realms of possibility
How an imaginary deity behaves? However you want them to behave.
One of the arguments used by atheists to refute the existence of deities is that every religion that’s popped up has been completely different. If the Christian god God is the only god, why can people only learn about him from another Christian? Why did the same belief system not get divinely communicated to a tribe in Papua New Guinea? Surely an omnipotent god would have several lines of communication open to it. You’ve got to admit, they’ve got a point.
But sometimes I wonder if atheists, in a bid to demonstrate that they are hardcore and not woolly agnostics, overlook a few possibilities about the supernatural powers that may indeed dwell outside our realm of existence.
It is possible that every deity actually exists. Maybe they’re all manipulative liars having a competition to see how many humans they can lure into their religious net. They get one chance to communicate their message of choice to mankind and see just how far it can spread. The Jewish god God was given several bonus shots for good behaviour and has deftly used this to his advantage by jumping off in several politically astute directions from his seemingly modest base. Pachamama’s sitting tutting in a corner, as she thought she was on to a good thing for a while, but still has hope that New Feminism will result in a resurgence in support. Unnamed is similarly disappointed that going modern and trying to harness the 1950s space invaders craze has reaped little reward, but is chuffed to bits that he can count dashing celebrity Tom Cruise among his number.
I’m not saying it’s likely. But it’s not completely outwith the realms of possibility.
Anything is possible.
LikeLike
Indeed! One of the difficulties of trying to discuss possible religions in a rational manner is that, in the end, the supernatural card can trump anything we have to say. It does make anything possible. Not probable though. 🙂
LikeLike
It’s also possible that there is a race of beings trapped within the 7th dimension who can communicate with humans, but only aging male humans as a dream or a vision. Oh, and these males generally have to have epilepsy or borderline schizophrenia in order to be able to sense this race of trapped beings. That’s what the vision I saw said to me.
LikeLike
You’d better get started on your holy book quick smart!
LikeLike
You got it all wrong: there is only one God. He’s just having a costume party.
LikeLike
I think there’s a series of animated short films waiting to be made …
LikeLike
The person who invented god was dyslexic…you even alluded to this yourself.
Woof woof….
With Fence-Sitting posts like this you are never going to win any friends when you run for president.
As Margaret Thatcher once noted, if you stand in the middle of the road you get hit by traffic coming from both ways! 🙂
LikeLike
Well, you know I took some inspiration from your interfaith dialogues. My wit just isn’t quite as sharp. After the dog conversations I was looking at mine in a different light yesterday … I’ll never completely shake off my natural superstitious core.
LikeLike
No Idea whatsoever. I didn’t think South Africa was still the Pariah of the World anymore.
It’s probably those damn Brazilians manipulating the figures to make their bloggers look smart , or something.
I’m in Johannesburg, so maybe the Blogland statisticians have never heard of us…or deigned to forget since the World Cup?
Where are you in Argentina…and don’t reply ‘Sitting at my computer in the lounge!’
LikeLike
In a largish town of no significance near Buenos Aires. Maybe you don’t figure geographically because you’re a spam item?
LikeLike
I am a Spam Item!! Oh, thanks very much.
The Ark is nothing but Tin Meat. Sheesh!
Having a woman regard me as meat….hmmm, Doesn’t that border on sexist?
smirk…
LikeLike
Oh lookie here. Another one in the spam bin. Just as well I found this pearl of wisdom and can restore it to it’s rightful place on me blog.
LikeLike
(did you spot the fighting hummingbirds in my picture?)
LikeLike
Wow! No, I missed them completely. What a fortunate shot!
LikeLike
Fortune? Ppppfff. Talent 🙂
LikeLike
You pics are too tiny. Why not do a Photo post and put up some bigger pics?
LikeLike
Okay, ….patience then, and talent, of course. I understand that you can’t have one without the other when photographing birds and shots like this are usually after hours and hours getting to know their habits and always making sure one has the camera at hand, of course.
