What if “God” was in fact created by mankind?

That’s the plot of American Gods, book by Neil Gaiman and currently serialised on Netflix.

Probably a load of tosh, but is a theory that would, to some extent, reconcile science vs faith. I think.

Nah not really – the idea is that God is all powerful and created man, and that kind of overturns that.

However it does raise the question of what does ‘real’ mean – God clearly exists as an intellectual construct, so does that mean it’s real?

If a close friend or family member told you that they had taken to worshipping the old gods, say the Greek or Norse pantheon. How would you react and would it, in your mind, differ from how you view somebody who follows one of the three larger modern faiths? If so, why, how is it different?

For those of you that are religious, do you actually worship your chosen god or just try to live by the tenants of your faith as you see them? Genuine questions, no secret trolling or setup for a joke. Just curious.

you clearly don’t – I was agreeing with your statement

Yes, the reason I felt the need to clarify was because we were so obviously in agreement.

It’s already ten past Pascal’s Wager? (Looks at watch)

Play nice, I’m going for a night ride, may try and convince self not to deny any deity, so then shall have at least a chance in all or one of their escape eternal punishment parties Reward Residences once this old coil slips off. May have to brush up on a few, there’s thousands of the buggers if not more…

just try to live by the tenants of your faith

Like a religious community? Or nosey neighbours keeping you on-track?

@ johnx2

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, unknown unknowns and all that.

This thread has got me wondering that if there is a God what has religion necessarily got to do with it? Having been bought up in a religious environment the first thing that puzzled me was the idea that there was supposedly one god though many different religions / arguments as to the attributes of that god. What if God created the universe out of boredom and was indifferent to and required no adherence or observance from humans? instead seeing humans as being no different from other animals or things? If there is a god he/she must be quite amused by our over complication of things. Maybe we are here merely for gods entertainment. Why do we suppose that god requires anything of us at all?

Like a religious community? Or nosey neighbours keeping you on-track?

Damn you auto-correct 🙂

Pascals’ wager asserts that If you believe in God but he/she turns out not to exist you have lost nothing, If you deny the possible existence of God but there turns out to be a God you stand to lose out on the promise of an afterlife / paradise.

Whereas Cougar’s Wager takes into account that there are thousands of gods being worshipped or otherwise believed in today, and millions which have fallen out of favour. If you deny the possible existence of god but there turns out to be a one then you might miss out on some reward or other, but if you believe in a god and it turned out to be the wrong one (and statistically you’re highly likely to be wrong), then the real god(s) will be pretty pissed. Worshipping false gods is usually considered a pretty hefty Thou Shalt Not in a number of major religions, is it not?

Ergo, it’s safer not to play than to be involved with the losing side.

Also of course,

If you merely “believe” in a god then you’ve lost nothing. If you spend half your life praising and all that malarkey in order to secure your place at the high table only to find that there’s no god, man, what a monumental waste of time and effort.

Not sure how many people would proclaim to be of faith on the off chance they might have backed a winning horse.

If you deny the possible existence of god but there turns out to be a one then you might miss out on some reward or other,

If it was the Christian god you could just repent at the gates to st Peter and get in

Not sure how many people would proclaim to be of faith on the off chance they might have backed a winning horse.

I’m not sure how many would believe in god “just in case” either, but that was the starting point of this little segue.

Did we both just say exactly the same thing?

Out of interest what’s the proof of esp being offered by charlesmungus ?

Did we both just say exactly the same thing?

Potentially. I may have misinterpreted your meaning.

Whereas Cougar’s Wager takes into account that there are thousands of gods being worshipped or otherwise believed in today, and millions which have fallen out of favour.

Well the common answer to the many gods question is that they are all aspects of the same thing.

Thread = TLDR. Anyone care to summarise ?

TL;DR

Your’e all idiots.

Ah right fair enough.

Thread = TLDR. Anyone care to summarise ?


10 PRINT "Atheists don't understand Theists"
20 PRINT "God isn't real"
30 PRINT "Yes it is"
40 GOTO 20


Well the common answer to the many gods question is that they are all aspects of the same thing.

So… we’re all wrong?

the common answer to the many gods question is that they are all aspects of the same thing.

Might be if you ask an atheist defending religion but the ten commandments and believers of the individual religions would say otherwise ….your knowledge lets you down a little on these debates [ well meaning though you are]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_have_no_other_gods_before_me

Lets you know how much of the Bible is about this choice as well

Not sure how he you are accommodating pantheist religions into this as they have multiple gods who are all part of the same face of the one true god they dont worship what with them being pantheists etc.

