RE: Non-religious Theism
April 25, 2014 at 7:23 pm
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2014 at 7:33 pm by archangle.)
(April 20, 2014 at 8:31 am)Metalogos Wrote: It appears to me that there are quite a few individuals on this site and in the larger world that might fall into the category that I would identify as non-religious theism. I think that one comes to such a position through rational thinking, just as Aristotle did when he posited the Prime Mover or Unmoved Mover in the 12th book of his Metaphysics. And though the 13th century Christian thinker, Thomas Aquinas, was certainly a very religious theist, he found it quite helpful to build his Five Proofs for the existence of God upon this non-religious theistic foundation in his Summa Theologica.
I should like to open this thread with the hope of finding both like-minded individuals who could comment sympathetically on the subject of non-religious theism and opposite-minded thinkers who could offer logical reasons for not coming to a position like non-religious theism in order to explain the origin of the universe.
I welcome then anyone who could argue successfully that the known universe with all its inherent order and wisdom could possibly have come into existence without a Prime Mover. Let it be known that I do not in any way claim to know what the nature of such a Prime Mover is beyond the obvious logical conclusion that such a being is self-contained.
Furthermore, I would like to ask what people think of the imagination of a world that was fuller of non-religious theists than religious theists as opposed to the imagination of a world that was fuller of non-religious theists than atheists. Perhaps this question seems meaningless to some but I would argue that there is indeed an important difference between a group of people who carry in their minds the idea of a world that started willfully and a group of people who have no such idea or imagination.
"willfully" is the debate for me.
Were we created "willfully" by a living planet?
Is your finger nail "willfully" created by you?
It takes no imagination to say yes to these questions. Nor does there need to be "poof there it is," type traits to this god of theirs.
I think there is more data to suggest that we are part of a larger system. This system may be alive. But it aint watching us or condemning us to hell any more than we condemn our hand for dropping a ball.
I don't know one thing we have more of than the universe has. It is more reasonable to say it has more awareness than us or is it more reasonable to say it has less?
But there is no breaded guy in the sky. We are it, it is us. if it should exist at all.
but my guess is that our 110-er won't be able to see past the nose on their face.
good op there guy.