Agnostics, Weak atheists: Roll up!!!

[haribol acharya]

I have recently read some articles written by Bertrand Russel who was agnostic. He seemed not to be a disbeliever in God. He said he just could not prove the existence of God. He therefore neither said- God does not exist. Also there is nothing to disapprove of the existence of God.

Einstein just opposed the idea of personal Gods

We can say that for believers God exists and for disbelievers God does not exist.

The world seems to reflect what we think and believe deeply.

[Santini]

[Felix]

"God: any one of the various beings who men have worshipped as gods down thru the ages; a being who is said to have special powers, which cannot be explained by the laws of physics, over the lives and affairs of men and over the course of nature; a being who is worthy of worship."

So you're asking for physical proofs of a god that cannot be explained by the laws of physics, and you consider this to be a reasonable request?

"No, an ant cannot prove the existence of anything because ants do not have the ability to reason. Nonetheless, a god should be able to be known by even an ant if the god is omnipotent."

Ants are probbaly a poor example but since I used it... What makes you think an ant could recognize an omnipotent god? Might it not consider a natural force such as, say, a tornado, that decimates its ant-hill, to be an omnipotent god? Likewise, what makes you think that men can recognize the existence of that which they are incapable of comprehending?
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Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by language. - Wittgenstein

[Belinda]

God is whatever you worship above all else. This whatever may be a supernatural person, an intention that created human consciousness, or it may be your children, or 'God' may be a name for the set of virtues that you hold most dear.

So ends my mini-lecture.I begin to feel impatient with opinions about God's existence as if concepts of God were never anything else but concepts of a superhuman person.
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Socialist

[Santini]

[Belinda]

How can I keep on accepting a daft definition of 'God' when so much time is being wasted discussing the daftnes of it?

Heidegger and Stormeyy both do difficult prose and I have the dogs to walk.
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Socialist

[Santini]

No one in their right mind could sincerely confuse Heidegger's prose for Stormeyy's.

And it's a real stretch to believe that someone might believe that the definition for "god" used in a thread about the existence of god would be "that which is worshipped above all else, e.g., one's children."

Wouldn't you think that if that is the definition for "god" that was intended the question would be resolved rather quickly in favor of god's existence?

You are brighter than this, Belinda. Much, much brighter than this.

Maybe all that dog-walking has you all tuckered out?

[ape]

[Keith Russell]

[Belinda]

True, I am often tired Santini which is my excuse for simply not paying enough attention to that post of Stormeyy's with the quote from Heidegger in it. For goodness sake do let it drop.I do hope to understand Heidegger sometime, but I have other things to do than philosophy.For instance I am awake at this stupid small hour of the morning because I dined out and had an unwise coffee.

[ape]

[Felix]

Ape, How is your ant farm doing? I understand the market for aphid milk crashed last month.
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Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by language. - Wittgenstein

[ape]

[Felix]

"If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species..."

Interesting quote, Ape, thank you muchly. A hard thing to prove though, like trying to prove a symbiotic relationship between God and Man.
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Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by language. - Wittgenstein

[Belinda]

Many of ape's quotations are enlightening in their own right. That last one from Darwin just shot ape as God-believer in the foot though. Natural selection makes it impossible that God selected mankind as the king over nature. Although it's true that Darwin did not claim that natural selection is the only mechanism for evolution.There is also continental drift, ice ages, droughts, asteroid damage,Lamarckian type selection, all of which may be too sudden for natural selection to have time to work. Natural selection takes a long time to form species.
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Socialist