God vs. Nature

[brightlights]

No, that isn't arrogance. We are capable of thinking and making judgments about ethics. That whole "arrogance" line is just an Argument from Intimidation that is designed to silence objections.

Yes but are we more capable than he? It's just an appeal to reason. Are we more ethical than the God who invented ethics? Do we understand more than the God who gives all understanding?

 

[Eudaimonist]

Yes but are we more capable than he?

That's not the right question. Rather, it's "are we capable?" The answer is "yes".


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Davian]

Would it be wrong to assume from this that autonomy is an ultimate value of yours?

The existence of a creator/sustainer God to whom we owe our existence and allegiance would certainly threaten your autonomy.

Perhaps the application of circular reasoning would clarify things. If I believed in a "creator/sustainer God to whom we owe our existence and allegiance" then would I not have already accepted that?

 

[ThinkForYourself]

Sounds like your beef with Christianity is more than intellectual.

No, I'm just going by the bible.

 

[HitchSlap]

A vote and a hypothetical question:

The poll has to do with the personal, semi-personal, or entirely impersonal nature of reality. Here's the question:

What would be different about your life if you believed that every event and experience came to you not from "nature" or "chance" but from God? Everything from your body working properly (or dysfunctionally) to you getting a paycheck to the earth spinning around the sun. Would you be terrified or comforted?

I would be terrified to discover there was someone who was able to cease disease, pain, suffering and evil, but chose not to. Actually, what we observe about the world only makes sense in the absence of such a deity.

 

[jayem]

I have difficulty with the idea of the supernatural. For me, it's very hard to internalize the concept that anything exists beyond the realm of matter/energy, and the fundamental forces of nature. I think believing that the laws of physics could be suspended at any time, on the whim of some supernatural diety would make me neurotic. I'm much more comfortable believing that all events are ultimately random according to quantum uncertainty.