Someone once wrote this: "If I say 'God does not exist', immediately theists would be... proclaiming that by saying God does not exist gives legitimacy that God as a term exists ... hence God exists."
But isn't it that the concept of God is people's idea of God existing? We know the concept of God exists - people believe. The concept is the belief - it has faith in. Also, isn't the TERM of God just its word? We know the word "God" exists.
So, saying God does not exist means that God, as a real being, does not exist. Saying the word "God" as a being - in this case, negatively, does not imply the opposite right?
2007-09-08 08:44:14 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Universal Pants, yes.
2007-09-08 09:04:19 · update #1
The author seems to talking about the Ontological Argument.
The Ontological Argument is a very old "proof" of the existence of God. It is very seldom seen in modern theological debates, but was a hot issue in the Middle Ages. I've seen it brought up once or twice in Y!A.
The argument basically runs as such:
A) Existing in reality is better than existing in concept.
B) God is the best of all possible things
C1) Therefore, if God exists in concept, he must, by definition, exist in reality.
D) The concept of God exists.
C2) Therefore, by (C1), God exists in reality.
This argument is obviously flawed.
2007-09-08 09:08:58 · answer #1 · answered by marbledog 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The concept exists, of course. It always has. But I have as much proof of the Christian God actually existing as I do of the existence of Odin and The FSM. Which is to say, none. You're attempting to oversimplify this, in a very convoluted way. It's like you're trying to say if the concept of God, and the word God exist, then God therefore must be real. Sometimes a duck ain't a duck, you know.
2007-09-08 16:04:53 · answer #2 · answered by ReeRee 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God doesn't exist. The concept of god is just that, a concept. A concept is a thought. Not a reality.
2007-09-08 16:00:36 · answer #3 · answered by punch 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is a difference between a concept and reality. We all acknowledge that the concept of god(s) exist. Atheists do not acknowledge that the reality of god(s) exist. The concept has evidence to support its existence. The reality has no evidence to support its existence.
Similarly, the concept of the invisible pink unicorn that rules the universe and lives in my garage exists, just because I said it. However, the reality of this concept has no evidence to support it.
The difference between psychotic people and normal people is that psychotic people do not know the difference between concept and reality.
2007-09-08 16:01:45 · answer #4 · answered by CC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is no "concept of god". There are instead thousands if not millions of concepts of god.
"God" is a word that means next to nothing. It is poorly defined when it is defined at all, and spans definitions that combined make god rather *gasp* human at best and at worst, so vague that the concept begins to appear as non-existent as the actual entity.
The word "god" is meaningless.
2007-09-08 15:54:04 · answer #5 · answered by Snark 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Semantics proves only the meaning given to a word. You are correct in that confirming the word and it's meaning does not verify the existence in reality of the idea or concept defined in the meaning of the word...
(is that what you were asking?)
2007-09-08 15:56:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I concede to the existence of the concept of God, same way I concede to the existence of the concept of the perfect island with free soda.
2007-09-08 15:54:48 · answer #7 · answered by Menon R 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ah yeah that's an easy one. God doesn't exist: the idea that "God exists" exists.
2007-09-08 15:54:13 · answer #8 · answered by Apsalus 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are numerous concepts of deities, and no evidence for any of them.
2007-09-08 15:58:31 · answer #9 · answered by novangelis 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