When people talk about "god" they are talking about themselves.

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Is there any other explanation that makes as much sense? Even if we discuss a particular god of a particular sect of a particular religion we find differences and different interpretations of that "god" and its behavior among individuals in that particular group of people. They may agree on a majority of alleged characteristics but are never 100% in agreement. People who talk about god appear to be merely projecting themselves onto this human archetype.

If I worship a god that commits genocide and I explain it away by saying that my god is mysterious then obviously I approve of genocide. If I worship a god that allows children to die of cancer than obviously I approve of children dying of cancer. We shouldn't be asking someone why their god allows evil but be asking why they themselves allow evil.

The difference between a good person that does bad things and a bad person that does good things is the things those persons do. Claiming that I have a god is just my attempt to put some space between my behavior and personal accountability for same.

 

[Jarhyn]

To be fair, It's not that I approve of kids dying from cancer so much as that kids where I'm from do die of cancer, and it would be a rather rude awakening from any of my simulations to discover life is even worse here than where they came from? That's not mysterious so much as just "shitty".

Also, a system where physics allows a rich basis for growth and expansion and change based on errors is going to be one where errors effect general structure in general ways, and singling out kids in particular would be hard and would make my existence obvious to my creations.

Again, it's not mysterious. I just said why I personally would do that. If you have a better option that meets my requirements, I'm all ears, but I'll be damned if I could even conceive of a system of regular physics that both allows intelligence and spares children or never spawns conflict.

Then, I'm not one to shy away from the reality of my decisions, nor to hide behind some other thing claiming it's not my fault or my decision, or as an excuse to not explain myself.

I agree that if someone wants to justify something like that, they have to actually be able to justify it as if they were "God", and the reasons can't be "mysterious" or weak.

 

[Wiploc]

So if Joe says that gods don't exist, he means that he doesn't exist?

And if Sara says god is all-powerful, she means she is all-powerful?