Here's a thought....

It's quite 'logical' to contend that God is a creation of man...an entity or concept to help man comprehend his being/role/existence.

If there were no 'Man' it would follow there was no 'God'.

Worse still to ponder.....does Man actually have the capacity to create/construct/materialize something through sheer thought/emotion/desire?

It is not a case of 'I think, therefore I am'....but actually 'I think, therefore God IS'.

My issue with established, organized Religions is that the 'God' created by/for them was another's interpretation/imagination, not mine, with an 'RTFM' of ambiguous jibberish and a theology too closely linked with the justification of war, segregation and discrimination.

I'll stick wiff me own God that I thunk up to help me through the daze....

I've always been a proponent of logical thought rather than fantastical thought. That does not mean I do not encourage and applaude progressive and creative thought. I just can't reconcile God or religion as either progressive or creative.

Being more a logical than an emotional person I tend to believe in logical philosophies such as Occam's razor. Occam's razor was formulated by William of Occam (1285-1349) and says: "Non est ponenda pluralites sive necessitate" or in english: "Do not multiply entities unless necessarily". It is a principle for scientific labour which means that one should use a simple explanation with a few explanatory premises before a more complex one.

Let's say that everything must be created, and that was done by an omnipotent god. A god which stands above time, space, morality and existence, which is self containing and in itself has it's own cause. This entity can surely be replaced by the known world. The world stands above time, space, morality, existence, is self containing and in it has it's own meaning. Most theists agree that god has a nature. Then we must raise the question, who created god's nature? If we just accept that god has a nature and exists without a cause, why not say that the known world just is and that the laws of physics are what they are, without a cause?

God is not really an explanation, only a non-explanation. It is impossible to gain information from non-information so God as an explanation is a dead end. When we have said that the reason for something is that 'god did it that way' there is no way to understand it any further. We just shrug our shoulders and accept things as they are. To explain the unknown by god is only to explain how it happened, not why. If we are to investigate the world and build our views of life from the world, we cannot assume a god. Because adding god as an explanation leaves as many, if not more questions than it explains, god has to be removed with Occam's razor if we are serious in investigating the world.

Bakerstreet, nice to see take part of our conversations again.

Having said that, I've said it before and repeat it: although I don't think that there is a God, I don't totally reject the fact that I may be wrong. There may be a God, but I don't think there is one. Or worse, there may HAVE BEEN one, and maybe he left by now or is dead.  Or maybe there WILL BE a God and he sometimes travel in time to pay us a vist. I don't know.

But, what I am am very much against, is any organised religion. I disagree with blind faith. I urge every believer to think by himself and not follow the words of somebody who's trying to manipulate him. Have faith, but have your OWN faith.

I would like to state further that although I do not believe there is a god that does not mean I don't respect many of the beliefs of Christians. Having been unwillingly baptized one myself and having been made to attend Catholic schools and sunday church services until I was in my teens I did learn quite a bit about it. I've read the bible cover to cover at least ten times, which is probably at least eleven times more than most people disussing this here.

The person from which Christians take their name gets all of my respect. I can't think of a life more worth emulating. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather learn many of life's lessons from. But that doesn't mean I think that he was the son of God, or is in any way a god himself. A great teacher and thinker, yes, but I can't raise him to the stature of god.

No. That is a misuse of Occam's razor.

Occam's Razor implies a working understanding of the reality of something. If the curtains move, and I know there is a draft, then trying to explain it as a ghost is counter to the practice. If I have no knowledge of 'draft' then the razor is no help. The draft explanation does not, however, disprove the existence of ghosts, only that particular instance of the belief. If you try to make such a blanket statement, you have discarded Occam's Razor yourself.

William of Occam, I might add, believed in God " by authority and reason." His 'razor' will cut differently depending on the common sense of who is holding it, so it is *not* an objective tool. A Creationist will accuse a Evolutionist of jumping through hoops to make his point, when there is a more simple explanation ( to him ). The personal knowledge of the wielder is what Occam's razor uses to debunk, and knowledge is subjective, if for no other reason than our inability to see what will be known in the future.

If Occam's Razor was the gold standard, then anything outside our understanding would never be investigated beyond assumption. Assumption is not science.

Motion said:

"Then we must raise the question, who created god's nature? If we just accept that god has a nature and exists without a cause, why not say that the known world just is and that the laws of physics are what they are, without a cause?"

It would be unwise to cite Occam's Razor and Physics in the same breath, considering 99.9% of all modern physics flew in the face of the 'most simple explanation' at the time it was theorized. Wanna talk about the readily apparent sensibility of quantum mechanics? Even basic Physics flies in the face of what a average person would consider 'common sense'. Newton's first law of motion as an example:

"Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it."

