God? Well, in my opinion, God does exist. Not some dude with a long white beard who lives in clouds. But, a ball of energy. Our equivalent if we used all our brain power. It isn't superior, just a force. See my religion under Agnostic.
Personally, I don´t believe in God(s) or afterlife or anything spiritual Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Lucky for you Yang´s_Matrix, if you would have been a Mormon (or similar groups) you would have to shell out 10% to 15% of your income to spread their/your word. Sooner or later you will end up about 10,000 or more of these groups, each with their version of God. So much for one God...
Tom and Atomka, I think the main question is not, whether there is a god, but whether we will still exist as self-aware individuals after our biological death. My opinion in this matter is described at my website. --------------- Everyone sees the world with his own eyes - my updated weltanschauung (world outlook) is described at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/english.htm - related forum discussions are listed at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/links.htm
Gods do not exist. But this does depend on the definitions of the words ‘god’ and ‘exist’. Take for example a zero dimensional object. In effect this is a point located by coordinates in a 3 dimensional matrix. It has no material substance since it has no dimensions. So does it exist? You see the problem? We must agree that the point certainly exists since we can indeed locate it and use it for practical applications. E.g. it defines the starting point or corner of a true 3 dimensional object. Can God be located in a 3D matrix? No. Are there any known means or senses that can detect, locate or measure the existence of a God? No. Can someone imagine that a god exists? Most certainly. Do any such immaterial imaginary objects exist in reality? No. Gods can only exist in a person’s imagination. Imaginary objects do not exist in reality.
In otherwords God exists in a person's mind. Like DNA, the total neural expression of God differs from person to person. May be....
Ha ha, that wasn't quite what I had in mind. But yes, without a definitive description of God and his properties then people will fill in the blanks using their imagination. That of course leads to as many perspectives of god as their are people. Just look at the major religions and their escalating numbers of cults and sects, each having their own interpretation of what god is and what he desires. Gods are whatever people imagine.
In our minds yes, or more to the point in the part of our mind that the limited conscious parts fail to recognize. "The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." -- Sir Richard F. Burton Me too. whf
Cris, Your definition of “exist” is just related to material items, where god would not belong to. Would you say, that ethical values “exist” (e.g. “the great American values” where G.W.Bush refers to)? I think such values are certainly relative, but they do exist and many people share the belief in their existence. In a similar way god can exist, but its appearance is relative too and a localization is not possible. --------------- Everyone sees the world with his own eyes - my updated weltanschauung (world outlook) is described at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/english.htm - related forum discussions are listed at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/links.htm
The question "does god exist? or not" First of all, what is god?, been an atheist or a thiest one canot claim that something exists or does not exist without knowing what that something is!!. For Chris to claim flatly that "god does not exist" is just as meaningless as for anyother theist to claim that it does, without having a concrete explanation of what god is. God is plainly a mental perception of the unexplainable, since we don't have an explanation for something as simple as "reality, existence, the cosmos" ancient civilizations determined that it had to have come from some other form of existence which is far superior to our own, therefore god is invented!. By manipulating this idea with quilt, men have been able to "control" the masses by creating morals in the name of this entity. That's however how I can view the question of god, gods or supernatural. I'ts unknown, and with every scientific breakthrough that we as a civilization come up with to disprove this entity, more and more wild assertions of this entity will be made up. i.e.; god exists in other dimenssions, etcPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Godless, I agree, it is not very important and exciting to discuss whether god exists or not. But it is important and exciting to think about whether we will still exist as self-aware individuals after our biological death as I would assume. --------------- Everyone sees the world with his own eyes - my updated weltanschauung (world outlook) is described at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/english.htm - related forum discussions are listed at: http://home.t-online.de/home/hraith/links.htm
God has nine billion names and images and idealics on each of us. To claim Thee or deny Thee demands and requires an impossible definition that cannot be encoded or decoded for absolute truth. It is neither quantifiable or digitizable to measure. (I'm pretty sure the '9 Billion' statement is true. I read it in a school book so it must be.) "God is a theorem, not a postulate."
