Do you WANT there to be a God?

[jmk00001]

Thanks to everyone who responded, even to those who ignored the “all argument and evidence aside” stipulation, who simply couldn’t help themselves and just had to get in a “dig” or two on The Big Guy. I kind of expected a lot of that. But, even in the absence of a direct, unambiguous answer, such comments nevertheless get to the heart of the question, I suppose. With such apparent animosity toward a supreme being (even toward one they claim doesn’t exist), it’s not hard to imagine one would likely prefer that God not exist.

@John_Harshman

The answer depends critically on what sort of God we’re talking about, and your “defined by Christianity” doesn’t help, as that God is just a mass of self-contradiction.

@Puck_Mendelssohn

That opens a 55-gallon drum of ambiguity, as there are a variety of traditions there.

I was afraid I would get a lot of blow-back on this “God traditionally defined by Christianity”, but I also didn’t want to get too into the weeds. I think some of you understood what I was getting at with that: Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnibenevolent, Timeless, Changeless, etc.

@Art

@jmk00001

For the sake of clarity, let’s define “God” as it would traditionally be defined by Christianity.

So, @jmk00001, if “God” is not that defined by Christianity, but instead more akin to any of a bajillion long-forgotten pagan deities, what would your answer be? If it turns out that your idea of “God” is all wrong, that your life’s devotion is a charade, would you still want for there to be a god?

Fair question, and one I have actually thought about a bit. Are there long-forgotten deities that offer eternal life, love, justice, and peace? (If any of you find such things “boring”, I can only assume you’ve never really experienced them.)

@nwrickert

I not convinced that it would.

I was a Christian for around 12 years (roughly ages 11-23). I thought about this question at the time of leaving. I even thought about Pascal’s wager, but concluded that it did not have any persuasive power. And as I left Christianity, my conclusion was that it did not matter.

Really? I didn’t expect any one would belabor this point. No meaningful difference between a reality in which you would have ongoing consciousness after death, whether as reward or punishment, vs. oblivion?

Forget about the reality of the question; the mere widespread belief that God does not exist has, and has had, tremendous consequences. Nietzsche understood this:

“The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”