Flappycat
Well-Known Member
It's doubtful, Brother Theist, that there's such a thing as God. We don't follow the laws of a bearded man with a rod and staff or thunderbolt.
But Brother Atheist, I tell you, God is in everything. He's in the trees and the ground and floating about in the air we breath!
Brother Theist, that's a non-sequitur. That specifies a location and nothing more, so what do you suggest is there in all these things you've listed?
Silly Brother Atheist, I refer to the fact that it's there. How do you suppose it got there without some initial cause?
So, Brother Theist, you refer to God as the origin of the chain of events that resulted in the universe we have today? Well, there may be such a thing as an original cause of things, but you haven't accomplished a thing because God is now nothing but a synonym for this hypothesis.
Well, Brother Atheist, you think you're pretty smart, but who do you think designed the universe?
There is nobody to have done such a thing, Brother Theist.
Ah, then, Brother Atheist, my pastor was right. You think that the universe magically designed itself without help.
I think no such thing, Brother Theist. I don't think that it was designed at all.
Then from what do you think that the complexity of the universe is derived, Brother Atheist? There must be some source of input.
Perhaps so, Brother Theist, or perhaps not. Now return to the subject of explaining to me what God actually is, so that we can discuss whether or not he exists.
But that's what God actually is, Brother Atheist. He's the source of the universe's complexity.
Brother Theist, it seems that you are suggesting that the word "God" is merely a blanket term for several things that we're incapable of affording adequate study. What are you saying here? There is no such thing as God because you've reduced him to an empty term. As far as this discussion is concerned, there is no such thing as God. I keep getting into this sort of discussion, and it strikes me as ludicrous every single time. This is much the reason I think of God as something of a Rainbow: the more you chase after him, the further he retreats. He can't seem to hold still for so much as a minute, and you eventually come to realize that he's wholly insubstantial. Nothing substantial ever seems to enter the discussion.
But, Brother Atheist, you can't know God unless you believe in him!
Brother Theist, I haven't been given anything to either believe or disbelieve. Now, I'm not naming any names, but, for a change, I'd like to discuss God, himself, rather than mucking about with pseudo-philosophical drivel. Also, if, by the end of the discussion, all you've argued for is, for example, a panentheistic notion of God, you're required to claim that as your new faith. I'm quite heartily ill of God being sent ever further into outer space the further he comes under question, so, if you're trying to prove there's a universe-engineering space alien, your god has antennae, not a beard, rod, and staff. I've had a hankering for a long, serious, sincere discussion on this subject for a long time.
But Brother Atheist, I tell you, God is in everything. He's in the trees and the ground and floating about in the air we breath!
Brother Theist, that's a non-sequitur. That specifies a location and nothing more, so what do you suggest is there in all these things you've listed?
Silly Brother Atheist, I refer to the fact that it's there. How do you suppose it got there without some initial cause?
So, Brother Theist, you refer to God as the origin of the chain of events that resulted in the universe we have today? Well, there may be such a thing as an original cause of things, but you haven't accomplished a thing because God is now nothing but a synonym for this hypothesis.
Well, Brother Atheist, you think you're pretty smart, but who do you think designed the universe?
There is nobody to have done such a thing, Brother Theist.
Ah, then, Brother Atheist, my pastor was right. You think that the universe magically designed itself without help.
I think no such thing, Brother Theist. I don't think that it was designed at all.
Then from what do you think that the complexity of the universe is derived, Brother Atheist? There must be some source of input.
Perhaps so, Brother Theist, or perhaps not. Now return to the subject of explaining to me what God actually is, so that we can discuss whether or not he exists.
But that's what God actually is, Brother Atheist. He's the source of the universe's complexity.
Brother Theist, it seems that you are suggesting that the word "God" is merely a blanket term for several things that we're incapable of affording adequate study. What are you saying here? There is no such thing as God because you've reduced him to an empty term. As far as this discussion is concerned, there is no such thing as God. I keep getting into this sort of discussion, and it strikes me as ludicrous every single time. This is much the reason I think of God as something of a Rainbow: the more you chase after him, the further he retreats. He can't seem to hold still for so much as a minute, and you eventually come to realize that he's wholly insubstantial. Nothing substantial ever seems to enter the discussion.
But, Brother Atheist, you can't know God unless you believe in him!
Brother Theist, I haven't been given anything to either believe or disbelieve. Now, I'm not naming any names, but, for a change, I'd like to discuss God, himself, rather than mucking about with pseudo-philosophical drivel. Also, if, by the end of the discussion, all you've argued for is, for example, a panentheistic notion of God, you're required to claim that as your new faith. I'm quite heartily ill of God being sent ever further into outer space the further he comes under question, so, if you're trying to prove there's a universe-engineering space alien, your god has antennae, not a beard, rod, and staff. I've had a hankering for a long, serious, sincere discussion on this subject for a long time.
