Question by NH Baritone: Does the BROAD diversity of opinion about the nature & laws of God bring into question the existence of God?
God is described as both (a) loving & (b) vengeful (to the point of eternally torturing his creatures in hell);
As both (a) responsible for evil (like hardening Pharoah’s heart) & (b) not responsible for suffering & evil (free will);
As both (a) healing diseases & (b) allowing people to perish;
As both (a) promoting justice & (b) promoting forgiveness;
As both (a) promoting peace & (b) promoting warfare;
As (a) revealed in the Old Testament, (b) revealed in the New Testament, (c) revealed in the Quran, (d) revealed in the teachings of Baha’u’lah, (e) revealed in the teachings of Krishna, (f) revealed in the teachings of the Buddha, (g) revealed in the teachings of Wicca (h) revealed in the teachings of native American shamans, (i) etc.
These represent an enormous number of often mutually exclusive characteristics! The images seem to serve the person/culture more than offer something universal.
If we cannot agree on God’s description, why would we assume ANY described God exists?
Best answer:
Answer by Blackacre
Additionally, there is no evidence that any of these “Gods” ever existed…
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
There you go. Hence my stand.
Existence is separate from description.
There is no way to prove that God exists. I think that maybe He does.
Due to the bastardization of religion from it’s perfect form there is every reason to doubt that religion exists and not just opinions. I Doubt not that God exists, and no doubt he is more than a little peeved with religion as a whole.
At one time there were many opinions about the shape of the earth, but in time one proved to be right and true….from a Christian perspective, the one path to God is known because we have been touched (and baptized) by the power of God….though it is not by merit, we have been graced by the knowledge of God’s existence and true identity! Though we also still have a lot to learn about the full glory of God….
All this proves is that mankind has consistently made and remoulded God in his own image, with all his own inherent character flaws and contradictions.
It doesn’t even touch on the real question of whether a “supreme being” exists. I’d agree with you that clearly “God” does not and cannot exist as described in scripture – or at the very least that if He does, He’s a real monster!
Good question. I think the fact that every civilization believes in (a) god of some sort shows that it is something ingrained deep in the heart of man. It seems to demonstrate that God is real and we have in our hearts this understanding even if we don’t know who He is. As to the many ideas about who He is it demonstrates clearly that there is a lot of confusion and either ignorance or deceit in this area but doesn’t prove That God doesn’t exist, rather seems to confirm it. Often many people will witness an accident or some other incident and later many of the witnesses will have different and even conflicting stories but they in no way mean the incident didn’t happen, rather that some either are lying, or don’t remember clearly. forgotten or something. So one aught to take seriously the fact that overwhelmingly people believe in (god) and if God exists we should seek to know Him and what He has to say about things.
A person’s opinion of Truth has no bearing on whether that Truth is true or not.
I can disbelieve Gravity all day long but if I jump off a roof, I’ll still go splat.
God, by definition, is far superior to Man (His creation) and therefore ultimately unknowable.
Mutual Exclusion and seeming ‘conflicts’ are simply our ignorance of that which is beyond our understanding.