A question for atheists and those who question the existence of God...?

Question

I accidentally put this question in philosophy but I would like RS to consider this.
I want you to really give this some thought. I know you want physical right here, right now evidence but consider that a Spiritual being such as God can effect our reality much the same way that we do only He does it on a much higher plane. Let me give you an example, everything from powerful microchips to sleek automobiles to the space shuttle start out as invisible absolutely non tangible thoughts and images in someone's mind but take a look around and marvel at the sky scrappers and bridges that span miles upon miles. All of this, from something absolutely intangible and invisible. Is it much more difficult to visualize God as the Ultimate

The end should read, could not God be the ultimate Mind/Creator who created us to do what He did but on a smaller scale?

Molly,
You missed the point The Universe IS His work that we can see!

Pirate,
Thoughts ARE invisible. You are referring to pulses in the brain, there is no comparison. I'm talking about the "actual" image in our mind, that my friend is invisible yet real to us.

Answer 1

I've already given it a lot of thought. There are no gods. The existence of the universe doesn't suggest that a god put it there.

Answer 2

It's very easy to conceptualize anthropic deities. Because we can make OK or sometimes quite complex things, we assume that something 'like us' (but infinitely smarter and 'perfect' etc) must make 'ultimate' things like life, cells etc. This is proof that we see ourselves and our thinking in everything.

It's an ego thing, by proxy, or more correctly by mirror image.

Doesn't mean it is true.

For example: I can very easily conceptualize a whole race of ultimate superbings beavering away in a multiverse, making lesser beings that could make our universe in the blink of an eye.

That doesn't mean it is true, does it? It simply shows that I can think in the abstract and conceptualize, while always being tied to vaguely anthropic 'creator' principles because that is what we 'do', and we are largely self-focused, so our gods seem to be all about us.

Carpenters, shepherds, designers, makers.

The fact that these deities/archetypes are mostly male and of that type since the Middle Eastern patriarchal religious expansion, is simply proof that they are products of a male-orientated society, not that the concept is 'divine'.

Other, older societies and cultures have worshipped female deities, or symbols, as they saw the pregnant female as proof of divinity, and of the divinity of 'nature.

Along came human technological development, (tools etc) and the stage of conceptualizing 'God' as the 'cosmic carpenter'. We have been stuck on that one for 2000 years, so what next?...

The real challenge is to imagine something non-anthropic, and non-designer-ish?

Answer 3

Thoughts are not really invisible as we can tell what parts of the brain are active and we can detect differences in thoughts enough to control a variety of devices. The other difference is that when we look at our creations, we see evidence of design. However when we look at the universe, we do not see the same signs and in reality we see many things that would either be "design flaws" or evidence of evolution.

It was a nice thought, but it is not based in reality.

Answer 4

Those skyscrapers etc may have started from something 'intangible and invisible' i.e. the human imagination, but they are now tangible and visible. Unlike the god that was conceived from the same human imagination.

Edited to add: You're saying the universe is his work - well he made an almighty mess of it then didn't he? Why did he make earthquakes, tsunamis and horrible diseases?

Answer 5

We know man is very creative and clever. It's hard for us to explain where new ideas come from, how our minds can pull something out of nothing. So it's easy (for some people) to imagine that it's because we were made by God in his image, that our creativity is related to his, the being who created the whole universe out of nothing.

Being agnostic myself rather than atheistic, I don't really have a problem with this idea. I don't know if I believe it, but I can see its usefulness in explaining the universe.

But this doesn't really tell you anything -about- God. It doesn't prove that the Bible is inerrant, or that Jesus was really the son of God. It doesn't prove that any one particular view of theology is correct, that any set of doctrines is obligatory. It doesn't prove that any one particular set of beliefs is necessary to lead a good life or to be spared from eternal punishment.

Some of us would rather have the mystery than to cling to answers that we know are imperfect--as imperfect as we are ourselves.

Answer 6

Did you know that even Mother Theresa often questioned the existence of God?
Even great prophets often had their doubts.
It is healthy for a strong mind and faith to question.
In as much is it not enough to have the natural world as miraculous evidence?
It is in fact man's creations that further lead many to doubt God because man likes to believe he is a God.
The smarter he feels the more he doubts.

Answer 7

Are you saying that belief in the power of imagination should equate to a belief in God? I'm not understanding the leap of logic. I'm also not understand how, even if this made sense, imagination would prove God's existence but not the existence of other deities and spiritual beings.

I have personally experienced the power of imagination. I have not personally experienced your God.

Answer 8

The fact that one cannot understand how something came to be does not indicate that one may conclude it was designed. On the contrary, lack of understanding indicates that we must not conclude design or anything else.

The argument from incredulity creates a god of the gaps. Gods were responsible for lightning until we determined natural causes for lightning, for infectious diseases until we found bacteria and viruses, for mental illness until we found biochemical causes for them. God is confined only to those parts of the universe we do not know about, and that keeps shrinking.

Answer 9

I just think it was pure chance that there is life on this planet - if there was a god wouldn't he have made lots of creatures on other planets too - I mean if he did create us and all the other creatures on this planet that must mean he likes/ feels some strange need to create things....why did he stop? why did he only pick this planet to populate?

Answer 10

"scrappers" should be scrapers

Is your question "Is it more diffucult to visualize God as the Ultimate than it is to realize human inventiveness?"

My answer is yes, it's much more diffucult to visualize god, especially as the ultimate being...than it is to simply notice that people are quite clever.