Would that have been "the most simple explanation with a few explanatory premises" to someone in 1687, especially coming from someone who had recently suffered a mental breakdown? . Hell no, I roll something, it eventually stops. Occam's Razor is one tool in a kit, and completely at the mercy of the understanding of the wielder. Fortunately, people look beyond the simplest explanation, and expect to find things that defy what we NOW call 'common sense'. In this way 'common sense' is revised over time. Bring your razor and go ask a physicist what came before the big bang.

God is one of these things that some people completely, irresponsibly, disavow the possibility of, based only on the small wedge of understanding they have. Doesn't matter that their model of the universe is impossibly incomplete, they still somehow *know* that there isn't a God in there anywhere. Pretty illogical, if you ask me.

thanks paxx. Couldn't resist.

I have to say that my own philosophy also keeps me at odds with organized religion. There is a bit too much skeptic in me to accept 'revelation', so I am left to look at religion as history and take what parts my 'soul' decides is 'truth'. Even when 'history is written by the victors', truth emerges in the fine detail, or in the overall picture when viewed from a distance. I believe truth cannot be hidden, only slightly obscured. I find God 'apparent' in my perception of the universe, and therefore my razor cuts differently than motion's. It may seem odd to both deny the validity of a source, and yet form one's beliefs based upon it, but we do the same thing every time we read the newspaper. Our perception is all we have.

I don't agree with Kona on most of what he says, and I don't agree with his opposition either, but I wish we could all agree that we really don't *know* anything, and atheists and fundamentalists alike are leaning on faith in their perception of the world. I respect motion, and paxx, and Kona, but I think something as important as one's spiritual life, or lack thereof, requires a bit more elasticity.

You know, Jafo hit my nail right on the head with his hammer

I know it was only a movie, but I think that if anything I would follow along with the thoughts and feelings of it and the verses in *Stigmatta*

"The kingdom of God is inside you. And all around you. Not in buildings made from wood and stone. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift a stone and you will find me."

Now if I was to be a believer as some would think all must, it would be the above and not some form mail style of dogma stuffed down my throat and in my ears by someone who lands on their knees to kiss some other Humans ring as was the norm of my family.

The person from which Christians take their name gets all of my respect. I can't think of a life more worth emulating. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather learn many of life's lessons from. But that doesn't mean I think that he was the son of God, or is in any way a god himself. A great teacher and thinker, yes, but I can't raise him to the stature of god.

The modern day Jews believe he wasn't the Son of God. therefore that is where the problem lies. he was and is the Son of God.

I do not have blind faith.

The modern day Jews believe he wasn't the Son of God. therefore that is where the problem lies. he was and is the Son of God.

Careful now, starting to sound anti-semitic. Bear in mind that I have a Jewish wife. Bear in mind that I become just like a bear when my wife is attacked. Also bear in mind that there are members of the Jewish faith right here at WC. Just try and keep the discussion non-denominational and I will endeavor to do the same.

The statement I made had nothing to do with a personal attack, sorry.

If we are going to get into that frame of mind, I feel attacked because some of you said you dispise organized religion and that there is no God.

"The kingdom of God is inside you. And all around you. Not in buildings made from wood and stone. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift a stone and you will find me."

Not only just from a movie, but one of the verses of the coptic gospels of Thomas, ostensibly an apostle of Jesus.

And very much in line with my particular views. I have very little doubt that God does exist. I also have very little doubt that the texts and dogma of organized religion have only a small part of the answer.

I'm fascinated by this type of discussion, and it's been remarkably well argued by the participants here . To readdress an earlier argument, the disparate views and discussion points presented here make an overwhelming case against any established form of religion. If we existed under almost *any* established religion, odds are a discussion of this sort would be branded as heresy or blasphemy. If one cannot question (and challenge) their beliefs (or the beliefs handed down to them), then those beliefs have no chance at all to grow. Nor would we have the tools with which to grow out of any views that are incomplete or inaccurate.

Kona....saying 'there is no God' is not discriminatory...it is an opinion. It's also important to note that Kona's statement was not anti-semitic, either.

The word is 'despise'....and 'organized religions' would be inclusive, not exclusive, so again there is no 'attack' or discrimination/differentiation.

I just do not like people taking what I said as a attack just because I mentioned The jews (I have no problem with them by the way)

I was just quoteing a news article anyways.

Sorry motion if I upset you. I was by no means trying to attack you or make fun of you.

Aleatoric....the survivability of this thread and topic is not a result of 'Established Religions' but is in spite of them. It's the modern scepticism towards religion of all strains that enables free thought. It is safe to presume that were one particular religion autonomous free thought would be its first victim...

Jafo.. God gave us FREE WILL to not believe in him. He shouldn't have done that. That way we would all believe!