WHilst we may see the abrahamic faiths as the same they dont and I am not sure how you are fitting Taoism into this or Buddhism or the Greek gods etc

Flesh this out for me i suspect you have given it lots of thought 😉

Your’e all idiots.

Jimjam, you may find the quality of the grammar matches the quality of the debate (sic)

😉

No different from any other STW religious “debate”

Potentially. I may have misinterpreted your meaning

That happens to me. A LOT. 🙁

No different from any other STW religious “debate”

Bugger off.

😉

So you think we lost hair everywhere else, but for some reason it stopped just around the eyes?

there are pretty simple reasons why you’d keep an arch of trapping hair above the most important sense that humans have. Rain, sweat, dirt, not to mention; expressions and non verbal communication. Ever seen a great ape with white sclera btw? massively expressive and human like

Mind you, there are plenty of theories about why out of all the primates, our ancestors lost most of the hair on their bodies.

Anyway, carry on…

That happens to me. A LOT.

Text-based communication is prone to that, but in this case it wasn’t you, it was simple reading failure on my part.

believers of the individual religions would say otherwise

Not all of them. I cite that answer because it’s the one I’ve heard given by many actual believers.

I don’t know why you keep talking about all religious people as if they are of one mind.

Not sure how he you are accommodating pantheist religions into this as they have multiple gods who are all part of the same face of the one true god they dont worship what with them being pantheists etc.

Brahman?

I haven’t given it much thought – it is not of personal importance to me. I am simply repeating what I have been told by others to whom it is of more importance.

CFH 😀

The big bang theory only explains what happened after it was created. It does NOT explain how it came about.

BBT is an explanation of observations.

There are several theories for what was happening pre-BB: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang#Speculative_physics_beyond_the_Big_Bang_theory

I don’t know why you keep talking about all religious people as if they are of one mind.

I genuinely laughed at that you told me what they all thought i spoke of individual religions and what you thought.

We are at top Molly now 😆

For the love of God, how much longer is this thread going on ???

I genuinely laughed at that you told me what they all thought i spoke of individual religions and what you thought.

I bloody well did not say anything of the sort! You seem to struggle to understand the finer detail of my posts. It’s as if you need to slow down or something.

I repeated the ‘common answer’. That is, the one that I have heard most often when I’ve asked that question.
That is very clearly NOT THE SAME THING as saying all religious people think that.

You on the other hand said this:

and believers of the individual religions would say otherwise

Which to me looks like you are making a big generalisation about the opinions of believers.

For the love of God, how much longer is this thread going on ???

1. Are you new here?
2. Opening the thread is not compulsory;
3. Which god, and can you prove she exists?

You’re right. No point in nitpicking with Junkyard.

Sorry.

the ten commandments and believers of the individual religions would say otherwise ….your knowledge lets you down a little on these debates [ well meaning though you are]

what i said fwiw

Which to me looks like you are making a big generalisation about the opinions of believers.

That they follow the ten commandments – you think this is a big generalisation?
You really want to argue this?
If you wish to negate the ten commandments – and I gave you a link saying what it says on other gods – then that is your choice. Its not really controversial to say they dont like false gods and say there is only one true god so they do not think all gods are facets of the same one true god they think the exact opposite then denounce it as idolatry.

As i said your knowledge lets you down.

it would be nicer if you tried to negate this with facts rather than whatever this is. They dont all think its just one god IME that is something agnostics say or something atheists ponder the faithful know its theirs that is true.

You really want to argue this?

No. It’ll be a waste of time.

As i said your knowledge lets you down.

I’ll just point out though that I did know what the OT says about worshipping other gods. I think your extremely inflexible brain lets you down.

it would be nicer if you tried to negate this with facts rather than whatever this is.

I was trying. But you don’t debate very well so I’m out.

They dont all think its just one god IME that is something agnostics say or something atheists ponder the faithful know its theirs that is true.

I know at least one Christian who says all religions are different ways of trying to explain the same thing. (And Christians, Jews and Muslims definitely worship the same god.)

I know at least one Christian who says all religions are different ways of trying to explain the same thing

Finally

One of the reasons why reading different religious materials is so rewarding. Such a pity when people restrict themselves to one version

@SaxonRider Steve Chalke was one of the main preachers, but we were taken the by the youth group of a Church of England congregation; it was at the height of the Toronto Blessing – lots of talking in tongues and falling over.

1. Are you new here?
2. Opening the thread is not compulsory;
3. Which god, and can you prove she exists?

4. I see what you did there.