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Would you like it if God did exist?

Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier

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I'm wondering if any of the atheists here would prefer that God did exist. Personally, my answer to that question depends on which God we are considering. Most of the Gods of religion don't appeal to me, and that includes Vishnu, Allah, Yahweh, and Jesus. On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
 
It would be an oddly specific god that exists just to help one life form on one planet orbiting one of a couple hundred billion stars in just one of a hundred billion galaxies. Of course, that wouldn't be the sort of "God" that creates entire universes, but what if it were so? An extremely minor and local deity that's just in charge of our solar system, and is tasked with overseeing whatever intelligent life form might pop up over the course of a few billion years? The equivalent of your local town council representative as opposed to the president/prime minister/emperor of your nation, and one given direction from way, way up the chain of command to ensure things didn't go off the rails too far?

I'd say that if such a being did actually exist, we may have gotten a disinterested or perhaps even incompetent minor functionary god.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
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I think it’s reasonably obvious a god like that doesn’t exist.

But I guess it really depends on the full definition of “God”, something that has been sorely lacking in any conversation I’ve ever seen in the subject.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
I'm wondering if any of the atheists here would prefer that God did exist. Personally, my answer to that question depends on which God we are considering. Most of the Gods of religion don't appeal to me, and that includes Vishnu, Allah, Yahweh, and Jesus. On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
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Yes, as you say, it depends. A good god offering eternal life... how can that not appeal? But a god letting some into heaven and damning others to hell, no way.
 
Depends. Because based on what we know, whales are pretty smart, massive beasts, can't get cancer, and have been roaming the Earth for quite a while. So if god existed, it is probably whale-ish in nature. And umm.... they might have some issues with us and what we did to so many of the whales.

If it is one of the human gods, probably not too interested, as they've shown likewise interest in us. Kind of just stopped caring, you know, footprints in the sand and all, with god running off to eat endangered sea turtle eggs in our time of need.

Otherwise, the term god is almost invalid and meaning absolutely nothing, that it'd be hard to determine whether I want it to exist or not. I mean, I like the idea of heaven, as long as there are different places for MAGA Hat wearing fuckheads, Nazis, and door to door religious solicitors.
 
Odd question.
None of the religions i know of describe the world we live in. So, asking an 'if God existed' question is not asking, "would you like it if the (----)-ites were right,' you're asking if we'd like to live in a different world...which included a god.
Then we can either choose an established godmeme, or build one of our own.

With that, i think i'd like to live in Discworld. Become a lay-leader in service to Anoia.
 
In the after-life, do you find out which religion or god(s) it is (was)? Or is the after-life just like life, and you got mobs of souls dedicating their after-life to some deity they are certain is the originator of the after-life, but in all honesty, no one knows. Kind of like the ending to the Battlestar Gallatica reboot series. You are just left standing there thinking, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
In the after-life, do you find out which religion or god(s) it is (was)? Or is the after-life just like life, and you got mobs of souls dedicating their after-life to some deity they are certain is the originator of the after-life, but in all honesty, no one knows.
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Sounds like a Douglas Adams afterlife. Somewhere there's a JUST shy of omniscient being behind a desk of infinite paperwork, sending subcontractors to build the Heaven desired by the customers. But they keep changing! Just when he was about through making an Underworld, he's got to build a Rainbow Bridge ("What is this, ONE rainbow? Or is it MADE of rainbows? Or, is it stone that's painted like...") and half the design committee is calling the other half demonic and then....OI!
 
Depends on the God, really.

With as active an interest I take in metaphysics in gener, there are MANY things that satisfy MANY of the ideas people intone with the utterance "god". Most of them do not warrant worship, and some of those that so do not are nonetheless worshipped heavily.

A few of the things of nature that are attributed to a few of the things intoned by utterances of 'god' are probably not the result of any such thing, but are the natural product of the demands of math on systems complex enough to involve survival mechanics.

If, for example, it was YHWH of the OT and his kid Jesus spun up a universe and dipped in a couple times claiming they own it, and want to torture folks for being the people they created, I will wage war on them.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
I'm wondering if any of the atheists here would prefer that God did exist. Personally, my answer to that question depends on which God we are considering. Most of the Gods of religion don't appeal to me, and that includes Vishnu, Allah, Yahweh, and Jesus. On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
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Great question Uknown Soldier, I have thought about asking a similar question.

Biblically, this is what it would be all about - to freely choose whether you want to be with God of the bible or not (like having a good-god from personal preference, instead).
 
abaddon said:
A good god offering eternal life... how can that not appeal? But a god letting some into heaven and damning others to hell, no way.
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Thank you for actually addressing the issue. Eternal life only appeals to me if it's good, of course, and the eternal life offered by Jesus sounds horrible to me. I'd prefer no God at all over the Christian God.
 
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Learner said:
Unknown Soldier said:
So do you prefer to be with the Bible God or not?
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Yes I do, and by God rules not mine.
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What exactly is so great about being with the Bible God? From what I've read about him, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. I prefer my rules over his rules too. Two of my brothers are homosexuals; unlike the Bible God, I have no rules that they or any gay men be stoned to death. Is God's command to execute homosexuals one of those rules you prefer?
 
Ford said:
I'd say that if such a being did actually exist, we may have gotten a disinterested or perhaps even incompetent minor functionary god.
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Yes, we may be ruled over by a flunky demigod. If some religion posited such a God, then it would be more credible than most religions which isn't saying much. If there is a supreme, "uberGod," then he's not much better than his underlings if he's not making sure they're doing the job right.
 
Shadowy Man said:
Unknown Soldier said:
On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
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I think it’s reasonably obvious a god like that doesn’t exist.

But I guess it really depends on the full definition of “God”, something that has been sorely lacking in any conversation I’ve ever seen in the subject.
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"God" is an immaterial, conscious agent not affected by time or space who created the cosmos, or at least that's the definition a lot of apologists use. I should toss in that God occasionally works miracles like healings and answers prayers. Would you prefer such a God exists?
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Shadowy Man said:
Unknown Soldier said:
On the other hand, if we are talking about a good God that actually helps people without discriminating or hurting people, then yes, I'd prefer that God exists.
Click to expand...
I think it’s reasonably obvious a god like that doesn’t exist.

But I guess it really depends on the full definition of “God”, something that has been sorely lacking in any conversation I’ve ever seen in the subject.
Click to expand...
"God" is an immaterial, conscious agent not affected by time or space who created the cosmos, or at least that's the definition a lot of apologists use. I should toss in that God occasionally works miracles like healings and answers prayers. Would you prefer such a God exists?
Click to expand...
If that’s your full definition then my answer would be “no”.
 
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