Ruminations on multiverses; if they are evil (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, March 17, 2017, 12:28 (2595 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Sitting back and observing is just what we do in the theatre or cinema. And it is perfectly feasible that he would do so just as we do. What sort of non-human way of observing can you think of if the observer is as conscious as we are?

DAVID: We just don't know. Is His consciousness like ours? Again unknown.

dhw: No, we don’t know, any more than we know whether God exists, or what was the origin of life, or what is God’s purpose and nature if he exists. So once again, please do not use the unknowability as an excuse for rejecting any speculations that differ from your own presumptions. It is perfectly possible that a conscious creator would share attributes with his conscious creations.

DAVID: You are right. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that some of God's personality attributes are similar to ours in some way. However, we go to the movies or theater to enjoy the performance. We don't just observe, which is what God might do.

It’s an amazing concept: a God who creates with no purpose other than to observe, and who might have absolutely no feelings whatsoever. It would mean that prior to his invention of life, he had had no personal experience of enjoyment, love, boredom, curiosity, sympathy, empathy, the good, the bad and the ugly. It took living forms to invent them. If that were true, I would rate your God as infinitely superior to us in the sciences and in sheer mental and physical power, and infinitely inferior to us and some of our fellow animals in every other conceivable way. I’m pleased to hear that you are now willing to accept the possible “humanization” of your God by agreeing that he may have attributes similar to our own. We are making progress.