nameandnature: Giles from Buffy (Default)
[personal profile] nameandnature
It seems someone from CICCU (or at least, someone from a Cambridge IP address) posted an advert for this year's CICCU Convert-a-thon to my last entry. You've got to admire the brass neck of that: it seems vaguely reminiscent of something old JC himself might have done. I replied in kind, and so The Great God Debate thread was begun. It's mostly me and [livejournal.com profile] robhu vs [livejournal.com profile] nlj21 right now. Feel free to join us, as long as you can spell and punctuate and are not any sort of nutter.

Date: 2005-02-09 01:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pseudomonas.livejournal.com
Well (and this is a strained analogy), if someone said "How can you believe in a God if he incarnates as a bull in order to seduce young ladies?", you'd presumably say "That's irrelevant, there's no reason to suggest that anyone's idea of a deity need include all that". Similarly, unless you're a Christian, demonstrating that Hell is a dodgy concept doesn't disprove a deity, it just shows that Hell (like incarnating as a bull) is a dodgy concept.

Date: 2005-02-09 02:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bluap.livejournal.com
In a similar manner, I don't see why it is necessary to assert that God is omnipotent. He only has to be sufficiently powerful that mere humans perceive the limits.

Personally, I believe in the existance arbitrarily potent beings, but not omnipotent ones...

Date: 2005-02-09 02:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nlj21.livejournal.com
Personally, I believe in the existance arbitrarily potent beings, but not omnipotent ones...

What's the difference? (I'm thinking from you previous paragraph, something to do with the distinction between how something is perceived, and what the thing is, but am not sure.)

Date: 2005-02-09 02:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bluap.livejournal.com
Given a degree of potency, I believe in beings of greater potency.

(This is completely separate from my comment about perception)

Date: 2005-02-09 02:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nlj21.livejournal.com
Ok. But you don't think this potency is unbounded. I'm with you (forgot my analysis for a moment, and was thinking x_{n+1}>x_n for all n implied x was unbounded. Now my brain has kicked in!)

Date: 2005-02-17 11:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neonchameleon.livejournal.com
xn = i=1nΣ (1/2)i

Gives xn+1>xn for all n, but has an upper limit of 1.

(I hope that's comprehensible- couldn't work out a better way of displaying that in html)

Date: 2005-02-09 03:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-robhu.livejournal.com
Interesting. I suppose there is no way one could tell the difference between say "God" and a significantly more advanced race of aliens for instance.

Date: 2005-02-09 03:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bluap.livejournal.com
Exactly.

My theological standpoint is summarised by the "Ant" scene at the end of Mind Wars.

Date: 2005-02-09 03:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-robhu.livejournal.com
Then again the "beep beep" noises aliens make might give them away.

Date: 2005-02-09 03:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-robhu.livejournal.com
Mmmm... Showing that hell is a dodgy concept (for instance) would only show that any definitions/explanations of God that relied upon that concept would be flawed. I suspect its quite hard to prove that God doesn't exist as:
a) It's hard to prove a negative
b) "God" is not terribly well defined

Profile

nameandnature: Giles from Buffy (Default)
nameandnature

February 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
23 45678
910 1112131415
1617 1819202122
2324252627 28 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 17th, 2025 06:28 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios