Does God Exist?
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  Does God Exist?
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Question: ....
#1
Yes
 
#2
No
 
#3
Maybe
 
#4
Unsure
 
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Total Voters: 75

Author Topic: Does God Exist?  (Read 14772 times)
Phony Moderate
Obamaisdabest
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« on: March 11, 2012, 04:31:27 PM »

We haven't had this for a while IIRC.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2012, 04:34:36 PM »

Maybe is the only rational option.
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Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook
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« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2012, 04:38:58 PM »

NB4 Fundamentalism.
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Insula Dei
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« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2012, 05:06:21 PM »


Kierkegaard would agree.

EDIT: As would Blaise Pascal.
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John Dibble
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« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2012, 05:11:57 PM »

"Maybe" I suppose. I can't say with absolute certainty that there aren't any gods, though I don't find it likely.
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Redalgo
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« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2012, 05:53:08 PM »


Aye, I do not believe God exists but do not actually claim to know whether or not God exists.
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Oakvale
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« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2012, 06:11:40 PM »

I don't have any reason to believe so, no.

Although it's also highly arguable as to whether "god" is even a meaningful concept.
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
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« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2012, 06:15:37 PM »


I'm not an immensely rationalistic person.

Voted Yes because leap to faith but strictly speaking the answer would be Unsure.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2012, 08:50:43 PM »


No, the only rational option would be "Define 'God' and define 'exist.'" 
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« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2012, 09:01:56 PM »

I absolutely believe in a supreme, omnipotent Deity.
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LBJer
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« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2012, 09:54:37 AM »

I voted "No" because I assumed that by "God" the question is asking about God in the traditional religious sense.  If the question is whether God exists in the sense of being "a cosmic force in the universe," as the ARDA survey I posted on this forum a while back put it, then maybe.  I voted "Agree" to that description of God because the (somewhat confusing) question asked what the respondent thought God was like, regardless of whether they believe in God or not. If there is a God, I envision some kind of morally neutral cosmic force.  But as far as God in the sense that most religions preach--a morally good force that plays a role in world affairs--I think the evidence overwhelmingly says no.
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afleitch
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« Reply #11 on: March 12, 2012, 10:14:33 AM »

I agree a bit with LBJ.

If there is a 'god', then we have to determine what sort of god it is and why we call it so. A 'god' need not be a deity. A 'god' need not be infinite or infallible. A 'god' can be flawed. If an alien from a distant sun dropped by and created life on earth because it nothing better to do then crashed and died on the way home then for our purposes it would be our 'god'; but we would never know that it was or need to know that it was.

In terms of what is on offer in terms of the gods that are popular today (and I am very much a believer that religion throughout human history is not about 'truth' versus 'untruth' but a popularity contest with ever changing winners) then it's left wanting. Christianity/Judaism/Islam is quite poor at owning the notion of god.

If I had to attach any awe or reverence to anything then it would be the Sun, without which you and I would never have been here. It's not an entity, it's not conscious, it doesn't know what it's doing but it rules our very existance.
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LBJer
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« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2012, 10:23:51 AM »

If I had to attach any awe or reverence to anything then it would be the Sun, without which you and I would never have been here. It's not an entity, it's not conscious, it doesn't know what it's doing but it rules our very existance.

Very thought-provoking comment.
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Insula Dei
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« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2012, 10:45:42 AM »

(The) Mikado has a bit of a point: what do you mean by 'exist'? Remember Heidegger's 'Gott ist, aber Er existiert nicht'
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
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« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2012, 07:16:44 PM »

If I had to attach any awe or reverence to anything then it would be the Sun, without which you and I would never have been here. It's not an entity, it's not conscious, it doesn't know what it's doing but it rules our very existence.

How do you know that the Sun is not conscious?  That is awfully bigoted against non-carbon-based lifeforms in my opinion.
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politicus
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« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2012, 08:14:14 PM »

Of course she does ;-)
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anvi
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« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2012, 12:06:08 AM »

politicus,

Welcome to the forum!  After we lost several female posters in the last year, your arrival here is great news--thank goodness!

