On 1/17/2015 2:12 AM, Jason Resch wrote:
On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 3:32 AM, LizR <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Clearly one cannot disbelieve in God without knowing, or at least having an
idea of,
what God is.
I would go further and say one cannot disbelieve in God without knowing, or at least
having an idea of what reality is, for unless one claims to know the extent of reality,
how can one suppose to know what it does or doesn't contain?
You can easily know that things with self contradictory properties are not in reality. If
something has properties that are inconsistent with observation that is fairly strong
evidence it doesn't exist.
"Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot; or he can, but
does not want to; or he cannot, and does not want to. If he
wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not
want to, he is wicked. If he neither can, nor wants to, he is
both powerless and wicked. But if God can abolish evil, and wants
to, then how comes evil in the world?'"
--- Epicurus
And then there are things that are consistent with both logic and observation, but are
very unlikely on our best theories of how the world works, e.g. teapots orbiting Jupiter.
Are you "agnostic" about the teapot orbiting Jupiter? Does "agnostic" just mean "I don't
know for certain" or does it mean "I'm equally disposed to believe or disbelieve." or "I
think it's impossible to decide the question."
Personally I don't disbelieve in God, I merely find the idea highly unlikely
Why do you find it highly unlikely (what is the conception you are assuming
here?),
When I write "God" with caps, I mean a god who is a superpowerful person and who wants to
be worshipped; not some abstract organizing principle or the set of true propositions.
also, to what degree do you hold the main idea the everything list is meant to discuss,
to be true (or likely)?
I'm evenly divided on that question.
and don't find that it contributes anything to discussions such as "why is
there
something rather than nothing?"
But "god" is the supposed answer to that very question.
"God" is also supposed to answer the question, "How should humans behave?" and "Who will
save me from death or disaster?"
The question is not is there an answer or isn't there (of course there is since we are
here),
That doesn't follow. Conceivably there is no "reason". In the major religions the
"reason" is that a supernatural immortal person willed or caused it. "Reason" referred to
what humans mean when they ask one another for a reason. Physical causes are not reasons
in that sense (although Aristotle thought they were).
the question is what is the nature, and what are the properties, of that thing,
Now you assume it's a thing or object. Are the equations of quantum field
theory a thing?
that object, that answer to the question of why reality exists.
That's easy. If it didn't exist it wouldn't be reality, would it?
Brent
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