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Author Topic:   How complex is God?
Phat
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Posts: 18310
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 22 of 59 (407111)
06-24-2007 6:07 AM
Reply to: Message 21 by Doddy
06-24-2007 5:46 AM


Re: Re-How complex is God
Perhaps some Theologians would suggest that you substituted a belief in God for a belief in imagination---and that you believed in the ability of human imagination to come up with any and all potential scenarios that a philosopher or Theologian would assign to God.
For example, we humans know that we are not omnipotent--yet we can imagine the concept of omnipotence. To be all powerful would be to be able to control and redirect all known and conceived power or forces in the universe.
To be omniscient would be to have all of the wisdom ever possible to have.
To be omnipresent would mean that there was no place in any mental or physical plane that was not under the control of, awareness of, or literal presence of such an entity known as God. No persons mind would even be a haven of thoughts that were inaccessible to such a Being.
In fact, the hardest part of being able to imagine such a Being is to then realize that the Being transcended even the imagination that imagined it!
Edited by Phat, : spelling # 1

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Phat
Member
Posts: 18310
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 23 of 59 (407112)
06-24-2007 6:23 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by sidelined
06-03-2007 10:54 PM


Past, Present, and Future
sidelined writes:
I do not think that (the) concept of eternity as grasped by humans is the problem but,rather, the difficulty posed by stating that God had no beginning.
If God had no beginning then how can he have progressed through time to reach any future event as this would indicate that time had passed for God which indicates that some moment in the past must be referenced and that,in turn, means that his existence cannot have extended infinitely into the past.
Why does time have to pass for God? Why couldn't God pass for time? If God is unchanging, time itself is not the reference point for Gods explanation---rather, God is the reference point for times contrast.
"In The Beginning" indicates a particular point in time. It makes no sense to imagine a time before God.
It makes more sense to imagine a God before time...that is, any given point in time.
If God was, is, and always will be, this does not simply mean that time is finite or that time=God. This means that God is the reference point...the positive truth claim, if you prefer...that potentially existed before any human even had the ability to think that there was a choice to consider an alternative. I suppose I could summarize by saying that "potentially, God Is"...regardless of our conclusion or speculation that "potentially, God is Not". The positive truth claim is in reality a totalitarian truth claim.
Edited by Phat, : fixed quote

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Phat
Member
Posts: 18310
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 27 of 59 (408405)
07-02-2007 11:32 AM
Reply to: Message 20 by shiloh
06-24-2007 3:22 AM


Re: Re-How complex is God
shiloh writes:
But once you admit that there is an eternal uncaused something which is more than all the finite parts and upon which they are dependent then you have acknowledged what the theist argued all along - God.
I am not sure I would admit anything! I do remember the sermon of the late Dr. Rick Ferguson, however. He brought up the comical yet simple observation: What came first? God or Dirt?
We really don't know, but to me it makes more sense to believe in an eternal Creator rather than eternal matter. People often jump to the question of where God came from, but I rarely hear as many people question where matter came from nor who have any problem with it always having been around, in their belief.

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Replies to this message:
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