In answer to the thread question, no.
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harry_johnson
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« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2012, 12:16:35 AM »

Yes by definition. What we know to be a first mover or first cause, first essence is what is God. Now the presence of God is highly flawed by religion, especially in ancient times but the idea of God throughout history does show the evolution of what we know is not God; humanity and every other part of matter. I must ask; are you referring to the God of Christianity or monotheism or a creator?
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Associate Justice PiT
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« Reply #18 on: March 13, 2012, 03:24:07 AM »

Yes by definition. What we know to be a first mover or first cause, first essence is what is God. Now the presence of God is highly flawed by religion, especially in ancient times but the idea of God throughout history does show the evolution of what we know is not God; humanity and every other part of matter. I must ask; are you referring to the God of Christianity or monotheism or a creator?

     Hello, Derek.
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Alcon
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« Reply #19 on: March 13, 2012, 04:19:37 AM »

Yes by definition. What we know to be a first mover or first cause, first essence is what is God. Now the presence of God is highly flawed by religion, especially in ancient times but the idea of God throughout history does show the evolution of what we know is not God; humanity and every other part of matter. I must ask; are you referring to the God of Christianity or monotheism or a creator?

If you define God as an entity that can just come into existence, why can't the universe just come into existence, or whatever?  Is anything capable of just coming into existence definitionally "God"?
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Middle-aged Europe
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« Reply #20 on: March 13, 2012, 06:09:41 AM »

Probably not... but who knows.

The existence of God or Gods would be kind of cool, but so would be aliens. Then again, I would probably consider God to be just another kind of extra-terrestrial.
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Yelnoc
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« Reply #21 on: March 13, 2012, 03:16:55 PM »

As Mikado said, this question would be a lot easier to answer with a definition of "God."  When I hear that word, I think of the Gods created by men, of Allah and Jehovah and Zeus.  Those Gods do, or did exist in one form or another throughout history, so much as any concept held to be true by a multiplicity of humans can be said to "exist."  As Afleitch points out, there is the Sun, the most powerful body in the Solar System to which we owe are existence.  It certainly "exists" in every sense of the world.  Does it fulfill the criteria of "God"?  Our ancestors certainly thought so, though we modern, educated people refer to it now as only a star.  We understand how the nuclear reactions in its core produce light and heat; in so doing, we removed its Deity status.  From what I can see, the Gods are dying trample under the foot of progress.
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Tidewater_Wave
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« Reply #22 on: March 13, 2012, 03:47:24 PM »

In my years as a scholar, I've heard alot of plausable and poor theories. I've never heard anything as stupid as matter just appeared from nowhere and things began to exist for no reason.
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« Reply #23 on: March 13, 2012, 04:11:22 PM »


Yo, CyberScholar, listen to what you're saying.  The first sign of psychosis is a scholar complex.  You're simply having another psychotic break.



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anvi
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« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2012, 04:22:41 PM »
« Edited: March 13, 2012, 04:24:26 PM by anvi »

The burden of proof would seem to lie on the party that postulates the existence of a specific kind of cause.  

It's certainly not unreasonable to believe that the existence of the universe in its current configuration had a cause or set of causes.  But the series of causes could indeed be just an infinite series of causes, or we may just not know, and may never know, the nature of the preceding causes.  On the contrary, there is no good argument, and no evidence whatsoever, that the commonly accepted notion of "God" was that cause.  That's why people who believe in God do so because of faith, and not because of reason.  I happen not to have any such faith.  

In the final analysis, I don't want to be a mortal being, I don't want to die and be gone forever, any more than anyone else does.  I hate that fact not just for myself, but for all the people I love as well.  But my abhorrence at the fact that I, and all my loved ones, will soon be dead doesn't justify the belief in some divine being--it just doesn't.  Unchangeable facts need to be acknowledged and faced, even when it's hardest to face them.
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