Common arguments for the existence of a god

Old 07-06-2006, 11:10 AM
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THe teleological argument is also based in logical fallacy called corellation implies causation.

By that resoning we can state that a super intelligent alien race exists b/c stone hendge is a very large, complicated structure that seems to be beyond the abilities of the people of the time, so they must have been put there by intelligent beings from another place.

Is it possible? Yes, it is, but that doesn't prove it.

The only thing that really matters in this discusion is personal faith. You either believe in a god or you don't. It can't be proven either way.
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Old 07-06-2006, 07:29 PM
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Just a gentle reminder, this is what I stated earlier...
Personally, I would challange the premise of the modality arguement too. If it is possible, that doesn't make it necessary.
I think they make this arguement for G*D only. And that would make sense, if you believed in G*D to begin with! LOL!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, any logical arguement must be able to be used in other circumstances than just the one it's being used in. It must be able to be generalized, if I remember correctly.
Is that correct? If so, this arguement falls. This arguement would only work for G*D.
It doesn't help to preach to the choir.

Blake;
If you accept that something could have just allways existed, then why not the matter itself? What if the uncaused cause (or god) is the matter, itself? Wouldn't that make everything god?
Bingo! Give the boy the prize!
In my opinion, you've hit the nail right on the head.

Shalom!
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Old 07-07-2006, 07:08 AM
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Originally Posted by historyteach
Just a gentle reminder, this is what I stated earlier...

It doesn't help to preach to the choir.
Amen.....er.....right on brotha!
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Old 07-07-2006, 07:24 AM
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Originally Posted by historyteach
But, it's ironic how the leading Christian philosopher's arguement for the necessity of G*D rests on a pagan's work about the natural world.
Teach and do you know why the pagans gave arguement as they did?
Lack of acceptance and denial of the God of Abraham is why they wrote. It was their attempts at refuting the Hebrew's God. They gave arguements so that people would have a choice and replacement when they refused the truth as told in the sacred writings of Moses and the Prophets.

So I guess you could say that Aquanis was taking back what was taken and returning it to a rightful place.
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Old 07-07-2006, 08:09 AM
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Well that is a little presumptuous now, isn't it best?

Am I right in assuming that you are saying that Aristotle's metaphysical writings and theories we based solely in trying to disprove the jewish god? If that's the case, he did a horrible job since aquinas lifted his unmoved mover "truth" directly from him.

THe reality of the situation is that aristotle's life wasn't influenced by jewish theology, he was a greek living in ancient greece, jewish theology was inconsequential to him.


None of this really matters as all of aquinas's "ways" have been proven to be crippled by logical fallacies. You can not logically prove the existence of god.
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Old 07-07-2006, 08:47 AM
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With respect

Strictly speaking the Greeks referred to the Jews as a "nation of philosophers", so it's not fair to say that Jewish thinking was inconsequential to Aristotle, although the term was only applied after Aristotle's death. It's certainly the case that the Greeks were familiar with the Jews long before - many philosophers, traders and adventurers from the Mediteranean travelled from as far as Southern Britain, North Africa all the way to India and possibly China. The ancient world was a good deal less compartmentalised than people seem to imagine. That said the God of the Jews was one system of religious belief among many and there is no particular evidence that it really excercised the Greek thinkers. They were much more interested in social and political philosophy, and metaphysics wasn't really a field they concerned themselves with. I think they thought it was vulgar.
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Old 07-07-2006, 10:16 AM
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Exactally, the greeks may have respect the philosophy of the jews, but they didn't concern themselves with the theology. That is why I said jewish theology was inconsequential to aristotle, he didn't come to formulate his theories as a refutation of the jewish god out of denial of the "truth as told in the sacred writings of Moses and the Prophets" to use best's terminology.

And the ancient greeks did have quite a bit to say on metaphysics, Aristotle wrote an entire book on the topic which is where the "unmoved mover" theory comes from. Plato's views on metaphysics are labled Platonic Realism and deal with the theory there is a distinct seperation of the perceptual world and nonperceptual world with sub seperations of actual and reflected forms.

While the majority of greek philosophy does pertain to social and political writings, they did spend sometime on metaphysics and alot of western philosphy on the subject has roots in those theories.
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Old 07-07-2006, 01:37 PM
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I was gently suggesting that the Greeks didn't undertake their philosophical investigations to refute Judaism.

And Plato/Socrates, in the exploration of the notion of Forms, is trying to find a rational basis - and a fundamental premise - from which a set of natural laws can be deduced to form the backbone of the ideal society. Plato/Socrates' imperative remains the social and the political. And the question which fascinated the pre-Aristotlean philosophers, and one of the reasons they had I think a natural affinity with Jewish teachers, was their attempts to answer the question - how shall a man live?

