(August 8, 2010 at 2:29 am)ABierman1986 Wrote: If God were to exist, then wouldn't it go without saying that a creator with a purpose must have some kind of cognition in order to intentionally create life, and to instill worship and faith in creations permits the assumption that God is aware of God's existence does it not? Perhaps in the same way the cells that make up the flesh of my hand don't recognize what higher purpose they serve in building a more complex creature, we as humans would not recognize the cog we functioned as in a higher organism that could be a sentient and omnipotent religious God. But this would be on such a scale, and our intelligence so primitive in comparison to God's that it makes the gap between cellular life and human life look infinitesimal. This is just food for though and of course, this presumes the need for a supernatural entity or presupposes some kind of evidence for this kind of deity, of which there is none and so the entire argument's initial assumption is inconsistent.
First off, I fully accept your condition at the end of your reply that you do not believe such a being exists. But for the purposes of this argument we can talk about such a being.
You said, and quite poignantly I might add, that
If God were to exist, then wouldn't it go without saying that a creator with a purpose must have some kind of cognition in order to intentionally create life, and to instill worship and faith in creations permits the assumption that God is aware of God's existence does it not?
And that statement, the problem it creates and its solution is the very crux of the cosmological idea that I am working on. I admit, I am working on the answer; I don't know the answer, but what about this:
I can argue that God cannot be self-aware, not the actual God anyway, but it leaves the problem of why this God-force, if you will, would start to create the universe and the things it has in it. It seems like there are only two solutions (of course I'm open to being schooled on more):
A. The force has desires and will and the capability to shape itself into the universe in the way it wants.
B. The universe has to be exactly as it is or it is a contradiction.
The first choice, A, has too many anthropomorphic problems associated with it. I mean, how could a primordial God have desires of any kind? How would such a personality form in a mind not associated with any universe?
The second is more like Spinoza's God, infinite attributes expressed through infinite modalities that simply have to exist. For if they didn't, it would contradict the primordial force itself.
I appreciate the ability to discuss this with you, and I appreciate the fact that you do not believe in God. I would like to continue this discussion in that I see this as part of the work I am trying to do and the #1 reason I joined this group (to find people I can have this kind of discussion with).
I'm open to any ideas anyone has, even if we all agree there is no God, and this is all a hypothetical logic thought experiment.
