RE: If you learned that the god of [insert religion] is real, would all bets be off?
January 7, 2024 at 11:37 pm
(January 7, 2024 at 11:01 pm)Sicnoo0 Wrote: Would you be willing to entertain the hypothetical and share what you think you'd believe with regard to the limitations or lack thereof of the god standing before you? Assume that somehow the god being real would be undeniable.
You can even pick whatever god might be easiest to deal with for the hypothetical
It's an interesting question, but difficult for me. The versions of God which seem most persuasive to me are not the type that could be "standing before" me. They don't work like Apollo, who has location and extension and therefore can be perceived by people (when he wants).
Of the monotheistic versions, from Plato on, God is not something that can be perceived through the senses, nor can it be localized. The One Form of the Good that emanates all physical reality (to paraphrase Plotinus) isn't going to be standing there trying to persuade me of anything. In those rare cases where people have mystical experiences and get direct perception of this God (as they report it) it is more like an oceanic one-ness with all of reality.
The big exception of course is Jesus, who took on human form through miraculous kenosis. But (according to the stories) a lot of people who saw him were not persuaded that he was God.
I suppose that the experience most likely to persuade me would something like a mystical vision, of the type described by various mystics including Plotinus, Nicholas of Cusa, William Blake, etc. But this doesn't include a guy standing there doing demonstrations.