(December 7, 2016 at 10:06 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: You can define God in a potentially infinite number of ways and still ascribe it as the 'simplest' explanation for anything. You can define it as a philosophical creative principle or a cosmic rutabaga and it makes no difference as far as explanatory power goes.That's right. However, since nothing has any explanatory power with regard to ultimate ontology, that's not really a big strike against it.
I think as soon as you start talking in absolute philosophical terms, the "that which is most essential to the existence of existence," etc., you can see that these kind of ideas are already represented as the "logos" of Greek philosophers, etc. and that this idea is tied into the idea of godhood, particularly in the Bible.
This is not to be conflated with Sky Daddy, or a personal deity, however.