One of atheists' reasons that there is no way that god exists because of the imperfection of life. What if life is so beautiful? What if there is no sickness, everyone can live a long life, no poverty, no wars, no greed, no bad people and no religion that can separate races and beliefs, would you believe that there was god?
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It's hard to answer a hypothetical question like that because it's something I can never experience. I guess it would make the biblical god more likely, but then again much of the bible would be made redundant anyway because bad things even happen in the book itself. Nothing bad in the world could possibly be a point in favour of god, but it's still not nearly enough evidence to prove his existence.
What if life is so good that even the bible was not created by men to encouraged fear. I mean would you believe that there is god, a real, non-biblical based, loving and caring god?
I doubt I'd ever even consider it because there would be no Bible to introduce it to me. Again, being hypothetical I'm not sure what I'd believe. If the planet in it's perfect state still makes sense and can be explained by science then I'd still be an atheist. If it completely contradicts and predictions we would make about a life-bearing planet then there's more chance I'd consider a God.
Personally, I am not a God-hater, so I am not angry with God for the imperfections of life, and I don't use them as a reason to disbelieve in him out of spite.
The concept of God just doesn't make any sense to me.
If life were perfect, and God was there every step of the way assuring that everything was happy and beautiful on Earth, I would still wonder what lay beyond His awesome little terrarium, and probably doubt that he had control over the entire Universe (because then, where did he come from?). I'd probably try to escape out of boredom. Humans are like that.
According to the Bible, God DID create a perfect world. And then he sabotaged it by tempting Adam with the tree of knowledge (and creating the serpent for the same purpose), knowing Adam would sin and ruin the whole thing. And knowing that Adam's descendants would fail to meet God's entirely arbitrary standards, forcing God to kill off almost the entire human race. Jehovah as rendered in Genesis has all the morals of a six-year-old stamping on ant hills.
Do you really believe that the biblical god sabotaged his own perfect works? If that's so, what do you think is his reason behind that?
No perfect works, no reasons, no biblical god.
That is according to what is claimed in the Bible. I, of course, don't believe that. The Old Testament was written by Jewish priests, when the history of the ancient Israelites was mostly over, with the specific purpose of persuading other Jews that the reason terrible things kept happening to them, is that they didn't obey God's will closely enough. But they also argue that God created everything, including all of mankind. So the only logical answer they can peddle to their flock, is that God created all these people, who insisted on breaking his laws anyway, bringing down God's punishment upon them. Which means that they believe that either (a) God sabotaged his own creation, or (b) somehow this omniscient deity created all this stuff, having no clue whatsoever that men would be so sinful that he would have to keep killing them.
If life was really as good as the god we are taught to believe should make it, then I would have a little more faith in such good existing. That good that looks for our best interest as his children and never does anything to harm the innocent, but this is not the case. There are many people suffering from terrible injustice everyday all over the world.
As long as this keeps happening, there will be very little interest in most people to actually believe in the god that religion has attempted to teach us to believe in without questioning anything.
Instead I would ask what if God was the imperfection, I mean what if all that was good existed because of all that was not right or bad, so to speak. What if all this imbalance made for the existence of God and therefore was God, nothing more nothing less not bad nor evil and as everything in the universe continually strives to achieve this balance in search of comfort all of creation is made as the balance is impossible to achieve, because God is nothing but the opposite of existence?
Interesting premise. I don't quite understand how the existence of 'bad' (a subjective concept from the get-go) would inspire the existence of 'good'. I can see the definitions playing off of each other, but not physical existence. Also, how would the universe define and detect the existence of an imbalance to be corrected? Are you attributing sentience to the universe? Am I trying to take it too literally when you were speaking metaphorically?
As far as the good and bad go It's like marriage you cant have one without the other. Both are subjective concepts.
Everything in existence is in a constant state of search for balance while dealing with the influences of inertia and existing in a vacuum. But yes, I was speaking metaphorically and suggesting the greatest force we have that attributes to the creation of life is nothing, if this were to be labeled God then it could be said God was nothing and therefor was the opposite of existence. Like a vacuum empty space the most powerful known force in the universe. In a vacuum objects are drawn towards each other when mass gets large enough atomic reactions occur a large enough atomic reaction could throw things way out of balance this would send things spiraling out until its inertia was gone and then balance or gravity would be all that was left as it all returned to a central point again where once enough mass gathered the cycle would begin again. Because of this process and the amount of things that are in existence before total balance can be achieved the whole cycle will begin again. Gravity is the great balance or equalizer but things under immense pressure and heat can react in ways that counter gravity. What I am saying above is, what if God was simply the inability for balance to be achieved? So therefor God does not exist unless you want to label something that does not exist to be God. It is this drive to obtain this unobtainable perfect balance that drives all of creations actions.
Another idea could be to call God all of creation. But that would make it seem all that much more vulnerable and less powerful than in my opinion to call him the opposite of existence! Above I was not attributing sentience to the universe but I think either way God would not be good or bad and really would not care one way or the other about the daily ramblings of the creatures of earth. I think if this nothing/everything were to exist in a conscious state it would be more of a collection of all possibilities being played out over and over again more like a record of all possibilities being played until it had all been done came full circle and then was done again at infinitude. I personally don't think God if there is one cares what we call it or assign our name for it to. I just think if you wanted to call God the most powerful and creative force you would call it nothing if you wanted to call God all of existence you would call it just that, everything and nothing combined. But either way this would mean you were call calling it all that it would be good along with all that is bad or evil as well.
Theist will argue but where did all this come from? What made it all exist? These are good questions in my opinion and nobody knows the answers. In an attempt to answer, theist have created and used God as an answer. One may ask, What is the meaning of life? When combined with the theist answer of God one may conclude to do God's bidding. When one does not accept that answer one may conclude to exist. My two questions to a theist would be in so far as God goes, what if God was everything meaning every last atom down to and including nothing and what if God were nothing if you did not consider yourself as a theist be to part of God? I think the universe is far bigger than we know, and I don't know where all existence came from but I tend to think that it has just always been rearranging reshaping into every possible reconfiguration. I just think it (is) nothing more and nothing less. Someday I may be proven wrong and find out there is something more to it but for now that's the best I have to go on.
Then I don't think that being deserves to be called "god". Those characteristics are not god-like.
You should use the reply button found in the bottom right hand corner of the post you are replying to... Anyways, I don't see why the hypothetical god I put forth is any less god-like or deserves less to be called God than the any other version theist have come up with. Why do you feel those characteristics are not god-like?
The word "god" for me pertains to ultimate goodness, love, care and selflessness despite of supreme power.
All of this illustrates the dilemma I posed earlier. There is no way for a theist to properly define "God", because any definition will either be (a) s specific that facts and logic can easily rip it apart, or (b) so vague as to be meaningless -- defining "God" merely as the stuff that makes good things happen, that makes us feel good, that makes us want to do good things...
Being god has nothing to do with goodness. Have you seen the gods of other religions? Have you even looked at what the Christian god has done?
Being god has only to do with power. This is not a news.