God and Reality (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by David Turell , Monday, June 24, 2013, 00:35 (3959 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Forget multiverses. My atheist scenario begins with the same fantasy as yours: an endless succession of universes throughout eternity. But instead of being created by a fantastic, conscious, first-cause energy in order to produce humans, they have been created by a fantastic, non-conscious, first-cause energy, and at least one out of an infinite number of them has produced life. -But you haven't forgotten multiverses. Now instead of a multitude at once, you want a multitude in succession with the same atheistic result. The lucky one finally produced life. Hang out your ideas on a clothes line to dry and see which one the wind picks to blow up into something sensational. I see nothing of substance.-> 
> dhw: I don't disbelieve in God, and if you can fantasize about his motives (to produce humans and test their faith) and his tough love, I can fantasize too, though here I've merely said we have no idea what other forms of life there might have been. In any case, we have no evidence for ANY of the above hypotheses. All we know is that we're here in a universe that has engendered life. The rest is fantasy. But in fairness to theists and atheists alike, fantasy need not mean falsehood, and one of them has to come close to the truth!-Very sensible summary. I know which one si true for me.-
> dhw: Giving it a name (God) doesn't explain where intelligence came from, or how it got into matter. It merely envelops the mystery of known intelligence in an even greater mystery of unknown intelligence. As for panpsychism, I did not invent it, and the expression "true panpsychism" is meaningless. Nobody knows the truth.-
 Yes, we don't know where God came from or why He bothered to exist. One of those huge mysteries. My 'true panpsychism' shorthand phrase meant 'the true definition of panpsychiam'.