God

Overview

Although there are many variations between monotheistic religions (and even between different branches of the same religion) on the nature of God, it is generally agreed that God is a supernatural entity who created the universe.

Conclusions

The primary reason for the existence of "God" as a concept is that it is essentially a memetic virus – an exploit of the brain's reasoning software which causes the cognitive equivalent of a "divide by zero" error.

Although the details vary, God is inevitably described in superlative or infinite terms: he can do anything, he created everything, he knows everything, he doesn't have to obey the laws of physics because he created them in the first place – so it is very easy to claim that God is an exception to any rule of rationality.

Those on whom this exploit succeeds are then easy prey for powermongers who use this claim, upon which are piggybacked additional claims about "what God wants", to elicit obedience from authoritarian followers. These followers then aid the powermonger in spreading the God meme to other hosts.

Nature of God

Details which may vary from belief to belief include:

• God's mortality (is God still around?)
• God's omniscience (does God know everything, or are God's perceptions limited?)
• God's omnipresence (is God everywhere at once, or does God have a specific location?)
• God's omnipotence (can God do anything? If he can do "anything" can he violate the laws of logic as well as physics, e.g. "Can God make a stone so heavy that he can't lift it, and then lift it?")
• God's gender (is God a He, She, or It?)
• The nature of God's historical interaction with humans (which of the stories about God are true, which are true-in-spirit as parables, and which are myths or distortions? Does God have a personality, and if so what is it like?)
• The nature of God's current interaction with humans (is God "still speaking", as some churches believe? Can individuals talk directly to God?)
  • The importance of humans from God's perspective (Does God care about humanity? If so, does God care about us as individuals, or just as a species?)
  • Does God have specific wishes for humans?
    • Does God punish those who do not obey God's wishes?

Existence of God

It is often stated that the existence of God can be neither proven nor disproven.

Believers seem to presume that the default should then be to believe in God, since it can't be proven that he doesn't exist. Bertrand Russell made the counter-argument (Russell's Teapot) that the burden of proof should be on the believer, since it is the believer who is introducing an extra entity without evidence. Otherwise, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn are just as valid objects of belief as is "God".

That said, the non-disprovability of God's existence is actually only true for the most abstract, non-interfering versions of God; for any version of God which claims any specific properties (e.g. God wants us to do, say, or believe certain things), it is meaningful to look for evidence for or against the idea that the creator of the entire universe has these particular wishes.

In short, the argument "you can't prove that God doesn't exist" is a red herring or bait-and-switch; if God's existence has any effect at all, then evidence can be sought. Most nontheists do not object strongly to "inconsequential God"; it is only the versions of God which make specific demands or statements (e.g. homosexuals are an abomination before God) that cause problems because the ideas or beliefs introduced thereby cannot be argued with on their own merit because of the presumed authority of their origin (the creator of the universe).

Communication with God

It is frequently claimed that individuals are able to "talk to God" or hear "the voice of God". Some religions allow that this might happen, stating that "God is still speaking", while others state that God only occasionally communicates with humanity on particular momentous occasions (often described as "miraculous").

Issues with the "frequently communicating (FC) God" include:

• How can you tell that the voice is that of God rather than being some other part of yourself talking?
• How can you tell that the voice is that of God rather than being that of some other deity or powerful entity, possibly even an inimical one (e.g. Satan or one of the hypothetical competing Gods alluded to in item #1 of the Ten Commandments)?
• If another speaker-with-God claims that what God has told them blatantly contradicts what God has told you, how do you resolve the contradiction?
  • Do you assume that the other person is lying? (Why?)
  • Do you assume that the other person is being deceived? (Why? If so, by whom?)
  • How can you be sure that the other person is not telling the truth?
  • How can you be sure that there is not another God speaking to some people (regardless of who is talking to the "real" God)?
  • How can you be sure that God is not in fact talking to both of you but, for unknown reasons of his own, is lying to one of you?
• If two people both claim to be in communication with God but the things they each say God has told them are mutually contradictory, how should an objective third party resolve the contradiction? (i.e. who should they believe, and why?)

Examples of speakers-to-God contradicting religious doctrine

• The Conversations with God books include a number of points which blatantly contradict the word of God as believed by many religions (and of course, many of the words of God as believed by many religions blatantly contradict each other)

Notes

A small sample of FC believers I spoke with stated that they can "just tell", or that they have spoken at length with the voice in question and feel quite certain that it is in fact God, but gave no further details. --Woozle 10:15, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia
• Conservapedia
• dKosopedia (site down 2008-01-07, can't determine if article exists)
• SourceWatch: no article as of 2008-01-07

Related Pages

• Atheism is the disbelief in the likelihood of the existence of God
• Arguments for the existence of God
• Believers in God often claim that morality requires God, i.e. people only behave morally because of the carrot-and-stick of reward/punishment from God (Heaven/Hell); this would seem to be true only of psychopaths, and not the rest of humanity.
• The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies "any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God" from holding government office.

Discussion Links

• If God cares about our salvation wouldn't he use a better sign then a 2000 year old book written by men? at Yahoo! Answers

Humor

• 2008-02-02 video God the psycho by Pat Condell
• 2001-09-26 God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule
• Stuff God Hates: a blog
• Creator's Rights

Offbeat

• 2007-09-17 (Omaha, Nebraska) State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits. 'The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent." .. It says God has caused, "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."'