I'm nothing like as familiar with Aristole as I could be. I know more about his life in context than I do about the work of the man himself. I know that he was more concerned with science than with religion, and it is in this that the great legacy of the ancients still comes down to us.

Thank God for the Arabs, who kept all this stuff alive in the Dark Ages.

Best wishes

Paul
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Old 07-07-2006, 02:12 PM
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Sorry....You are correct that socrates focused on ethics mainly and didn't really concern himself with the metaphysical world, however plato did deal with metaphysics in some detail, here is an article from stanford on the topic. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-metaphysics/

and metaphysics doesn't equal religion...I think none of them truly concerned themselves with religion.

I hate nitpicking like this...but I can't help it.....sorry......thats how god made me.....
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Old 07-07-2006, 11:41 PM
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I didn't realise I was nitpicking.... lol! Please don't apologise. I'm just fascinated by the ancient world. The Mediterannean of 2500 years ago was the silicon valley of its time.

We talk more about God in the secular forum than we do anywhere else.
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Old 07-08-2006, 01:15 AM
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Nah paul, I was nitpicking, not you...I too am facinated by all that has come before me, it our best teacher and contains some very important lessons.

As far as the god thing, I think it is important to have a place to talk about the spiritual, metaphysical world without having to have the confines of religion. god doesn't nesecarily mean God.

I consider myself secular, but I still have beliefs of more to life than the absolute tangible...... the word, god, is just a shortened convienient term that I have moved past the preconceptions that I once had about it. In all actuality, I used to call what ever it is I believe in, billybob jinglebunns....not joking....it really helped me for a time, now I can substitute the word god in b/c it's just a mater of semantics for me now.....but thats also how I can do the 12 step thing and remain secular.
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Old 07-08-2006, 01:26 AM
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I agree with all my heart that it's a matter of semantics. Having opinions about God or not-God is one thing. For far too long all I had were thin-skinned prejudices. Typical alkie. Thank God for the 12 steps!
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Old 12-15-2006, 08:35 AM
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Sobering thoughts on the God Question!!!

Ebook review: The Final Freedoms

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Old 12-15-2006, 10:37 AM
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I hated logic in school.
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Old 12-15-2006, 12:01 PM
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It appears that we have a gordian knot.


It seem to me that G*D is a matter of revealed truth. It is opaque to either fact or logic.
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Old 12-15-2006, 03:11 PM
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I just finished an entire class studying these thinkers in depth. For now, I am passing on this ebook. I wonder if anyone wants to read ten pages on the political differences between Aristotle and St. Augustine in terms of who should lead the people. I was "challenging all natural law theory and theology" but not in terms of sexuality so I doubt anyone will want to read it. It was hard enough to write LOL.
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Old 12-16-2006, 04:03 AM
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Welcome to SR, Klatu;
Sounds to me like you are the author of the ebook.

Windy, I loved logic! LOL!

Alera, I hated the natural law theories too, as a result of the totally unnatural manipulation of things and people it made manifest.

Shalom!
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Old 12-18-2006, 02:41 AM
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All this talk of logic & god from a religious standpoint makes my hair stand on end. ... I think that's why it's called faith: it's the belief in something unseen, unprovable. Those who have it [faith], know It; those who don't, don't know It. Get it?

My thought is that if a person believes something (whatever that might be), it's real for them and therefore what does it matter whether that thing is empirically provable or not? Same goes for "un"belief: from a god-questioning perspective, isn't that *believing* in "no god"? That's real for that person whether there's proof or not of the non-existence of god. ... wow, I've almost confused myself here ...
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Old 12-19-2006, 10:45 AM
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That is why it is called faith, yup. I have a faith that is very conservative but I do not apply it to my recovery. It just doesn't work for me. I do ask my HP to help me by giving me strength to work my recovery but I do not rely on the HP ideal of NA/AA.

I am almost a Deist that way. I often tease that I am a Catholic Deist

There is nothing that men make a greater noise about than the "mysteries of the Christian religion." The divines gravely tell us "we must adore what we cannot comprehend." Some of them say the "mysteries of the Gospel" are to be understood only in the sense of the "ancient fathers." ... [Some] contend [that] some mysteries may be, or at least seem to be, contrary to reason, and yet received by faith. [Others contend] that no mystery is contrary to reason, but that all are "above" it. [10]

On the contrary, we hold that reason is the only foundation of all certitude, and that nothing revealed, whether as to its manner or existence, is more exempted from its disquisitions than the ordinary phenomena of nature. Wherefore, we likewise maintain, according to the title of this discourse, that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason, nor above it; and that no Christian doctrine can be properly called a mystery. ...

Now, as we are extremely subject to deception, we may without some infallible rule, often take a questionable proposition for an axiom, old wives' fables for moral certitude, and human impostures for divine revelation....
From John Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious

More about Deism here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
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