rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (11/11/83)
>>Why must there be a god? > There simply IS one. [rather arbitrary, no?] >1. Authority. I believe that God exists because people whose > judgment I respect have taught me so. It seems unfashionable > to believe anything these days because of authority, yet there > is no escaping authority. Any claim to evidence rests upon > an appeal to authority, in that some qualified authority must > find and interpret the evidence. Believing in something simply because an "authority" tells you to? A few questions to ask: What qualifies a person as an authority? (He/she knows a lot about the bible, therefore he/she should know if god exists or not.) What are the potential reasons that someone in a position of religious authority might want you to believe this? >2. Testimony. I believe that God exists because of the effect > that that belief has had on my life, or on the life of some > one else. In other words, some one whose life has desireable > characteristics attributes those characteristics to the existence > of and belief in God. It is true that many people with a strong belief in god have led happier and better lives as a result. It is that *belief*, the feeling that there is something good watching over, that reinforces such positive thinking. A belief in one's self can do the job just as well (and on a more mature level) than belief in externals. The same effect can be found in sun worshippers, (where a belief that the sun is "watching over" you promotes a positive life) but us modern folk KNOW that the sun isn't god, right? This effect can also be attained by worshipping teddy bears and the tooth fairy. The need to have such externals to believe in is, to me, a sign of immaturity, akin to the belief that there must be a god because... >3. Search for meaning. I believe that God exists because, otherwise, > human existence in general, and my life in particular, would be > meaningless. If there is no God, then there is no real purpose > for my existence, and I want very much to believe that there is > a purpose for my existence. It is wrong for me to say that no one should believe in god. Some people need this belief system or else they will feel either helpless or purposeless, and I think it does help for some people. However, I also feel that such a belief is childish, in that it is based on a picture of the world that you *want* to see and not the way evidence shows it to be. Again, belief in one's self and in humanity would do just as well (if not better, because it eliminates the need to externalize one's dependencies). But, promotion of the belief that garys expounds here, that human life is meaningless without god, is repugnant, and smacks of mindlessness. And to preach such a doctrine to others is to degrade and (potentially) subjugate them. My life, and the lives of many others, are very meaningful without any god, thank you. >4. Sufficient cause. I believe that God exists because I do not > believe that the material universe is self-sufficient. The > existence of thought is not sufficiently explained by purely > random actions. This is based on the notion that "if we can't explain it, it's unexplainable", which somehow again leads to "there must be a god". This is another example of the anthropocentric point of view, that if humankind doesn't understand something, it is un-understandable. This anthropocentrism manifests itself, interestingly enough, in Judaeo-Christian thought (odd, wouldn't you think?), when it puts forth things like "god created the earth as the focal point of the universe, and created man as its ruling species". This says a lot more about "man" than about "god", as I stated in my earlier article. My personal belief is that the universe is "explainable" and "understandable" in its entirety from a physicalist point of view, but that we may never have the knowledge or vantage point to do so. >5. Conscience. I believe that God exists because I have a sense > of morality; that some actions are 'good' and some actions are > 'bad'. I believe that this sense of morality has a basis in > reality, and that if there were no God, there would be no sense > of morality, or morality at all. I fail to see why this is so. Maybe it's obvious to you, but if I were you I'd think twice about anything I thought was "obvious". Again, I think the notion of "one person's rights end where imposition on another person begins", which I feel to be a fundamental facet of humanist (or whatever) thought, sums it up. Apparently, so did Jesus, when he summed it all up in different words ("Do unto others..."). I would think the notion of an organized religion the way Christianity is today (perhaps un-organized religion is a better phrase), where imposition of beliefs and laws from a book is the rule, would have Jesus spinning in his grave. (Maybe that's why god had him resurrected, to prevent his burning a hole in the ground :-) Again the concept of a deity being the only explainable source of a good-evil concept is refuted in my earlier article. Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr