No, I pointed out that while this may well constitute a demonstration for some, it does not constitute a demonstration for me.
Though, sure, that in itself does not constitute a demonstration that God does not exist.
And if that is all that is necessary in order for you to believe in the existence of God, fine.
I didn’t say that it is “all that is necessary”. You put that in.
Come on, everyone draws that line in a different place. If you look around and marvel at all of the extraordinary things embedded in Existence, then, yeah, you [as an individual] might think, “wow, this is all that is necessary for me…it must be God.”
But why does that have to be all that it is necessary for others to believe, in turn?
I didn’t say that it has “to be all that is necessary for others”. What I find interesting is that it is entirely dismissed as “no evidence” and “no demonstration” by many atheists.
Again: you know me…
I look around me and and I note all of the many conflicts embedded in human interaction that revolve around God and religion. And I connect that dot to my dilemma. And I connect that dot to what I imagine my fate to be on the other side of the grave.
Given that “here and now” I’m inclined toward the No God frame of mind.
But what of those who believe in God? What is it necessary [for them] to believe about Him in order to choose particular sets of behaviors here and now in order to secure what they would like their fate to be there and then?
How does looking around you and marveling at the extraordinary nature of Existence get you any closer to that frame of mind? To that course of action?
And, if God, why your God? Why not James’s Real God? Why not uccisore’s ultra-conservative God? Why not Ierrellus’s all forgiving God?
You’re getting ahead of yourself. Why discuss the nature of God if God does not exist?
I don’t know how to make it any clearer: “I” don’t know if God does not exist. Why? Because [as I point out time and again to Prismatic] there’s that criticial gap between what I think I know about Him here and now and all that I would need to know [ontologically/teleologically] about Existence itself in order to be certain.
Just like you.
Now, back to the bottom line:
…with so much at stake here wouldn’t any actual extant God make it abundantly clear what that crucial righteous path is? Instead, we have hundreds and hundreds of conflicting narratives all laying claim to the one true God.
Again this deals with the nature of God. Maybe God is completely indifferent. Maybe God died when She birthed the universe. Maybe God made it as clear as is necessary.
Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe.
But that doesn’t make my points go away. Here you are living your life from day to day. Bumping into others who may or may not see things your way. But, when they don’t, “rules of behavior” must be established. So, how is that connected to God? And how is what you do choose to do here and now connected to God on the other side of the grave?
Isn’t this always the bottom line for the overwhelming preponderance of religious folks? The “nature” of God may be construed in any number of ways. But the role that God plays “for all practical purposes” in their actual lives towers over all of that.
No getting around the abyss – the Grim Reaper – is there?