God/Religion Debate

“I think the classic proof is that we see that things are coming into being and since nothing can come to be except from what is, then there must be some supremely existent starting point called God (and we also know that there cannot be an infinite number of causes, again because nothing could come to be from things which are not)."

Being unable to explain the origin of something, the proposed solution is to claim that it was created by a creator whose existence is unexplained. That does not explain much. It is basically is “I can’t explain it or science can’t explain it, so God-did-it.” In the past God explained volcanoes, hurricanes, disease, you-name-it, but now, as science advances, there is less and less need for godly explanations. However, even if scientific knowledge reverted to zero, admitting we don’t know is more correct than inventing deities to explain things.

To me, it almost sort-of seems like an argument from ignorance too. But if one looks to the truth conditions I think it has this obvious strength: If you really believe that everything comes from something, and that there can’t be an infinite causal chain (because again, you already believe that everything comes from something and finite things make finite things), then there just has to be some super-being at the start.

Again if you think that everything is caused, and that effects are proportioned to cause, then there must be some first cause or else you’re really left with no explanation.

And once more, one really can’t say that something finite caused things (again due to disproportion b/t effect and cause) nor for the previous reasons can we say that nothing caused things, so we are really left with the last option of the infinite caused things.

FWIW, my view on the spiritual world and mysticism generally.

First of all, we can divide knowledge into two realms, the rational and the mystical. Rational knowledge concerns that body of knowledge for which reasons can be given or which is so apparent as a part of direct experience that no reasons need to be given for it. Mystical knowledge is, therefore, necessarily speculative because speculation is all that is left when something lies outside of one’s experience and no reasons can be given for it.

Second, the use of knowledge is to inform choice. False knowledge can be harmful because it can frustrate action (the use of means to attain ends) by propagating ignorance or incorrectly assessing cause-and-effect in the world-as-it-is. All false rational knowledge can, in principle, be eliminated from one’s mind. False rational knowledge that masqeurades as mystical knowledge, however, can escape scrutiny by dodging reason by appealing to fiat at the weak point in the argument.

I find hardline rationalism (there is no mystical knowledge, that is, we know there is no mystical aspect to the world) to be untenable and hubristic. As such, it falls victim to the same error as traditional mysticism - the aggrandizement of human knowledge beyond its actual limits. I harbor mysticism regarding the fact of existence (why there is something rather than nothing) and a few other aspects of the world but the criteria that I apply for allowing mysticism within myself are very stringent. Only that which is undeniable (such as the fact of existence) and which cannot be explained even in principle, justifies mysticism, in my view.

The existence of God is deniable, therefore, it does not justify mystical belief in my view. Arguments to the contrary (God’s existence is necessary) invariably appeal to mystical knowledge at some step or another, usually at the weakest step. Nevertheless, dogmatic assertions to the effect that some kind of mystical being that transcends human comprehension cannot and does not exist are hubristic. So, with regard to the existence of such mystical/spiritual beings, the only epistemologically responsible position is agnosticism. More importantly, the speculative nature of such beings should be underscored at all times - they are anthropomorphisms more than anything.

Clayton -

“If you really believe that everything comes from something, and that there can’t be an infinite causal chain (because again, you already believe that everything comes from something and finite things make finite things), then there just has to be some super-being at the start.”

You can’t explain something, so you end the chain of causality by just saying that God started everything without explaining where God came from. If God just always existed, why can’t the universe just always exist? Instead of something coming from nothing, everything could have always existed, just in different forms.

It seems that the ancients believed that God was eternal so his actions are not successive but are accomplished at an ever-present “now”. I’m assuming then, that history and time are so present to God. Therefore, his actions are always being eternally accomplished and so God doesn’t just act; he super-acts.

Who are the “ancients”?

a question: what do you mean by god then, if not all-powerful being or beings?

I mean gods by exactly what they are. Poseidon, Thunor, Kali, etc. The question of what is all powerful of a god is questionable. Odin, Tyr, and Thunor are very powerful gods, same with Kali who is the “dark mother”, the creator and destroyer. These are gods. My problem is when the definition of what a god is changes from gods to God, and then that becomes the rule and there’s no exceptions, even though before the existence of this god named God there were polytheistic systems were people had various god cults, easily 2,000+ years ago (Hinduism still remains in tact). Did Odin create the universe? No, he only fashioned the earth from the body of the giant Ymir, but he was created from the universe just as Ymir was (according to myth).

