Friday, July 25, 2008

Consensus on 'Sophisticated' Religion?

No more mr. nice guy has run a similar post to my own on 'sophisticated' religion and drawn much the same conclusions. I think he sums up the major criticism very well with the following

.....if we define God as Stevie Wonder, then God exists. If we define God as love, God exists as a concept in peoples' minds. And if we say God is that which cannot be defined, we are just making noise. If you claim that God exists, the first order of business should be to define what it is that you are talking about - at least in enough detail so that the hearer can meaningfully address your claim. Anything else is evasion. Personally, I don't think I've ever heard God defined in such a way as to make a debate about God's existence even worth engaging in.

2 comments:

Milo said...

Nice point. It's hard to have a meaningful discussion if the subject is not defined.

I would be interested to know the mechanics of God. What exactly is spirit? Energy, matter, neither? Where does he live? Does the bible speak of another dimension? Does Jesus still have his resurrected body? Why???? Would you still need eyes to see, ears to hear, lungs to breathe??? How does God think and why would he have emotions?

I just don't get it.

Anonymous said...

That is such a great way to put it.
Whenever I'm asked if I believe in God the first thing I say is, "what do you mean?" I usually get some response such as "a higher being" or "something we can't understand" or some nonsense like that. When I ask them to elaborate further they usually get more and more vague or frustrated. It's a fun exercise and I think everyone should try it the next time they're asked if they believe in God.