure you know what you are talking about here?