I posted this in the fundamentalist thread:

Now, what is a myth? The dictionary definition of a myth would be stories about gods. So then you have to ask the next question: What is a god? A god is a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe — the powers of your own body and of nature. The myths are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being, and the same powers that animate our life animate the life of the world.

If you follow the Jungian/Campbell route then these gods are just projections of our subconsciousness into archetypes that build up society and cultural foundations and structures, etc. The gods are representive just as much as they are worshipped. If you believe the gods to be spiritual beings you can have to ways to go with it, that a god is spiritual, but a part of this world, or a god transcends this world and is on a different plane of existence (which seems to be the case for God). Now, people believe in ghosts, angels, land spirits, etc. Yet, these beings apparently interact and can dwell on this planet, they are more “material” than you think they are.

Another aspect of the idea of a god comes to being when the question is asked: can a god die? Yes, a god can die, just as we die, and just as the Earth can die. I think this is a rather important aspect of god, if god is a personification and we are made in the likeness of god, then god must have a likeness of our own, not some infinite being of energy of whom we cannot fathom it’s true existence. Sort of seems like a copout to me. Something like that turns God into the “universe” and everything and nothing at once that pervades all material and spiritual existence, etc. etc. It’s like putting every powerful aspect of any god that exists and existed into one mold and saying it’s full proof and we truly cannot understand how he works (“God works in mysterious ways” orly?). Imagine playing a fighting game and the boss literally is the universe, that’s what it turns into.

“science” presupposes materialism. So, no. Not everything in life is provable. Sometimes you have to get out there and experience life instead of read aout in a journal article. Like go see a concert and read the crowd. Feel the “vibe.” no, you dont have to do drugs.

I didnt say he “excited” the crowds. He made them riot. But I see now that I was being too conversational and not formal enough. I apologize. My claim is that the doors communicated (communed) with the crowd in a spriritual sense, this entails sharing information including emotional content. This was what persuaded the audiences to riot. My evidence for this claim is primarily No One Here Gets Out Alive.

But I dont see exactly how to prove this type of claim to you. Some things just have to be experienced…do you believe that humans have a subtle energy field around them? This is what some people call an “aura.” it is made of different types of energy and some people can see this energy. They recently discovered that humans have the same ability to see magnetic fields as birds do. Auras have been photographed, see kirlian photography. Do you want links? (Not being snarky, I just have to work harder to provide them cause I use a tablet and I figure you would only be persuaded by the results of your own investigations anyway.) so let me know.

@Autolykos

you are quite correct. I see now that my conversational tone was inappropriate and not very informative.

It’s not that you can’t explain something and that’s why there’s a God, its rather that no other explanation can possibly be correct. In addition to the plain fact that the idea of causality as something with greater being effecting something of derivative lower being, implies a greatest being capable of setting all this in motion, there’s the added fact that (for all finite beings) the necessary and sufficient condition for x changing y is that x must be set in motion by something else. So if you believe this, then there’s no finite being capable of starting things (since this would result in nothing happening as per the “necessary condition”) and clearly nothing is an inadequate answer, so the infinite in being must be the first cause.

It doesn’t rely on ignorance but rather a knowledge of potency/act and being; one doesn’t say that because they don’t know how the universe started therefore that implies a God, but they say that because they cannot fathom another way for the universe to exist (because one cannot fathom the impossible) then the only other choice is that a God did it -disjunct subtraction.

As to the question of why the universe couldn’t always exist, that’s actually a much more difficult question since some people believed that one could prove or disprove that the it always did. But one cannot scientifically prove/disprove that the universe always was. First because the will of God to make the universe was not necessary but free and we can’t know what happens from pure will and second because any attempt to show that the universe always existed depends on data extracted from the universe, so we’ll argue circuitously. But if you’re a Catholic (which depends less on your theology than on whether or not you were baptized), then you would hold only on faith that the universe wasn’t always and had a definite beginning.

Certainly though the being/time/size of the universe even if it wasn’t finite IMO had to be created anyways since there’s a difference between infinite in being (God) and being which is infinite (universe). This is probably true due to the fact that being means different things.

