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Originally Posted by Churble  Well, what I mean is this. Religion's "purpose" (i.e., the reason why it was created by man) is a means by which to answer some fundamental philosophical questions (why are we here? who "made" us, etc...). When religion fails to report answers to these questions, it simply reverts to doctrines which deny us the use of reason, the main "tool" we use to solve these problems or questions. Thus, its main purpose is discarded and the dogmatic rules by which it's governed (a natural consequence of any irrational belief) moves on to occupy the spotlight. Dogmatic beliefs which ignore the questions they set out to answer are not, and I hope you will agree with me on this, the central pillars of this belief in god.
Just in case, I'm referring to this:
It clearly states that, once religion fails to provide us with decent solutions, we should limit our lives to glorifying god and not ask questions, creating more questions that it even set out to answer: why did god create us?, how did god start existing?, where is god?, etc... Questions which would not exist if we were to eliminate god from the subject. |
Only someone who has not indeed enjoyed the infinite good would call it a "limit". Indeed I cannot think of a better purpose for mankind in general. Science cannot provide any answers to our purpose. "Why are we here?" is not a question that science can solve. I do not understand why you say that religion has failed to answer this question. The closest thing science can come up with as an answer is "to reproduce." If you think that is a better answer, I feel sorry for you.
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Voluntary change does indeed require a desire to improve. In which case does it not? Before you state extreme and irrelevant situations like masochism, I'll only say that they are characteristic of psychologically deficient people... I hope you're not saying that the god in which you believe in is mentally unstable and / or possibly insane.  |
I agree with you in the sense that we always choose to do the best thing we understand possible at the time. We always choose an apparent good. So I will probably agree that with mankind, voluntary change makes an apperant improvement - though there are probably some choices that don't make any improvement but remain neutral. But in the case of God, who is already perfection and cannot change, there cannot be any improvement. Therefore, if what you are saying is true, then God necessarily cannot create. But this seems ridiculous. God can create angels, or a universe and remain metaphysically unchanged. Nothing changes in God when he creates, therefore no improvement is made.
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Why would this omnipotent being find the need to even suspend these descriptive laws? Again, creating more irrelevant questions.
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It tends to grab our attention when he does.
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And you're saying this based on... what? Our extensive knowledge of the Universe?  |
A book I read that compared the characteristics necessary for intelligent life with that of the known properties of locations in the universe.