RE: On non-belief and the existence of God
August 17, 2014 at 2:05 am
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2014 at 2:08 am by FallentoReason.)
(August 17, 2014 at 1:54 am)bennyboy Wrote: With regards to the varieties of religious experience: I don't see this as a good argument against God. In fact, it accords with what I'd expect to find if God were a real entity.
An actual creator God who maintained ties to the universe, we would have to assume, would be so complex that it could not be encapsulated by the understanding of any given person. Given such a God, we'd expect a lot of people with strange flashes of insight and inexplicable feelings-- the sense that "something is there," but a near complete inability to describe, define, or recognize it. The fact that all cultures in the world have some kind of theistic framework indicates that there is "something" that they take great interest in. The fact that they all have radically different theologies indicates that they are ignorant of the complete nature of this "something"-- which is to be expected.
Now, I'm not arguing that God exists. I'm saying that the confusion and strife among religions is consistent with the idea that God is real.
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They are all describing different things, but touching the same elephant.
Except, if we go into more detail with different religions, we in fact find that someone is touching and describing an elephant, while another describes what sounds like a tiger.
There's way too many claims being made that are mutually exclusive. A simple example is Christianity saying God can be human (aka Jesus) while Islam holds that God could never do that.
"I'm touching big hoofs"
"Yeah, well I'm touching claws"
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle