Rational Agnostic
Well-Known Member
Since anyone who is "certain" about god (either existence or non-existence) is lying to themselves and others, the biggest benefit of being "uncertain" is not being self-deceptive.
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Is God a Mystery that Will Never be Solved?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
- Status
Since anyone who is "certain" about god (either existence or non-existence) is lying to themselves and others, the biggest benefit of being "uncertain" is not being self-deceptive.
allfoak
Alchemist
It is not possible to know the inner nature of that which we call God.
There are some things that that we can know but there are limits to human reason.
If that were the case, it would be pretty wonky for someone to make God the centre of one’s life.
He is around us all the time. Just google "God" and see how many links you get.
You talking about Him here is even more proof of His existence.
in my view at least
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
The fact God is a mystery at all should be an indicator in itself as to how people actually discern wither there is in fact a God or not.
Clearly this is established as being empirically unfalsifiable for no other reason that there is absolutely nothing to work with for which a person can even base any belief in God in the first place making it essentially a thought bereft of any substance rendering it hopelessly conceptual.
It always will remain a mystery simply for no other reason that nobody can even begin to offer any type of tangible place to start with that even suggests the possibility is even there.
I'm not sure if there's any benefit with uncertainty , but I suppose it can be a motivator to seek out and explore philosophically those types of questions that otherwise has nothing else to really go on past the conceptual.
Every time someone writes 'Epistemic' I have to look it up in a dictionary.
God is a mystery that only God could ever solve. As an atheist, that means I'd see God as an eternal mystery.
Doubt, generally, is good when not over-stated. It is an enemy of hubris and fundamentalism.
dfnj
Well-Known Member
One would certainly know.
dfnj
Well-Known Member
The atheist position is very easy to defend and argue. A automaton could do it. If you really want a challenge try arguing in favor of the theist position. That's the challenge!
dfnj
Well-Known Member
As I said, some people refuse to accept they exist.
I can go as far as arguing for Pantheism or Deism, as an intellectual exercise. Otherwise I could construct some pro-religion arguments, at a pinch. I don't understand theism well enough to construct a good argument for an anthropomorphic God though. Not unless he's just some super-human type being, and that effectively becomes an argument of kicking the can down the road (eg. Who created God)?
siti
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure.
So our efforts to understand God are best described as attempts at 'effing the ineffable'?
Is there a book of quotes available?
To you, what is Faith and how does it work? Do you have any experiences you can share with us all?
This goes straight to the basics ─ what does the question actually mean? What is 'God' or 'a god'?
In particular, are we talking about a real entity ─ one with objective existence ─ or an imaginary one?
We have no definition of 'God' such that if we found a real candidate we could tell whether it were God or not. This tends not to be a problem because candidates are all but never proposed, at least in the West. For me those two facts are related, and greatly reinforce the view that God is imaginary.
Also, in my view, '(objective) reality' is the same thing as 'nature'. If God is said to be supernatural then by definition God is not in nature, ie is not real, and so the only thing God can be is imaginary.
So if we're looking for a real God, the first thing we need is the definition a real God. Without it we have no idea what we're talking about, and thus we have no idea what we're looking for.
If God is imaginary then no such problem arises, of course, since God can then be anything the individual cares to imagine.
The bonus question asks if doubt about God is good or bad for religion. I'd have said that the aim of religion is to have everyone on the same page about God, and that doubt is thus automatically a problem albeit a common one.
Last edited:
Jumi
Well-Known Member
We can reach God, but religions don't seem to offer an advantage in this regard seeing as many of them try to put God in a box and proudly state their own opinions as those of God.
Being uncertain about things one doesn't know fully is of course wise. Being certain of uncertain things is something that often leads to disaster.
Being uncertain about things one doesn't know fully is of course wise. Being certain of uncertain things is something that often leads to disaster.
arthra
Baha'i
I think we as humans can achieve a state of what I would term "certitude" in our lives about God and His Messengers. However the "Mystery" of God is to me His essence and that will remain unknowable to us:
"But the question may be asked: How shall we know God? We know Him by His attributes. We know Him by His signs. We know Him by His names. We know not what the reality of the sun is, but we know the sun by the ray, by the heat, by its efficacy and penetration. We recognize the sun by its bounty and effulgence, but as to what constitutes the reality of the solar energy, that is unknowable to us."
(`Abdu'l-Bahá: Promulgation of Universal Peace*, Page: 422)
See:
Meaning and Significance of Certitude
ajay0
Well-Known Member
The likes of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramakrishna ,H.W.Poona and their testimony in recent times shows that the mystery can be unravelled.
- Status