(September 18, 2011 at 11:20 pm)lucent Wrote: God makes sense as the ultimate cause of reality, much more sense than any theory I've heard postulated by man. Not that I am conceding anything as far as truth, but really I don't know how people could be so skeptical about God but not about the nonsense people say caused the Universe. As a theory, it explains quite a bit about reality, in fact it can explain everything about it, from macro to micro. It explains morality, it explains why the Universe appears designed and fine tuned for life, it explains how a well organizaed and infinitely precise Universe arose from something chaotic, and that out of nothing. Truth, beauty, reason, logic..even things like altrusim, God resolves all of these philosophical dilemmas. Some people may use it as an excuse, but there is a rich history of philosophical discourse here which you are underwriting unjustly.
(September 18, 2011 at 7:31 pm)Epimethean Wrote: Gods don't address any ultimate causes either: They are simply excuses for those who don't want to put in the time and effort to investigate reality.
To the OP: Read Daniel Dennett and John Searle on consciousness. They do some incredibly good work describing how consciousness and identity seem to work.
Santa explains the reality of Christmas a helluva lot more compellingly than Jeebus. Does that make him real?
Trying to update my sig ...
