Atheists what if...?

Question

ok I know you guys can do the hypothtical thing , so dont let me down here

what if there is a deity of some kind
how would you imagine this deity to be
physical , spiritual , energy , alien ...
what would make sense to you ... get imaginative here
but some sensible answers would be appreciated

have fun :o)

this isnt a pascals wager in any way
I am trying to see what you clever guys would imagine a deity to be " IF " there is one
I am not out to convert you lol

I think you guys have been awesone to allow yourself to be put in this hypothetical situation
and I have learned a lot from you all
and strangely enough , my own perceptions of God is not too unlike some of the ideas

awesome *

Answer 1

Too tired to answer this right now - but very happy to see Not of This World (first answer) has finally admitted the truth.

UPDATE AFTER A NAP: OK - if a creator-deity exists, then it would be something I simply could not describe or define, because it would be something too far outside my human perception to understand.

It could not have a personality that we could understand as such, nor would it have any interest in us as individual human beings, And it would certainly not have intimate conversations with the likes of Benny Hinn.

This is not a cop-out. Remember the old cartoon about the goldfish? "If there is no God, then who changes the water?"

I can not imagine, envisage, define, or describe something that could create this wonderful universe, any more than a gold-fish is capable of grasping the nature of a human being.

If you insist on a description: an infinitely vast, gently swirling cloud - glowing a very soft lilac. The sound it would make would be rather like that of Emma Kirkby singing songs by Hildegarde of Bingen just on the edge of hearing.
.

Answer 2

Oookaayy. The only gap left big enough to fit a deity into would have to be the first Planck time after the Big Bang. I suppose I could contemplate a superevolved being - possibly a machine Mind created by a long-vanished civilisation, who had continued to grow, expand and improve until it had God-like powers.

Such a creature might, perhaps just as entertainment, decide to build a new universe. It might be able to set up the fundamental constants so that universe was as ours is, knowing that this would lead to biochemical life on a few isolated specks of matter.

And eventually, that biochemical life might reach a level of development where it was ready to create its own successor - as we are: the first artificial mind. In our case this will probably happen within 50 years.

That first crude machine mind will have the potential to build an even better successor - and that one to build a still more advanced model. The process could continue without theoretical limit.

The end result might be a companion for the Mind that set the universe in motion in the first place - which could have been the intention all along.

CD

Answer 3

For me--on a complete hypothetical level...I can imagine that if there were some type of god...

either the deist belief. where god created it, and like a 5 yr old wandered off to play with another toy.

or more of a spiritual element. Kinda like a wiccan force. As humans are only using 10% of our brains--I can see if we could use most of the remaining 90% it would allow for psychic connection, or a manipulation of energy that allows for the movement of objects. I don't know if that is so much a deity force as much as a connection to our own spiritual awareness and abilities.

Those are the only 2 that could make sense to me.

But there is some part of me that really likes the idea of all magical creatures. I'm Irish and the Celtic beliefs are quite inspirational. The idea of faeries living among us every day and merely chosing who they wish to show themselves too. But in that case, I can imagine faerie people, leprachauns, and merpeople--but thats more a belief in other races, in perhaps magical races--but nothing really deity, not a controlling force that created us, just an older race of people, more evolved, supernatural by comparison if we are "natural".

Still the athiest in me can't even imagine any type of heaven/hell or manipulative "God" controlling our actions. It just can't work in any hypothetical situation. Lol. I guess that whole theory of "sky faerie" doesn't work with me as I can imagine faeries first.

What do you think Pangel?

Answer 4

If God exists then I can't help myself but imagine him as an old bearded man in a white robe.
If it's not a god as such then I imagined that every person has a soul which is a blue sort of energy that's inside them and when they die all the blue stuff goes up to the Big Blue Blob In The Sky. This explains reincarnation because when a baby is born the blue stuff might be the same blue stuff as someone else has had. I need to think of a better name than 'blue stuff'...

Answer 5

Let's see... Aliens had come to our planet in desperate search for survival, since their planet had been destoryed. We find out that human existence is the result of aliens mating with primates. The reason the aliens mated with the primates was because they could not survive as aliens in any of Earth's varying climate conditions. The primates were the most similar creatures to aliens, so cross-breeding was their only hope. The original aliens eventually died off but left a new breed of animal in their place. Humans, knowing they were more advanced and seemingly oddly placed on this planet knew they were unlike all other animals, yet could not imagine how they could have come from "the sky". In order to explain their existence and presence on earth, some of the humans created gods, religions, and mythologies.

And that's enough. There's your sci-fi story.

Answer 6

What a fascinating question. I can't wait to read what others have to say.

A deity that would make sense to me would be a naturally being outside of our universe (space-time). Perhaps within their reality, the being or group of beings is not omnipotent, and creating a new universe is either new and experimental, or an accepted practice which most being engage in during their free time. I think such a being probably finds our experiences quite informative, either because it simply gives them a new perspective on existence, or because it allows them to study behavior outside of the normal limitations of space and time. Motives are varied and essentially unknowable, but that stands with people also.

Answer 7

If there were a deity, the most logical one to me would be a Deist-like concept - a god or gods that started the universe, then walked away and thereafter not only ignored the universe, but doesn't even know we exist.

Answer 8

The basic problem with the god hypothesis is it postulates an infinitely complex god without any external context to explain that complexity. In order to avoid this dilemma one either needs to postulate a simple god or provide external context to explain the complexity. The problem with the second approach is that you still have a bigger problem again of explaining the external context.

So you end up with a dumb (simple) god unable to reason or design which just generates infinite numbers of universes randomly with no plan or design. It is Hardly worth calling it a god at all.

Far more likely there is no god at all and reality as a whole is just simple. Only looking complicated because we see so little of it.

Answer 9

Permeating everything.
I think the world would be different. We'd feel less subjectivity, less like a discrete unit in the mass of humanity and more like a blended instance of the whole.
I wouldn't picture god as having a specific plan, because I don't think that concept really makes sense for an omnipotent, omniscient being. It'd be a little bit like saying you have a plan for your pancreas. It's an important part of the whole that is you.
Anyway, thems my two cents.

Answer 10

I imagine just good vibrations, the matter takes care and thinks for its self with this energy. It must have eyes to see in order to create such beauty, and ears to hear our appreciation, the rest is natural order, dictated by this divine energy.
God to me is our spirit, the energy that sustains us and that is with or without a book of instructions.