God in Your Bloodstream

I'll point out the parts that seem strange to me.

Bottom line here is that if the first postulate is faulty, then any remaining construction is meaningless other than as an individual Rorschach test.

We don't have much understanding of the majority of the universe in pure physics. In fact the vast majority of matter (dark matter) and energy (dark energy) have virtually nothing known about them. The condition of "irrefutable proof" concerning spiritual possibilities when we don't know hardly anything about the most basic matter of the universe is rather strange to me, even in fantasy.

Here's a fork in the road. Is it possible that you could experience life after death and find out that there is no god in the afterlife....or does your proof include life after death being also irrefutably proven not to exist? (e.g. Is irrefutable proof imply that the present known physics are the only physics possible?)

The problem here is that the "irrefutable proof" would bring an enormous amount of other baggage or enlightenment. It's very, very much like the debates of early Quantum Mechanics where the efforts to propose experiments that removed the observing apparatus from the theory kept many from understanding the theory. Let's say that part of the irrefutable proof was that our souls/consciousness/memories/whatever do not die. You obviously can see some of the "hidden assumptions" of your first statement. Not only does god need to be proven not to exist, but all our fears of consciousness termination (lacking a better word) have to be proven true as well. I suspect that was some of your original intent.

Really? There are an enormous number of Near Death Experiences recorded, but most go unrecorded since most listeners have decided already what the "cause" is. There is a lot of info worth investigating there-scientifically. Interestingly, this area of study is ignored by both Mainstream Religion and Mainstream Science. Additionally, virtually all the reports do not describe an interventionist god of any sort, but do describe a vast universe beyond what we see and hear. I don't know what to make of it, but I'm not about to declare all those NDE experiences as deceptive fabrications. (Fun note-One NDE experiencer, after describing their experience to their doctor was told to see their minister. When describing the same thing to the minister, was told to see their doctor.) If you are not investigating these, what would it take for you to be motivated to investigate?

I would not either....although it's a popular character for many simple theologies.

Now in all honesty, I would have had less to say if your starting postulate was "What if it became clear that your theology of "hell, damnation, redemptions, etc." was proven to be defective". I think that is happening all the time.

 

I am impressed airportkid. How you described that relationship above is what God wants with each of us and what God's children (those who believe) should strive for; with God first, family next, others and finally yourself. Of course our busy, worldly lives often interferes, sadly.

So my point is if the the stronger/deeper that relationship is, the harder it would be if it were no longer. Hope that makes sense and I like your analogy.

 

Quick question-Have you ever read Flowers for Algernon? (The discussion reminds me of a section of the story.)

 

Well, why do some prefer sheep?

 

You tell us.

 

I thought I answered the subject question with my first post in the thread.

 

The section I was going to refer to was the initial Rorschach test that main character took. No matter how hard the Doctor tried to make him see the associations, the only thing he could see was just ink blots.

In the abstract, the same thing is going on here. You want a guess as to what one would do given a "god is gone" Rorschach test. OK. I can do that.

My answer is absolutely no change would occur in me whatsoever.

 

Here's another interesting hypothetical question that probably deserves its own thread but I don't want to start yet another new religious thread:

What if God was scientifically shown, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to definitely exist. However, He just happens to be Allah, the Muslim God, and the radical Shia were correct all along. How would you react?

 

actually, he is the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. mohammud just changed a few things around to irritate the Jews and Christians.

 

Hey! Something else we both agree on!!!!