[Serious] Could an omnipotent and omniscient god prove that he was God?

[emjay]

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a hard time... from my point of view, what you have say is a breath of fresh air. But just to be clear my interest in it was not really in the sense of looking for a philosophy... as in the sense of a philosophy to live by (Objectivism), but rather that some of the ideas within it were interesting and appealing. That's not to say that I'm not interested now to learn about Objectivism as a whole - which is the subject of that playlist, and which, as long as it is, I really look forward to going through - but just to say that that was not the part that was initially appealing to me; rather the aspects about analysing concepts etc... that sort of thing just always appeals to me. But rest assured I'll watch that playlist with an open mind... I've started already; each lecture is about three hours long but it's relaxing so far and I like what he's saying... I'm just treating it as an audio book because it's basically audio only, and that makes it very relaxing. So who knows where it will lead (Objectivism as a whole)... whether it will resonate with me as a whole, but so far it's looking promising, but even if not, it'll still be something interesting to learn and get my teeth into.

I just was happy that you are willing to look, not that you have to accept it.  You may end up rejecting it yourself.  I realized after I linked to that series that it was starting where I had left off the last time I was listening to it.  You need to start with the first one Metaphysics:  axioms, causality, and the primacy of existence.  Because each one builds on the other.  Just listen to that lecture and then spend a lot of time looking at reality.  Are the points he makes true?  Do they hold up?  I predict if you do that you will be hungry to listen to the rest and to go further.  Have fun.

Cool. I think I probably will end up accepting it though; I've watched the first one 'What is Man?' and I'm hooked; he's a great speaker and it's all very clear, well reasoned, full of examples, and easy to follow, so it's been a joy to listen to and has indeed resonated with me quite a lot, especially because it seems not only philosophically insightful but also psychologically insightful. For instance I think I've generally accepted this reason-emotion dichotomy in life... that the two are generally in conflict... but never considered his perspective that emotions come from ideas, so the apparent conflict is instead the result of competing and sometimes contradictory or subconscious ideas. I thought that was very insightful and a whole new way of looking at things.

I said before that in this context I was not looking for a philosophy [to live by] but he talks about that inasmuch to say that everyone lives by a philosophy, whatever it may be, and whether it is a well thought out and reasoned philosophy or just a mish-mash of random accumulated ideas. I must admit mine has tended towards the latter, with the exception of Buddhism which has always appealed to me philosophically (not superstitious - my interest in it stops at reincarnation...but what it has to say about this life I think is pretty profound, and like your system based on the notion of not requiring faith; I think the Buddha put it something like 'nothing hidden in the closed fist of the teacher'; ie you don't... can't... take its ideas on faith, you have to see and understand them for yourself, through meditation etc, looking into your own mind). But we're not talking about Buddhism here, I'm just saying that's part of my philosophy in life as it stands, and this Objectivism feels similar... not in content but approach; both insightful, both introspective (maybe), both systematic, both for want of a better word, classifying, and both rigorously trying to prove themselves, point by point, which is great for me because I agree with your guy, you can't take philosophy on faith. So though I wasn't looking for a philosophy before, I think maybe I am now Or at least I understand its value more now.

Also, don't worry about the link, I didn't follow it directly because I was watching on a different device so had to look it up instead... so I watched from the first video in that playlist, 'What is Man?... the one you suggested I start with appears to be next.