It depends on what the terms of the debate are. For example, you are arguing against a definition there. Cant be done. We define term “God” to mean that first uncaused cause. The first thing that happened. Whatever created the arrow of time. So you cant just turn around and argue atheistic definitionalism. This is your thread, which definition of term “God” would you like to discuss? Usually the theist picks the definition ;->

God’s time preference is “Yes.” THATS WHY WE HAVE TIME!1!!1!1!1

““science” presupposes materialism.”

The issue is not whether mountains or music or certain chemicals exist. The issue is the existence of the spiritual. I do not see persuasive evidence for it. You do. I find your evidence of rioting at music to be unpersuasive.

“But I dont see exactly how to prove this type of claim to you.”

I have searched and searched for persuasive arguments for the spiritual/supernatural, but none have satisfied me. That is one reason I started this thread.

“Some things just have to be experienced…do you believe that humans have a subtle energy field around them?”

I am not a physics person, but I speculate that there may be an electromagnetic field that surrounds the body. Just rubbing a balloon can generate static electricity, so have a weak form of electromagnetism does not seem to be unlikely. Still, that does not prove the existence of the spiritual, the definition of which I have repeatedly reposted to ensure that you know what I am referencing.

“It’s not that you can’t explain something and that’s why there’s a God, its rather that no other explanation can possibly be correct.”

The big bang is nonsense? “But about before that?” I don’t know. Scientists do not know everything, but slowly, the boundaries of ignorance are pushed further and further back leaving supernatural explanations less and less room to hide. How do you know that there is “no other explanation”? You do not have a mastery of the physcial sciences and knowledge of all future scientific discoveries and can declare for all time that the universe’s origin is forever a mystery.

“In addition to the plain fact that the idea of causality as something with greater being effecting something of derivative lower being,”

Greater being? Lower being? Are these gods or greater being (cause) and lower being (effect)?

“implies a greatest being capable of setting all this in motion,”

No, you just don’t know, so to explain the complex universe, you invent an even more complex creator, compounding the mystery of how everything came to be.

An infidel’s opinion: If the universe is infinitely old, for instance, every thing could indeed be caused by something else before it; the series of causes could go back forever. But perhaps more importantly, one could hold that the argument succeeds without believing that God exists. There could be multiple uncaused causes—multiple gods, say—or the uncaused cause could be an unintelligent, impersonal force. Finally, the argument holds that God is required to explain the existence of the universe, but offers no explanation for why God exists. If you invoke God to answer the question “Why is there a universe rather than nothing?” you raise the further question “Why is there a God rather than nothing?” The fundamental question—“Why is there something rather than nothing?”—remains unanswered either way; so why invoke a potentially nonexistent God to explain a universe which we know exists?

“The first thing that happened. Whatever created the arrow of time. So you cant just turn around and argue atheistic definitionalism. This is your thread, which definition of term “God” would you like to discuss? Usually the theist picks the definition ;->”

God: the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.

We can even discuss polytheism if someone wants to argue that.

Who’s “we” and since you’re capitalizing “God” I assume it’s the Abrahamic god called God who’s believed to be the first creator, but just because God is a god doesn’t mean that sets the standard for what gods are, and it’s not always (or not much ever) the case that the god is the first uncaused cause.

Oh, really? Supernatural explanations or spiritual beings?

Again, that’s the definition of capital “G” God, so either someone is debunking a god, a first creator god, or simply the Christian deity God.

For the sake of argument I’m making the case the universe can create the god, the god does not always have to create the universe, being said something else beyond a god can be the first creator - universe/energy/Big Bang/whatever.

If I say a god was created from the universe, can you debunk the existence of that god if he came from the same first cause of all other life?

Such an argument is not a God of the gaps argument. A regression of infinite causes is essentially causeless as such if we want to hold to cause and effect either the universe is an uncaused cause (i say this as time must have come into existence at one point as infinite time would cause the same problem of other regressions of infitity) or an uncaused creator brought it into being- as such either the universe or God must act to bring time into being. Irrespective of the present level of science this will always be the question. I would then venture to ask what is the nature of the universe and does it exhibit the qualities necessary to be an uncaused cause. Now if the nature of God explains his existence then there’s no problem.

