troof

Arch, can you comment on this bit from my alst post:

"Also, where exactly does the theist part come in? As I understand it, theism is a belief that a god intercedes, and that some form of revelation takes place? Would this be consistent with what you believe? I only ask because what you are describing sounds a lot more like deism to me. Why does this God/energy you describe, care, to put it another way? Moreover, how do we get from a nondescript first cause to a theistic interpretation of "God"

right right that's certainly a valid question, and again, i believe my opinion on this aspect is probably fairly unique as well. I think it's safe to say that I do border on Deism simply because I don't believe, for example, that when something bad happens in the world that is "the absence of God," or in the opposite case, when something good happens that is necessarily "God's work" (although I think it's possible that it could be). Many theists would find this disturbing, since it implies that God may not care about what happens to us. However I don't think that implication would be totally accurate either. For example, people die and the world continues on. It would be selfish to think that anyone of us specifically deserves to "be saved" or something like that; death (for example) is just a necessary and natural part of life and in extension Ultimate Reality- part of "The Plan" I guess you could say. This is why I discard the common argument for God's non-existence of (again for example) "if God existed he wouldn't allow my mother to die, or children to starve, or tornados......" In other words, Ultimate Reality extends far beyond what we imagine to be "just or fair," meaning it will sometimes seem unfair and unjust.

But again, I still ask myself: "would it really be possible for human beings to be capable of questioning the purpose of our existence, our mortality, and conceive the thought of the divine if our existence had no ultimate purpose?" that really seems like it would be inefficient. we have no ultimate purpose on Earth- we simply live to perpetuate our species' existence (which is congruent with the theory of evolution) but that seems ultimately pointless. This leads me to suspect that the divine should theoretically care for conscious life, because otherwise it would be pointless for us to be able to comprehend and fear the fact that we need some higher power in order for us to not "drop out of existence" when we die.

To conclude, my interpretation of the divine would be non-descriptive and Deistic were it not for the 2nd portion of my thinking- that there must necessarily be a purpose to our existence in order for us to be capable of contemplating whether or not there is a purpose. Follow? haha makes sense to me anyway

yes but imo putting hope in discovering a proof or logic for the non-existence of God is just as invalid as hoping for explicit proof for God's existence. You would essentially just be putting your faith in time to allow human ingenuity to discover everything, even something as abstract as God/Heaven. That makes no sense to me at all. After thinking extensively about this, I cannot come up with any other reasonable explanation, and obviously if another logical option arose, I would of course consider it. But I'm not counting that as likely. As Thomas Malthus once said, you can tell me that a man is turning into a bird. But before I believe you, you must show me that he is growing feathers.
Further, I disagree that it is better to say "we just don't know enough yet," because imo that would be putting a vain hope in ever knowing enough (haha im repeating myself now). Will we ever "know enough"? You'll be waiting a while.....

ps. don't worry, I don't have children yet. I'm only 20.

1.

Yeah this. One teacher gave me an error in a test and I failed to make him understand... was so ****ing pissed!

If 2 is accurate then 1 can't be less accurate. Best explains if depends what is the objective... but I can go with 2 in most situations...

I'm not waiting. I'm simply content with the thought that we don't know enough to answer some questions. It's possible we might know by the time I die. Or Maybe not. But it doesn't matter to me. If someone asked me what your archimedes11's real name, I'd say "I don't know". Why is making up a name for you better than simply admiting the truth?

No, it doesn't make sense to me. Wondering about the purpose of existence is a thought. It's like any other thought. Through evolution, our brains evolved to an advanced enough stage to have some of these thoughts. If you ever wondered if you can walk on the sun, that doesn't mean you can walk on the sun just because you were capable of contemplating such thought.

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