I once spent an afternoon prostrate on the tin roof of one of the outbuildings on our property while a pair of masked weavers flew their wings off to feed a cuckoo chick! I shot a whole reel off. Took hours and I got horrible sunburn to boot. (forgot to take a hat up with me…Twit)
LikeLike
Haha. Twit. Reminds me you’re in South Africa. Although I have a question to ask about that, as South Africa never shows up in my stats (I have an occasional look to see if my brother is Denmark is lurking and not commenting) and all I usually have is the USA and Brazil. Any idea why?
LikeLike
You get a Like for “woolly agnostics”
I think however that you’d have to explain why a deity (or deities) would choose be mysterious and not informative for your argument to hold water. Now be careful here. If we ‘know’ deities exist then answering why they’re deliberately mysterious is somewhat tricky. They want us to know they exist, they demand worship, BUT are also mysterious…. why?
LikeLike
They’re playing a game! It’s a competition of silly, vain, idle beings. (Well, in this particular supposition anyway.) I don’t understand why we humans sometimes feel any potential explanation it has to fit within our bounds of acceptable behaviour. Once we’re imagining supernatural, ANYTHING is possible. Which is why trying to believe any superstition is a waste of time. The rational arguments are required to prove that particular (harmful) religions make no sense. Well, to my mind anyway.
LikeLike
I just posted my rebuttal to your not-natural/natural. Well, its not a rebuttal, that sounds way too harsh. You know what i mean… 😉
LikeLike
Or- people say God(s) are different because people are different. It is not God, but their individual reactions to God.
LikeLike
It’s a fair argument but it doesn’t hold water. If theism/the gods were natural you’d expect (at the very least) a similarity between them all throughout time. There isn’t one. Ancestor cults (the oldest form of all worship) had no concept whatsoever of skylarking deities. Animism simply made the natural environment more interesting by giving mountain ranges and streams personalities. Totemism is the ritualistic borrowing of animal spirits. These manifestations of superstition existed for tens of thousands of years before the first anthropomorphic gods who we know today were invented in about 5,000 BCE.
LikeLike
“If theism/the gods were natural you’d expect (at the very least) a similarity between them all throughout time”
I think what you mean here is that *you* personally would expect a similarity. People’s individual expression of, or reaction to, any deities that may exist would definitely reflect something of the society and time they live in. And again, once we’re dealing with supernatural beings, there’s no point having logical human expectations of any behaviour they might exhibit. I think the most we can do is scientifically or morally disregard the majority of organised religions floating around, but I don’t get the struggle to admit there are other scenarios, however ridiculously unlikely, in which supernatural deities could exist.
LikeLike
Well, I guess the logical question to that is, why would the universe even require a deity?
LikeLike
Is it? I don’t follow. Everything goes back to the unknowns of the supernatural card. I’m not trying to be clever (because I know it’s not clever at all) but it does stop any logical analysis in its tracks. I don’t think any other reason for existence is likely in the slightest but I can’t use logic to completely disregard the possibility (like I can with specific religions like Christianity for example). Because logically speaking, supernatural is outwith the bounds of logic. (And I feel like a right twat for writing that 🙂 )
LikeLike
Believe me, that doesn’t even register on the Twat-O_Meter. Seems though you’re just getting lost in the cosmological argument. I hate the philosophy of all this, it bores me to tears, but it exists because people can’t get their heads around something being something without there once being nothing. I think our brains need limits, borders and partitions to make sense of things. Something is black which means its not white… Oh, I can understand that! Now, that does play right into what you’re saying: we can’t understand everything, and you might just be right.
LikeLike
“The Jewish god God was given several bonus shots for good behaviour and has deftly used this to his advantage by jumping off in several politically astute directions from his seemingly modest base.”
Not quite, he jumped off from ships behind greedy men carrying swords, muskets and disease!
LikeLike
Haha, excellent! I should add that in brackets.
LikeLike
Pingback: how to tell if your religion is genuine | violetwisp