(February 13, 2020 at 7:36 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:No, I don't think that I am using any terms incorrectly. On my view when one talks of Nature one is speaking of existence, all of it, the sum total. We call it nature when it is seen as a collection of entities acting and interacting with each other according to their natures or identities and according to the Law of Causality. To speak of something outside of Nature would be to speak of an entity that is outside the concept entity, outside of the Law of identity and outside the Law of causality. It is wracked with contradictions. I think you're right to say that the supernatural is a synonym for the non-existent since to exist is to be something specific, to possess identity. And yet "God" is supposed to transcend all that. If a god existed "outside of Nature" it would exist outside of existence and it would bo nothing.(February 13, 2020 at 4:14 pm)Objectivist Wrote: No, God does not exist so it can't be anything, contradictory or otherwise. The notion of God is self-contradictory though. God is said to be supernatural. That means it is apart from and above the laws of nature including the Law of Identity. So here we have a notion of an entity which by its nature transcends nature. But if it has a nature, i.e., an identity, then how could it transcend the law of identity. Blank out. I can't believe I once bought into this nonsense.
Are you sure you're reasoning through these terms correctly, using them appropriately, and not inadvertently creating a falsidical?
Personally I've never agreed with the notion of the supernatural; I think the term is often used as a synonym for non-existent. Nevertheless, I do view the notion of God being outside of nature as similar to the way a gamer sits outside the virtual environment he is playing, but can nevertheless interact and have an effect on it. To try to understand the human being by filtering him through "digital laws" of the virtual world is bound to be problematic if not contradictory as well.
On your view, the world we live in is analogous to a video game. I think this is a good analogy given what Christianity has to say about the Universe being a creation. In a video game, the action is dictated by the programmer who creates the virtual world of the game and by the choices of the player, which in this case would be this fictional god. The characters in the game (us Humans) would be like puppets.
On my view however, the Universe is not analogous to a computer game. Reality is an absolute, and everything is what it is and does what it does independent of any ruling consciousness.
