God†<
""Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”- - Marianne Williamson
The religions of the world teach a wide diversity of concepts about deity. Books have been published which list over 2,800 gods who have been worshiped in various eras and locations (see. http://www.godchecker.com) . At first glance, a person who is investigating the entire "God" concept might sensibly conclude that all of these diverse deities are purely human creations. That is: God did not create humanity rather that humanity created Gods. However, in practice, most people believe that the God or Goddess or Gods or Goddesses of their faith tradition is or are real, whereas all of the other thousands of deities are human creations, which are unreal, except in the minds of the followers.
Why do they believe this? Through ignorance and fear of other religions and cultures; Ignorance of the beliefs of the other world religions, Ignorance of their own religion and fear that their religion may not be, as it claims to be, the one true faith.
We will use Christianity as our example of a theist image of god. So according to the bible what does god look like? The Bible says god created man in his image.
However he does not like people seeing his face, but it seems he doesn’t mind if they see his backside, “And I will take away my hands and you will see my back parts but my face you shall not see.” (Ex. 33:23)
Another thing the bible fails to answer is what a god would require arms, legs, a digestive system or breathing organs.
But regardless of what the bible describes god as looking like, we should as we do with all beings judge him on his actions. Is he a compassionate and loving father? Is he patient as kind? It would appear, that he is not “See the day of the lord coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it” (Is 13:9) and how often does this lord god almighty lose this temper “God is angry every day (Ps 7:11)” (explains a lot).
Not only is the lord incredibly short tempered, but he is a jealous god “For the lord is a devouring fire, a jealous god” (Deut. 4:24), jealous of your worship of other gods “Serve the lord with fear and trembling, kiss his feet or else he will get angry and you will perish in the way, for his wrath it quickly kindled” (Ps. 2:11)
And what of those who have met him did he radiate fatherly love for his creations? No rather he terrified them “Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I think of him I am in dread of him, god has made my heart faint. The almighty has terrified me” (Job, 23:15) even his son is afraid “Jesus says god is a truly frightening deity” (Lk 12:4-5) And yet the bible also says correctly “where there is fear there cannot be love” (1 Jn. 4:18) and in doing so creates a contradiction as they say of truly Biblical proportions.
Another problem that must be raised is that of free will; in order to be judged we must have free will, to choose between right and wrong between good and evil, but if as Christianity professes god is all knowing of the past present and future then he already knows everything we are going to do before we do it. If on this basis our goodness or badness is predetermined before birth, on what basis are we judged? How can God judge us if all that we will do, is the will of god as stated in the bible (2 Thess 2:11-12; Rom 9:19-21; Rom 9;18)
According to the bible, God chose those who were going to be saved before the beginning of time (2 Tim. 1:9). So how can god hold us responsible for our actions if all actions are predetermined? The Bible supplies an answer to this by saying:
“But one of you will say to me: ‘if this is so how can God find fault with anyone? For who can resist gods will?’ but who are you my friend, to answer god back? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it: ‘why did you make me like this?’ After all, the man who makes the pot has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from one lump of clay, one for special occasions and one for ordinary use, and the same is true of what god has done. (Rom, 9:10-22)
Really! Well excuse me for questioning the will of god! But if god has already decided who is going to hell, how, other than stating that all men are born unequal and without free will, does this answer my question? It just affirms my point. God cannot judge us if our actions are predetermined.
I do not think that when we debate the existence of an intelligent designer we do so in the belief that he would be the God as depicted in the Bible. As for myself if this God is the one true God then I tell you this I would rather go to hell for all eternity than worship a god who encourages this kind of intolerance and bigotry under the guise of a loving heavenly father.
All you believers of other religions, sorry, you won't be going to heaven, our as your religions are not the one true religion. But you wont be alone after all only 144,000 people who ever lived worldwide will be saved come resurrection day (there are currently about 2.1 billion Christians); the implication contained within that idea of course is not only if you are not a Christian will you go to hell, but also if you pick the wrong denomination of Christianity i.e. Roman Catholic instead of Protestant or Methodist instead of Church of England in fact if you take into account the number of Christians that have born and died throughout the ages your chances of going to the Christian heaven are billions to one. Clearly, those rules that people feel just don’t apply to them (such as the majority of the rules within the bible) do apply and the majority of the population of the planet both today and in the past are destined, despite a great many of them never having heard of Jesus or the Bible (for which there is no excuse apparently) to suffer for all eternity. Based on our actions within the short period (100 years Max) that we are here on earth.
“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
-William ShakespeareArguments For and Against God(s)
Through the years many philosophers have tried to provide proofs for and against of God's existence that go beyond appeal to ancient scripture (such as the Bible) or Personal Religious Belief. The main arguments are as follows:
Ontological:
It is possible to imagine a perfect being. Therefore a perfect being must exist.
Causal:
Everything must have a cause. It is impossible to continue backwards to infinity with one thing being caused by another, there must have been a first cause, a beginning. That cause must have been God.
Design:Animals, plants and planets show clear signs of being designed for specific ends, therefore there must have been a designer. A watch found on the beach, with its many moving parts is far too complex to have come into being by accident, without a maker. The world is far more complex than a watch therefore it must have a designer.
Modern design:
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. The laws of the universe seem to have been framed in such a way that stars and planets will form and life can emerge. Many constants of nature appear to be very finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical.
Experiential:A very large number of people claim to have personal religious experiences of God.
Pragmatic:
Human societies require ethics to survive. Ethics are more effectively enforced if people fear God and Hell and hope for Heaven.
Pascals Wager:
Whether there is a god or there isn’t. If you believe in God, and God exists, then you win big time and go to heaven. If you don’t believe in God, and God exists, you lose big time and go to hell. If there is no god, then you haven’t lost much by believing. So you should believe in God, because it’s simply the best bet.
Each of the above arguments above works on its own, and should be judged independently. As they do not interchange with or reinforce the other arguments.
The main arguments against the existence of God
Ontological:
You cannot imagine a thing into existence.
Causal:
If everything must have a cause what created god? i.e. If the universe was created by god who created god another god? And what of that god? Was he created by yet another? Ad infinitum. And that being the case why do you need a god at all.
Design:
The principles of self-organization and evolution provide complete explanations for apparent design.
Modern design:
The odds against all possible universes are equally astronomical, yet one of them must be the actual universe. Moreover, if there are very many universes, then some of these will contain the possibility of life. Even if valid, the anthropic cosmological principle guarantees only that stars and planets and life will emerge - not intelligent life. In its weak form, the anthropic cosmological principle merely states that if we are here to observe the universe, it follows that the universe must have properties that permit intelligent life to emerge.
Experiential:
We cannot assume that everything imagined in mental experiences (which include dreams, hallucinations etc) actually exists. Such experiences cannot be repeated, tested or publicly verified. Mystical and other personal experiences can be explained by other causes.
Pragmatic:
The usefulness of a belief does not prove its truth(nor does its popularity. In any case, many societies have thrived without these beliefs, while crime has thrived in theistic societies believing in heaven and hell.
Pascals Wager:
An omnipotent god would hardly let a believer into heaven who only professed to believe in order to cash in, but didn’t truly believe.
Evil
Because evil, pain, disease, injustice, inequalities and natural disasters exist, God cannot be all-powerful also loving and good in the human sense of these words.
Multiplicity
Since the Gods of various religions differ widely in their characteristics, only one of these religions, or none, can be right about God.
Occam's Razor
Since God is invisible, and the universe is no different than if he did not exist, it is simpler to assume he does not exist (Occam's Razor).
- Duncan Rossiter