I’ve missed this forum. It helped me find my beliefs and grow as a person. There are several key ideas central to my belief system that are constantly being illustrated in this thread.
The biggest pitfall is that people tend to use words and concepts that are far beyond their realm of comprehension to illustrate concepts outside the realm of comprehension.
Take Omnipotence for example. The power to do anything! How did we come up with such an idea? Well, we know what lifting a rock is like. We know what it’s like not to be able to lift something. So we infer that being omnipotent is just like being the guy who can lift any rock in our universe. No matter how big or small a rock this dude would walk up and lift it.
What a simplistic load of crap! Our mind is picturing some Joe walking up to a huge boulder and lifting it above his head like Hercules and we think “oh, ok, now I know exactly what omnipotence means”. Bullshit. We throw the word around as we were talking about that familiar toaster on our kitchen counter.
We can’t have a scientific or logical discussion about this subject without comprehending what God’s omnipotence really means. When we try all sorts of amusing scenarios pop up and while entertaining it’s ultimately fruitless in helping us explore our faiths.
To illustrate, I’ll pick on Cynosure. ^^ He claims that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynosure
God exists outside of our universe, and it may very well be that everything outside our universe is God, and that our universe is in fact contained (and maintained) within God. Thus, God is not subject to our universe's laws/limitations of time, space, creation, decay, the speed of light, etc.
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Really?!
Raise your hand if you just painted a mental picture of a bubble full of bright lights with a bearded guy floating beside it. That’s how I visualize Cyno's description of God. Yet I have no clue of what being outside our universe actually means. This concept has absolutely no value to me. I've never been outside Earths atmosphere never mind the universe.
But I can draw parallels with similar experiences. I know what it’s like to be outside of my house. Maybe finding God is like visiting your neighbor. Find a door at the edge of the universe. Walk though it. Stroll along the streets of limbo until you get to God’s crib. There you’ll see God watching the game and he’ll invite you in for a cold one.
You may think I’m being an ass but it’s through these metaphors that most faith based systems are maintained within people’s heads. Using big words doesn’t make us understand the concepts behind them. All Cyno is doing is using terms we cannot comprehend (being outside the universe) to support other terms we cannot understand (God) – leaving us nowhere. It's fun though!