If you were God, what kind of God would you be?

Hi, Straggler. Yeah, you'd probably be a complete ass of a god: you'd make a universe where immaterial evidence is meaningless. ----- You could remedy this by creating a pub before you create a universe...-----Why not create a dynamic cosmos that would develop on its own, so that you could study it through scientific inquiry? Better yet, create many of them: then there might be enough new things happening to last for awhile.When that fails, just reinvent yourself as somebody else, and do it all over again from your new point of view.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, John 10:10. John, this question is an integral part of my religion, and it's a very private matter, so I won't be commenting heavily on it.But, my question to you is what you expect people to respond with?Do you want people to provide their treatises on what they think are the appropriate policies for a God to live by? That will only turn into a generic political debate about the comparative sensibility of the liberal/conservative ideologies, and your original question will just become lost in the mix.Or, do you want people to discuss the cool things they would do if they had super-powers? I don't think that I, personally, even have the capacity to take that topic seriously; and, even if I did take it seriously, it sure wouldn't sound like it to you. For example, I like spiders, so, if I were a creator-God, I would like to design biospheres that have megafauna (i.e. big animals) with many legs that hang upside-down from tree limbs. Does it sound to you like I'm being serious? Well, I am. Honestly.That's why Phage says the question isn't worth the thought you're asking people to put into it: it has no bounds, so it can be as wacky as anyone who participates wants it to be.-----Maybe if you started out for us, you could set the tone a little better?So, if you were God, what kind of God would you be?Edited by Bluejay, : Minor tweaking.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Straggler. Can omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent gods get bored?
I mean, if you live outside of time, how could the night drag on? Surely there couldn't even be nights, as we understand them, let alone long nights, right?
For that matter, how would any sort of change register to you?
Could change even happen in the same sense that you and I understand it?I think answering John 10:10's question would require a paradigm shift of epic-infinite, multi-dimensional proportions. Anyone who actually can answer John 10:10's question is surely selling themselves short.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, John 10:10. Two things:

1. The believers don't seem to be willing to offer serious responses, either---yourself included. So, how about it? What kind of God would you be?
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2. What on earth is the connection here? What significance does your question have for the greater debate?

I would gladly put some thought into it if I felt that it was a meaningful thing to do.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Straggler. Good question.To go along with it, could an omnipotent being reinvent itself so it could spend a day in the shoes of its humble creations? In other words, could it restrict itself to living within the confines of a reality that it created from outside?I think that would be the only way for an omniscient being to maximize experience.As a related aside, Mormonism holds that Jesus experienced all of our pains, sins and emotions the night before He died, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Of course, He didn't go out and actually experience what it was like to be punished for stealing a ding-dong from the convenience store, but He was somehow granted all that experience. So, I would have to say that Mormons believe it is possible to gain experience by proxy.----- Paradigm shifts are always fun, right?

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Dr A.I'm not a creationist, obviously.But, I am a Christian, and I say you shouldn't rape Suzy, especially not in a Russian roulette style like you're doing now.It's a horribly wrong thing to do: it's wrong now, and it was wrong when the ancient Hebrews did it in God's name.If God commanded me to do it, I might just have to go to Hell instead.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Peg. I think this is a strange example to choose, because, when that particular war was concluded, and only 600 men and no women of the tribe of Benjamin remained, the Israelites didn't want one tribe to go extinct. So, this was their solution (the very next chapter):

quote:

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So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.

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-Judges 21:20-21 (NIV)

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It's not exactly rape in the the most technical sense of the word, but distinguishing this from rape takes a lot of unscrupulous hair-splitting.Edited by Bluejay, : Added parenthetical.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Peg. Please distinguish this in principle from actual rape.Rather than force a woman to have sex with you... you force her to marry you so you can perpetuate your tribe.What is the difference? A cultural technicality?I do not believe God condoned this act, nor does the Bible say that He did: these were people who were trying to follow God, but goofed up badly. Either somebody misinterpreted what they were told to do by God, or somebody was lying about it being God's will from the beginning.But, if God really did condone this stuff, I want no part in His work, nor would I seek to emulate Him if and when I ever have the chance to be a god myself.Edited by Bluejay, : Minor addition.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.