RE: Why do you not believe in God?
July 16, 2012 at 8:57 pm
(This post was last modified: July 16, 2012 at 8:58 pm by Simon Moon.)
(July 16, 2012 at 8:04 pm)MysticKnight Wrote:(July 16, 2012 at 7:10 pm)Ryantology Wrote: Even if objective greatness existed (and it does not), how can you objectively measure the greatness of a being who is, by all accounts, beyond our capacity to measure in any way?
Well we know anything that would make it less great he cannot be. So for example, if he lacks compassion, and that would make him less great, then he cannot lack that. Therefore whatever what make him greater, he must have, because he doesn't lack greatness, and whatever would make him less great, he doesn't have, because he doesn't lack greatness. Ofcourse, we can't fully fathom ultimate compassion or ultimate love or ultimate goodness or ultimate power, but by virtue of knowledge that he is ultimately great, we know these attributes are a must.
A proof of premise 2, is that we know there is potential of greatness and there is no limit towards that. This we can see when we imagine super heroes in shows and anime, we make people greater then people we know of in real life. When coming across to imaginary super individuals, if objective greatness is true, one would surely be greater. But we can't imagine all levels of greatness, but we know potential is there. But as humans, we often have faulty logic of what is greater or not. There seems to be a need of knowledge that would be the basis to our knowledge of greatness, for whatever level of greatness we can perceive and whatever possible great beings can perceive.
So from this thought process, from what we know of greatness, there seems to be a need of source that contains knowledge of all greatness.
In short, if objective greatness were to exist, all possible greatness must have a basis, and if all possible greatness has a basis, so does the ultimate level of it have a basis.
It doesn't seem to make much sense, that we say objective greatness exists, but only to the extent of our limited perception and anything beyond that is not greatness.
All you're doing is defining a god into existence.
You're giving your god specific attributes (ultimate greatness, ultimate compassion or ultimate love or ultimate goodness or ultimate power), and presupposing that since you can think about these 'ultimate' attributes, there must be a being that has them.
Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
Here's a parody of what you essentially doing. Proof for the Non-existence of god is as follows:
1. The creation of the universe is the greatest achievement imaginable.
2. The merit of an achievement consists of its intrinsic greatness and the ability of its creator.
3. The greater the handicap to the creator, the greater the achievement (would you be more impressed by Turner painting a beautiful landscape or a blind one-armed dwarf?)
4. The biggest handicap to a creator would be non-existence
5. Therefore if we suppose that the universe is the creation of an existing creator, we can conceive a greater being — namely, one who created everything while not existing.
6.Therefore, God does not exist.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.