Hmmm (atheist, agnostic, recall, God, religion)

[Maxist]

It is simple. Thiests do not understand that God is disproven if He or She has a physical form. God would have to be formless. So we did not imagine God as a being. That takes care of that. The concept ---which you worded wrongly as omnicism is the doctorine of a being in more places then one--- of religion was originally created to both explain things that we cannot or do not understand or comprehend, and to keep some order in the world with little to no difficulty.

[Fluffy]

It is simple. Thiests do not understand that God is disproven if He or She has a physical form. God would have to be formless. So we did not imagine God as a being. That takes care of that. The concept ---which you worded wrongly as omnicism is the doctorine of a being in more places then one--- of religion was originally created to both explain things that we cannot or do not understand or comprehend, and to keep some order in the world with little to no difficulty.

Have we gone from talking about some faceless deity to the Christian God?

[Ormiston]

I would say that god is two parts: there is the idea of God and the image of God. The idea would be that sense that something is out there and the image would be the description of what that something is like. Since none of us really knows what's out there we are all left with the sense of wonderment and thus to assume and convince others that something is out there is easy, almost natural. The image of God or Gods is simple. A father figure, a mother, dragons, warriors, spaghetti monsters, etc. are all things we are familiar with. So, to summarize, suspecting that god/gods exist stems naturally from our ignorance and putting a face on them is the easy part.

[Scarlett Wampus]

Dave, I can imagine a giant dragon god made of the earth, benevolent goddesses flying around in the clouds, etc. but an omniscient being? Simply by virtue of the fact I am not omniscient it is impossible for me to imagine such a thing.

Edit: I thought I should add more to the above to explain why. I can imagine a dragon god made of the earth because I can imagine its physical and mental properties, in fact I can imagine what it would be like to be such a thing and not feel completely overwhelmed by doing so. An omniscient being however would have to know everything there is to know, see everything from every possible perspective, and trying to imagine what that would be like squashes my imagination flat.

[Ormiston]

Originally Posted by Scarlett Wampus

Dave, I can imagine a giant dragon god made of the earth, benevolent goddesses flying around in the clouds, etc. but an omniscient being? Simply by virtue of the fact I am not omniscient it is impossible for me to imagine such a thing.

And nobody does. They imagine something and then fix the word "omniscient" to it. Does anyone truly think they have SEEN God in his/her totality in your mind? If you can imagine that then the argument from the OP might hold water.

[Scarlett Wampus]

What if God was one of us? Couldn't imagine omniscience like one of us?

[Ormiston]

Originally Posted by Scarlett Wampus

What if God was one of us? Couldn't imagine omniscience like one of us?

I hate that song!!

[Victor]

Just go to an art museum and you'll see all sorts of abstracts that is difficult to see any connection with reality.

[mr.guy]

Better yet, vic, as one is unable to properly imagine "infinity", abstaining from "unimaginable" concepts would make some of your grade school short division a bit tough.