Go back
An interesting question

An interesting question

Spirituality

Vote Up
Vote Down

Must God exist?

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Must God exist?
Define "interesting".

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Must God exist?
No.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by amannion
No.
But does he?

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Must God exist?
Good joke -- you made me look.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
But does he?
I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

1 edit
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by amannion
I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
Now we're getting to the heart of the matter.

What I want to know is whether anybody believes that God exists out of logical necessity. That is, if you believe God exists, do you believe he does so contingently, in which case evidence has bearing on your belief, or out of logical necessity, in which case evidence has no bearing on your belief. Note that you cannot have it both ways.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Now we're getting to the heart of the matter.

What I want to know is whether anybody believes that God exists out of logical necessity. That is, if you believe God exists, do you believe he does so contingently, in which case evidence has bearing on your belief, or out of logical necessity, in which case evidence has no bearing on your belief. Note that you cannot have it both ways.
St. Anselm's Ontological argument for the existence of god claimed his existence could be known a priori. The Cosmological and the Teleological arguments are a posteriori arguments for the existence of god.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by rwingett
St. Anselm's Ontological argument for the existence of god claimed his existence could be known a priori. The Cosmological and the Teleological arguments are a posteriori arguments for the existence of god.
And which do you prefer?

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
And which do you prefer?
They are all flawed. None of them accomplishes what they set out to do. The teleological argument, as popularized by William Paley, is probably the best known.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Must God exist?
If you are to have an unchanging absolute point of reference by which you can measure all other things, then God has to exist as that unchanging absolute point of reference.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by dj2becker
If you are to have an unchanging absolute point of reference by which you can measure all other things, then God has to exist as that unchanging absolute point of reference.
Why must we have an unchanging absolute point of reference? And if we are to have one why must it be God? And let's not even mention the fact that declaring that something must exist because we need it to is horrible.

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
Why must we have an unchanging absolute point of reference? And if we are to have one why must it be God? And let's not even mention the fact that declaring that something must exist because we need it to is horrible.
You only need it if you want to make sense of the world around you.

If you have stopped at an intersection and you see the car in front of you moving towards you, for a fraction of a second you go down harder on your break pedal with your foot in order to make sure that it is not you that is moving. Then you look at a lamp-post or something else that is stationary in order to see if in fact you are moving or not.

Now how would you feel if the lamp-post also started to move?

God is the only being that can provide us with an unchanging absolute point of reference, by which we can make sense of the world around us, since by definition there is not a moment in time that God did not exist

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by dj2becker
You only need it if you want to make sense of the world around you.

If you have stopped at an intersection and you see the car in front of you moving towards you, for a fraction of a second you go down harder on your break pedal with your foot in order to make sure that it is not you that is moving. Then you look at a lamp-post or something else that i ...[text shortened]... of the world around us, since by definition there is not a moment in time that God did not exist
So you need God to give your life meaning is what you are saying?
What about people who don't need God to make their life meaningful?

Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
So you need God to give your life meaning is what you are saying?
I think he's saying if it wasn't for God, lightposts would move around on their own.

Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.