Does it matter if God exists? (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, March 27, 2016, 14:53 (3162 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: A fascinating essay which looks primarily at the meaning of the debate:-https://aeon.co/opinions/how-much-does-it-matter-whether-god-exists?utm_source=Aeon+New...-QUOTE: "I believe in God, but I often find more common cause with those who say they don't than those who say they do. I've come to care less whether anyone says they believe in God or not, and to care more about what they mean by that, and what they do about it."
David's comment: Read it all. I've skipped only a little. I'm with Spinoza, the wonders of the universe reveal a greater power, but my description of that power may be wrong. So what!-A fascinating subject, which leads to all sorts of questions. The first for me has to be: Does anything matter? And the answer for me is: If it matters to you, it matters. As with “knowledge”, ultimately it hinges on subjectivity. Back to solipsism! And so each of us can only explain why something matters to him/her. Since I'm the one who started this forum, perhaps I should explain why the subject of God's existence does matter to me.-I think curiosity is integral to human nature, and in common with countless billions of others throughout the history of homo sapiens, if there is a mystery, I want to know the solution. And the biggest mystery of all is how we got here. The scientific approach brings forth endless discoveries as we examine the physical components of life, but none of them provide an explanation for our presence or our consciousness. The philosophical approach provides explanations ranging from sheer luck to some super intelligence that designed us, but there is no evidence beyond that of sheer conjecture - our subjective joining of the dots to form the pattern. For me, each pattern then creates its own set of dots, and these too can be joined into new, subjectively drawn patterns. So here are some patterns, though the list could stretch over many pages:-If God exists (I'll include gods under God - but plural gods are another pattern one can draw), he/she/it must have had a reason for creating life. What is his (‘his' for convenience) purpose? What is his nature? Do my consciousness and my nature reflect his? Is this life the only reality? I then look at the world, and try to find clues. Do its ambiguities reflect his own - the mixture of good and bad, beautiful and ugly? What have other people got to say about his purpose, his nature? What experiences have other people had in relation to realities that may or may not lie beyond the one I know? And so we delve into all the patterns that emerge from the concept of God…-If God does not exist, does that mean we are the product of chance and there is nothing but the material world as we know it? This would certainly be the simplest pattern - we happen to be here, let's make the most of it (which I think we should do anyway, whether God exists or not, though our “most-making” should never be at the expense of others), because tomorrow we die and there's an end to it. But is it that simple? We still have no explanation for consciousness, or for many so-called psychic experiences, and there are schools of thought that exclude God but reject the purely materialist scenario, even going so far as to propose that life does not end with death (for example, certain forms of Buddhism). My ignorance makes it impossible for me to assume that the reality I know is the only form of reality. Just as I can't conceive of a boundary to the universe (what lies beyond the boundary?) or a beginning of time (what was there before the beginning?), I can't move outside the confines of my own reality, and when I learn about other people's realities, I have no way of knowing whether those correspond to any kind of objective truth. And so even without a God, I can't be satisfied with the simplest of all patterns.-When I was very young, I took it for granted that God existed (I was brought up as a Jew), but very early on began to have grave concerns about his nature, as revealed in the savagery of the Old Testament. On reaching puberty, I began to question everything - as teenagers often do! - but the issues were disturbing. I am pleased to report that when I reached adulthood, and realized that there were no conclusive answers to any of the “big” questions, I no longer found them disturbing. The bad and the ugly are still distressing in themselves, but the good and the beautiful are a source of endless wonderment and pleasure, whether God exists or not. My enjoyment of life and my calm acceptance of the insolubility of the mysteries don't stop me from asking the same old questions - as you may have noticed! - and whether God exists or not still matters to me. But that is because of my curiosity and not because of my childhood fears. -
My thanks to David for raising a subject which makes us take a good look at ourselves. It would be interesting to get other responses to the question.