JeffTheLearner's challenge

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by spidergoat, Sep 13, 2005.

  1. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Since Jeff is getting frustrated with many replies, I thought I would start a new conversation here.

    In order to discuss God, especially in the scientific way you propose, it is necessary to define some terms.

    Let us come to some agreement as to the definition of God. What is it, and what is it's nature?

    (as opposed to what he is supposed to have done)
     
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  3. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    How come this thread got no replies so far?
     
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  5. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Jeff's patience was short lived, it seems.
     
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  7. Alex1 Registered Member

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    God cant have a definition, or else it will have flaws, if god is 'loveing' to feel love you must feel the opposite, being hate or spite, the way we define god is an all knowing perfect being, yet this is impossible
     
  8. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

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    Definition?

    Hmm - when we set out to design and create something we start by defining the requirements - is that what we must do here?

    Of course if something already exists and we cannot alter its design then the activity becomes one of measureing and observing. Since no one has ever been able to detect a god of any type then this activity is quite impossible.

    So I guess that leads us back to building the design specifications of our mythical god that we want to create, right?
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    This isn't about creating or designing God, it's about proving that there is a God, which Jeff thought was easily accomplished.

    I think I have demonstrated how difficult that is.
     
  10. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    But what can actually be proven?
    To prove something is to discover that a particular relationship between two or more phenomena is exclusive and and necessary.
    Is there one single thing in human knowledge that has such a proof?
     
  11. Alex1 Registered Member

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    The thing is if everything has a beggining, then how did god come to be? If god always was then its also possible that time always was, and there would be the tools available for evolution, If god is self created this is also impossible, because one cant create without already being, but if we assume time is infinite, then we come to the conclusion that every event is preceeded by another event, which takes away the need for an 'ultimate being' or 'creator'
     
  12. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    I don't see this as a necessary connection.
    If God created time, then God can be outside of time.
     
  13. Alex1 Registered Member

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    god couldnt create time though

    Time has always been, even if the universe was empty time would still tick bye, we would use it to measure How long before the creation of our world, If there is a god, even he/it wouldnt be able to controll time in any way
     
  14. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    Why not? In many religions, God is deemed to be almighty, thus capable of creating time.


    How do you know that time has always been?
     
  15. Alex1 Registered Member

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    Religon is based on the word of man, and has no more basis for being true than a stephen king book


    second-
    I dont know, and no-one probally ever will

    but

    The theory that time has always been covers far more basis than the theory of god, every event is preceeded by another in a never ending cycle of time, even if there is a god, he wouldnt be the 'ultimate being' because he also would have been caused by something more powerful. God would be no more perfect than I would If I created a miniature universe
     
  16. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

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    water,

    Yes - 1+1=2. Would you like me to give you the proof?
     
  17. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

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    water,

    Without time nothing can occur and the universe could not have begun. A beginning event would have needed time to proceed. And any events leading up to a preparing for a beginning would have needed time for them to occur. This creates an infinite regression where each event would need time to exist. I.e. there could never have been a point at which time did not exist.
     
  18. philosopher´s stone Banned Banned

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    Hi Alex1 , Spidergoat , Cris and all you fellows !!

    God did not create man , man created God inside their mind to have an explanation for all things they did not understand ........
    God has never existed outside anyones mind - only inside .......
    By the way, time do not just tick away in the universe .... according to the relativity theories (Einstein) times go slower the faster you move , and if you are able to go with the speed of light - TIME STOPS ........... experiments in space has shown this to be correct ....
     
  19. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    Yes.
     
  20. geeser Atheism:is non-prophet making Valued Senior Member

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    sorry time does not actuelly stop it just go'es so so slow you can hardly see it move, but thats the time on the outside, of the speed your traveling. the time inside, is traveling at normal rate around you, time can never stop, just appear that way.
     
  21. Alex1 Registered Member

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    Time as you know it stops, but time to other people continues, and you are correct time does slow down the faster you go but in the case of humans, you wouldnt realize this because your brain slows down with it, *I was reading einstein yesterday* and besides you cant stop all time, even if everything was moveing fast enough for time to 'stop' you would still judge how long it was stopped through what else but 'time' basically time is a word that can be used in many ways to describe many many things, and in a way is only what we make it
     
  22. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I happen to agree with P.S. in that God was a fairly reasonable explanation at the time for things people didn't understand.

    My purpose in this thread was not to address all the implications of the God idea, but to narrow things down a bit, which is how science works. The question I seek to answer is, does God exist now? First you have to define what is meant by the term God. Different religions and sects all have different definitions. If God is another word for everything, kind of like Pantheism, then how can you pick out one phenomenon and say that's proof? Most definitions of God are so all-encompassing that to prove or disprove it is impossible. If God answers prayers, then you could develop an experiment to test that. Although, the response is usually He doesn't answer every prayer, and how can you test for that? Science generally depends on having something be repeatable.

    I happen to think that religious people are going down the wrong path when they try to prove the existence of God in a scientific or pseudoscientific way. The great thing about the idea is that it is fundamentally mysterious and unprovable.
     
  23. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    This is so according to human perception.

    Who's to say that human perception as we presently have it is the alpha and omega of reality?
     

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