You may find Liebniz’s cosmologiucal argument interesting. See here partially down the page.

A few clarifications:

lower/greater being means cause and effect not gods. In general the reason for God is basically what physiocrat wrote, but in particular, the reason why the big bang and science doesn’t satisfy the theist is that there’s (as you wrote) no apparent way to know that you’ve figured out everything; the whole “black swan/white swan” problem.

A common misconception though: God is not believed to be more complex than the universe, to the contrary he’s supposed to be simpler.

“Oh, really? Supernatural explanations or spiritual beings?”

I use supernatural as an all-encompassing term. When I started this thread I used multiple words to describe what I disbelieved in because many people use different phrases on this topic. They may say, “I am not religious, but spiritual” or “I feel that there is more to life than the material world”.

“Again, that’s the definition of capital “G” God, so either someone is debunking a god, a first creator god, or simply the Christian deity God.”

I was asked the definition of God that I responded to by Malachi, so I provided it. People may be misunderstanding each other in this thread because people are using different definitions.

“For the sake of argument I’m making the case the universe can create the god, the god does not always have to create the universe, being said something else beyond a god can be the first creator - universe/energy/Big Bang/whatever. If I say a god was created from the universe, can you debunk the existence of that god if he came from the same first cause of all other life?”

I have not heard that argument before. However, just saying “god was created from the universe” does not make it so.

“A regression of infinite causes is essentially causeless as such if we want to hold to cause and effect either the universe is an uncaused cause”

An infidel’s opinion: If the universe is infinitely old, for instance, every thing could indeed be caused by something else before it; the series of causes could go back forever. But perhaps more importantly, one could hold that the argument succeeds without believing that God exists. There could be multiple uncaused causes—multiple gods, say—or the uncaused cause could be an unintelligent, impersonal force. Finally, the argument holds that God is required to explain the existence of the universe, but offers no explanation for why God exists. If you invoke God to answer the question “Why is there a universe rather than nothing?” you raise the further question “Why is there a God rather than nothing?” The fundamental question—“Why is there something rather than nothing?”—remains unanswered either way; so why invoke a potentially nonexistent God to explain a universe which we know exists?

“You may find Liebniz’s cosmologiucal argument interesting.”

Nope. Seen too many formulations of the cosmological argument.

Liebniz said, “the only type of thing that can exist outside of the universe is something that is non-physical, such as abstract things, like numbers, or immaterial things, such as minds.” I always thought of the universe as everything that exists, so how can anything be outside of it? Numbers were created in reference to physical things: apples, cars, bananas, and etcetera. The humans who created the number concept are physical things. The universe is physical. The idea of non-physical is silly to me. Doing math requires certain physical chemicals in your head to operate. I don’t know what an abstract mind is. I always thought a mind was contained in one’s skull, but an abstract mind? Might as well call it an abstract pancake because that makes just as much sense to me.

“A common misconception though: God is not believed to be more complex than the universe, to the contrary he’s supposed to be simpler.”

Bert’s argument of god being created from the universe is compatible with what you said, but the more common view that God created the universe from nothing shows that God is more complex than the universe.

I’m just trying to best clarify the usage and meaning of “god” in separation of the deity known as God.

You have not heard that argument before because you are working from the Judea-Christian mindset, my religion has the belief the gods were created from the universe, not the other way around (as well as many other religions, but I’m not about to dig up sources). If you look gods/spiritual beings from this perspective it sheds a different light on the subject.

Even though I can say such things and it does not make it so, if it part of a certain belief/structure/religion, then it’s so for that religion. This may be no different if another religion says “god created the universe” and the other says “god was created from the universe”, and for some reason neither make it so, the views become subjective on a universal level.

Is a thought or belief material? Is an emotion material?

What was God if all existence did not exist infinitely?

“Is a thought or belief material? Is an emotion material?”

In my view, Bert, all emotion, thought, and belief are the result of brain activity.

“What was God if all existence did not exist infinitely?”

I don’t understand the question. Reword it, please.

I don’t know if I can make it any simpler than that.

Where did God dwell if no place existed to exist before his being?

classic assertion and logical fallacy.

It’s turtles all the way down:

"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!” "