Imagine that there is no God. So your species has a meeting and decides it wants or needs at least one god. What kind of god would you propose? What would be its attributes? Its powers? Its motivations? I have definite ideas about that, which I may post here later; but the purpose here is not to debate MY conception of an ideal god, but to give you the opportunity to describe yours. Details, please!
Comment by James Cox on October 8, 2012 at 2:52am Why would anyone want to 'make a god'? Surely we have so much to do already like make babies, make politics, make war, and my favorite, make dinner...;p)
But put this way, does this give away the actual intent of 'God' creation, 'pretending to have a big secret friend than can break your legs, and wipe out your family, or crush your city'. Politics!
Is 'God' equal to nuclear weapons metaphorically or symbolically? Sence humans have, maybe, gotten smarter since the first century, has 'God' lost most of his/her/its bite, and now nuclear weapons have replaced it? I expect Facebook, the internet and other technologies could have a similar psychological effect?
I think the first line should read: “Imagine that there is a god”. I cannot see any reason or need to create one.
Comment by Heather Spoonheim on October 8, 2012 at 9:24am Tops on my list would be prayers that worked. Ok, maybe prayers to win the big football go would go unnoticed - but the really heart felt prayers from people facing awful stuff would get attention. No one would starve to death, children wouldn't die of horrible diseases - basically everyone would make it to at least 50 or 60.
I think I would also like the god to make it so no one was ever sexually attracted to children. That would be a big bonus. Finally, I think I would like the god to reward rationalism and frown upon magical thinking, :D
Comment by archaeopteryx on October 8, 2012 at 12:21pm I wouldn't have a problem having one who'd pop down on a Friday evening after work every once in a while and have a cold one with me - provided he didn't insist I worship him or anything bizarre like that --
As long as he acted like a best friend, fine, but as soon as he started acting like a god, forgeddaboutit --!
Comment by Willson Stoner on October 8, 2012 at 2:22pm This has been done thousands of times throughout history. We should be through with making up gods.
Comment by Dale Headley on October 8, 2012 at 2:30pm Thanks, Heather; you saved me a lot of typing. I’m sure we all could think of specific attributes with which we would endow our particular gods - the compassion to use his/hers/its power to alleviate all manner of suffering, for instance.
But if I were limited to any of the extant concepts of a Supreme Being, it would have to be Deism. A Deist god only has one attribute - the ability to push the “start” button.
Seriously, it’s a shame that the deism of the enlightenment - of Tom Paine and the Founding Fathers - was so brutally pushed aside by puritannical, reactionary, vengeful, medieval, inhumane, irrational, Abrahamic monstrosities, especially in America and the Middle East. Live-and-let-live deism is a religious paradigm with which I could co-exist without tearing my hair out.
Comment by archaeopteryx on October 8, 2012 at 4:49pm But with acceptance of a deity that pushes the start button Dale, we lose all impetus to discover how the universe began, how it works, and what, if anything, existed before that - all of that is gone, once we say, "god did it."
Comment by Hank Hell on October 8, 2012 at 8:17pm Well he would be purple, and he would be nice, His name would be dave or perhapse dan. Yes Dan, that would be it, with some loftey yet lowsome tittle, Like Dan the prepetually short sighted. He created the world because he needed something to slide under the loose leg of his coffee table, he hadn't considered all these creatures forming on it, or any of the other nonsense that took place. He is after all very short sighted.
Comment by Ed on October 8, 2012 at 10:38pm A great god would allow me to turn on and off the rain in my vineyard and vegetable garden whenever I wanted. Seriously, there is nothing more sad than the unanswered prayer of a child in desperate need.
Comment by Doug Reardon on October 8, 2012 at 11:41pm Me!
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