Mike Strand wrote:Forgedinhell: I understand your skepticism about religion. My May 02 post is a challenge to people who believe in a God with the attributes I listed in my assumptions. I challenge them to tell me why, if God is like that, they think anyone will go to hell forever. And if everyone is loved and will be saved by such a God, why do people argue about who has the best religion?
Thanks for your response -- I would also like to hear from Khalid and other believers in God.
Of course, you don't have to accept my assumptions, or even that God exists. The scientific approach is useful to humanity whether we believe in God or not. It seems to me that humanity has had to solve the problems of illness and protection from the elements on its own, and it appears that if God exists at all, God plays a very passive role. I don't think God invented plumbing, water and sewer systems, electricity, vaccination, or air conditioning, but hey, maybe some folks believe the people who did were "inspired by God". Hmm, what about atomic energy and the bomb?
First of all, you would need to define "God", as the only god that I know of for which there is any evidence is Spinoza's God, but that is an non-supernatural God, and one that isn't satisfying for those who cling onto a supernatural one.
In Maimonides's private writings, he basically abstracted God out of existence. If one truly believes that there is some supernatural being, then how could we mentally grasp such a being? That would place the theist and the atheist in the same position -- both must live as if no god exists. That maybe what you were getting at, in which case, I agree. For many Jews, god is a verb, not a noun. The Christians and atheists I know believe that the bible states that god answered Moses by telling him his name was "I am what I am." However, the Jews understand what was said as "I am what I am becoming." In other words, god is evolving, changing as we change. This just shows that different religions and cultures define god in different ways, so it's always best to define what one means by god.
As far as atomic energy and the bomb is concerned, science is not responsible for our evolution. We evolved with two competing influences on us. One was individual selection, where an individual who is selfish, has a greater chance of evolutionary success within a group, compared to other group members who are altruistic. However, we are evolved as members of groups that were in competition with one another. Those groups with a higher percentage of altruistic members had a competitive advantage over other groups. That's why our sense of morality applies to people we consider as part of our group, and not to outsiders. It also explains our many hypocrisies. In any event, what science can do is help us understand how we developed this "us versus them" mentality, and in helping us understand the violent aspects of our nature, help us to control it. Religion, in its myth creation, creates in and out groups and does not help to establish peaceful coexistence.