"Lucky for you Yang´s_Matrix, if you would have been a Mormon (or similar groups) you would have to shell out 10% to 15% of your income to spread their/your word." Lucky me Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Cris, if you point your finger in the air, that is a point in space with xyz co-ordinates. Something may rest there at 0,0,0 co-ordinates, but nothing with zero dimensions. I don't think we can imagine anything with such dimensions since everything in our world is measured. Something with zero dimensions would actually be 'nothing' for to imagine something of substance, it would already have dimensions. Like the air in front of you, you do not see it but you know it exists. It becomes more physically apparent when you run and you can feel the air. What about feelings, I cannot feel your emotions , but I think you must have emotions ( I hope Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) I can't see your emotions, though you tell me about them; so can I label them imaginary? Is it real when someone actually 'feels' someway, or is it merely become subjective with respect to the event caused by it? ie your feelings are not real because only you feel it? So say, I 'feel' god, is it my imagination like how I can feel the "air/wind' when I run or your emotions? I think that it exists, but I can not know, because I base my conclusion on someone else's imperial experience? Or do I say I DO know because someone else experienced it? hey, I just as confused as the next guy.
GoD EXIST ......... and there is ONLY ONE god ........... ( thats what our religion say .. and i beleive it .. )
The one God Okay, there is but one God. I agree. Now, YOUR religion, as taught to you, says you do XYZ and mine says, ABC. Which of us is right? This is the war in Afaghanistan-today, now, this minute. bin Laden says that there is ONE god and HIS way of worshiping including female circumcision is the ONLY correct way of worshiping this ONE god. We are idolotors, corruptors of youth, hedonistic abusers, in short we are the GREAT satan. So HE has been appointed by GOD to destroy us. To that end, he stands accused (although stops short of accepting blame) for destroying the WTC on 11 SEP 01 and killing 3100 office workers. WE have decided to retaliate and root him and ALL "Terrorists" (good luck finding a defintion to that term) "wherever they may be" or so sayeth the Shrub. My point? Oh Yeah I guess I did have one, after all, IF there is only one God, and I worship him in what YOU may consider an unconventional way, however it venerates this single creator and harms no other individual in anyway (other than to pollute my childrens minds, but they're fair game under the chattle/property laws) MY worship is [also] correct--isn't it?
Fatty, hi and welcome to sciforums. So what you are trying to say is that a point located by 3 coordinates does not exist. And Hermann, A different view of something existing, but a similar problem. Fatty, again, But while this might appear the same as above it is different. And Godless, And I’ll get to that in a moment. Hermann, again, So we need to define immaterial existence as well. This really raises the question of what we mean when we say “exist”. It looks like that if we can name something then it can exist. Hmmm, that’s kind of a wide scope. It’s a bit like a noun, right? An idea is a noun, a god is a noun, an emotion is a noun, etc. But that isn’t quite what we mean; we are being confused by our usage of the English language. A point in space must exist since we can locate it. It has a physical location. Does it matter that it does not have any substance? I don’t think so. We could say a point is immaterial, but that isn’t the normal expectation for such a term. However, a point can be defined and it’s physical position located, it is real. Emotions are much easier to define. They certainly exist and are purely material. They are the manifestations of neurobiological processes. With appropriate instruments it is possible to measure such processes. But ideas and concepts, do they exist? Yes of course and these again are entirely material. They exist purely as patterns of neural networks within a human brain. Many humans can have copies of similar patterns and be able to communicate the similarities between one another. If we had the required instruments we would be able to point to the specific neurons and state that these patterns represent a specific idea. But what about gods? Godless has accused me of being irrational because I did not justify my claim, and he is technically correct, but to equate me with theists is not valid. All things that exist are within the material domain. Even a point, for it to exist, must be located in a physical domain. Thoughts, ideas, concepts, emotions, are all manifestations of the material world (brain patterns if you like). But we have absolutely no experience, knowledge, or any detection methods, that would allow us to show that something other than a material object exists or can exist. So how about imaginary objects? Here we must carefully distinguish between the brain patterns that form that part of the imagination concerned and the concept of the target image. If I imagine a god then clearly those brain patterns exist, but the target image has no substance or material manifestation, it is not real. So unless anyone can show how non-material objects can exist then I stand by my claim that gods are purely imaginary and are therefore not part of reality and hence do not exist. Cris
