(January 22, 2023 at 11:38 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(January 10, 2023 at 8:00 am)Jehanne Wrote: In his seminal book, The God Delusion, Professor Richard Dawkins states the following:
If there was a god, could he prove that he was God?
Not sure what you are going for here, but I would warn that this could be an easy trap for someone to fall for in a moment of stress or medical illness.
To me it would not matter if it could, that still would not answer the dead beat selective nature of our existence if one is going to also claim it is all loving and all good. It still would not make such a being worthy of wanting to be in the presence of knowing the harsh reality we live in. It would put us as humans in the realm of being mere toys, lab rats, poker chips, pawns.
Dawkins is a very smart man, and makes great arguments in that book for other reasons, to me this particular statement he makes is an oversimplification. Sure should be able to prove his own existence if one is to claim he is all powerful, but that still would not make him moral based upon the reality we see.
I've heard that he has said he wants his own death to be recorded so he can say he never would convert on his deathbed. Problem is if you are under heavy medications, or severe mental duress or diminished capacity you wouldn't always be aware of what you were saying as compared to your in tact lucid state when healthy.
(Bold mine)
But that was not Professor Dawkins' point. He was commenting only on whether God could reveal himself, not on whether such revelation would mean that God was good or kind or moral or even had our best interests at heart.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax