RE: I have some questions for the posters here.
June 23, 2021 at 7:08 am
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2021 at 7:10 am by Belacqua.)
Quote:Frank Apisa**
When I use the word "god" I mean "The entity (or entities) responsible for the creation of what we humans call 'the physical universe'...IF THERE IS SUCH AN ENTITY."
A few preliminary questions:
Is there anyone here who asserts, “No gods exist?”
Is there anyone here who asserts that he/she KNOWS that no gods exist?
Is there anyone here who asserts that it is impossible for gods to exist?
Given the definition provided, it's impossible to say one or the other.
We can rule out any number of versions that have been proposed. The literal God of Genesis and Exodus, for example, is unbelievable. Zeus or Aphrodite as physical, empirically detectable entities are not believable. These I think are 100% rejectable.
Any god which is detectable as a material, empirically findable object isn't really a god, as I see it -- just a powerful creature. It's very difficult to believe that a material thinking creature could create the universe. So I'd say that's almost impossible to believe, but not completely rejectable. It's not falsifiable.
Often when people hear the word "God" this is what they think of. They assume that a god, to exist, would have to be provable by science, or somehow findable, like Bigfoot. So if that's what people are imagining, they are probably comfortable saying with confidence that there's no such thing.
The metaphysical issues, though, are harder to rule out definitively. When you get into theories about how "God and the universe do not make two," or God as the non-physical primal existence which at every moment holds the universe in being (which is what theologians often mean by "created the universe") then one can doubt it (a lot) but not declare that one knows for sure.
