posted
You cannot prove that No Gods exist, given the varied and potential definitions of "God."
The Deistic version of God is the most unassailable, as that God is totally uninvolved in the workings of the universe. The Deistic God can never fall before the argument from evil, or the free will controversy, for example, because its very nature renders the questions irrelevant.
The more 'active' a God is said to be, the more 'useful attributes' it is supposed to have, the easier it is to debunk, due to the obvious lack of said actions and the conflicts between its supposed existence and the state of the "real world."
Therefore, while the notion of a "God" may be impossible to debunk, individual, specific Gods (like you-know-whos) are much easier to disqualify.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
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posted
Of course, it seems to me that if our cosmology is designed around a God who never gets involved and plays no role in the universe, we might as well go all the way.
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posted
By defintion set by most religions, God is perfect (with the exception of Buddhism, where there is no God).
So, if God is indeed perfect, then he can do no wrong, which is also stated by most religions.
However, God's creations are flawed because humanity is flawed, more over, the universe is flawed proven by scientific facts (that's right, universe will eventually blow up on itself!).
Therefore, follwoing simple common sense logics, God either doesn't exist, or he's not as powerful as we preceive him to be, and God is just a creation of the universe like the rest the us.
By theory of revolution, God is nothing more then a more evolve species then human.
Which is exactly what Budda suggest. Budda stated that the term "God" is just common folks like you and me who are more "enlightened", and his deeds and study to perfect himself accumulate in the "circle" until finally, he raise above and into a different and higher level.
Budda also stated that we're all equal, Budda and you is equal, you and an ant on the ground is equal, and that eventually, all of us can raise above to a higher meaning of life with time.
That's why Budda doesn't call himself a "God", Budda said that he's here as a "teacher" to teach us his way to perfect yourself. Budda also said that we're the "pupils that's becoming the teachers", suggesting that with the right determination, we'll one day achieve his level.
Budda acknowledge all religions, Buddhism believes that other religions are just different methods of achieving the same final result.
Budda stated that there are "thousands upon thousands" like him in the different universes.
I'm not a relgious man, but if I want to take on a relgion to myself, I choose Buddhism anyday, it is not racial, it is peaceful, it is scientific and the most important of all, it is open to others that's different then itself, unlike ALL OTHER RELIGIONS.
[ February 18, 2002, 16:24: Message edited by: BlueElectron ]
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
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"Buddhism" originate from India but was forgotten by Indian people.
It was later on brought to China, where it flourish and become a major religion in the Asian area.
The way I see it, the word "Buddhism" is just a poorly translated word done by English speaking population.
[ February 18, 2002, 18:24: Message edited by: BlueElectron ]
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
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"So, if God is indeed perfect, then he can do no wrong, which is also stated by most religions.
"However, God's creations are flawed because humanity is flawed, more over, the universe is flawed proven by scientific facts (that's right, universe will eventually blow up on itself!).
"Therefore, follwoing simple common sense logics, God either doesn't exist, or he's not as powerful as we preceive him to be, and God is just a creation of the universe like the rest the us."
Of course, this arguement bases itself upon the unfounded assumption that the deity in question was not trying to make an imperfect universe.
Basically any arguement of the form "[insert deity] can't exist because of [insert imperfection]" can be countered w/ "[insert deity] wanted it to be that way".
You can't even validly prove that I'm not a god. If you tell me to prove that I'm a god, I can just say "I don't want to". If you do something extreme like shooting me the head, the arguement could be made that I'm only letting you think I'm dead, because I don't want to show that I'm a god.
So, technically, it is true that there is no way to prove that no gods exist. However, if such gods have no influence on anything, it doesn't really matter.
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Religions are pass through generation through "words of mouth".
Scientific data can be proven through experiments at any given time by request, where religion cannot.
"Faith" is an very important concept for religion, a person who's religious is said to have "faith" because religion cannot be proven, and therefore a person is asked to "blindly trust" a God when he joined a perticular relgion.
The hypothesis here is that "God does exist", therefore debate here should be for the religious crowd proving that God does exist to the hard-science population (such as me), and not the other way around.
[ February 18, 2002, 19:55: Message edited by: BlueElectron ]
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
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posted
And, in addition to what Tim said, there are those philosophers (Leibniz, for example) who would say that the universe that exists is in fact the best of all possible worlds, and that the fact we fail to see it as such is our own fault. Or rather, a problem in our nature.
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posted
In a native Californian tribe, they believed that everything was a manifestation of God and connected by a complex network of energy and matter. If a point on this network is impacted by an event, then other portions of this network are also impacted. Think of the ripple effect as being equivalent to throwing a stone into a still pond.
I agree wholeheartedly with this belief.
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