It seems that anytime a Christian and a non-Christian get into a debate about the veracity of a God, both utilize the same argument -- Look around you. To the Christian, the world presents an obvious design and this means there must be a designer. To the non-Christian, the world presents itself as is and, thus, there is no need for a designer.
I was thinking about this general topic just now and something popped into me little noggin. In Judeo-Christian theology, the supreme being is said to be perfect, an entity without blemish. How can this be proved?
We can't look to humankind because we're all imperfect -- at least, according to Christians! I don't think we can look to the animal or plant world either because mutations pop up all the time. We can't reference the weather because it's far from perfect!! In fact, there is nothing that we can directly experience that IS perfect.
Now, I realize the Christian will counter that Jesus and/or God is perfect, but neither entity can be DIRECTLY experienced. What little we know about the authentic Jesus -- if we actually know anything -- comes from the pages of a book. A person's experience with the spirit of Jesus or "God" is a metaphysical experience, at best. It's not something that can be experienced with any of our senses or our brains.
All this indicates is that perfection is a human-constructed concept and we all know that what the human mind is capable of constructing is inherently imperfect.
In the end, there is no way to prove or show perfection in the world in which we live. As far as we're concerned, perfection is implausible and has never existed at all.
I was thinking about this general topic just now and something popped into me little noggin. In Judeo-Christian theology, the supreme being is said to be perfect, an entity without blemish. How can this be proved?
We can't look to humankind because we're all imperfect -- at least, according to Christians! I don't think we can look to the animal or plant world either because mutations pop up all the time. We can't reference the weather because it's far from perfect!! In fact, there is nothing that we can directly experience that IS perfect.
Now, I realize the Christian will counter that Jesus and/or God is perfect, but neither entity can be DIRECTLY experienced. What little we know about the authentic Jesus -- if we actually know anything -- comes from the pages of a book. A person's experience with the spirit of Jesus or "God" is a metaphysical experience, at best. It's not something that can be experienced with any of our senses or our brains.
All this indicates is that perfection is a human-constructed concept and we all know that what the human mind is capable of constructing is inherently imperfect.
In the end, there is no way to prove or show perfection in the world in which we live. As far as we're concerned, perfection is implausible and has never existed at all.
Yup, proof isn't going to work. I find myself falling into the same traps trying to explain taoism and yin yang and wuji and the five things and the eight things--it's like, somebody just threw this stuff together--even thomas aquinas, after all the obfuscation, accepts one assumption over another--well, there's gotta be a prime mover--well, if you can believe in an infinite god, why can't you believe in an infinite process with no prime mover...anyway, it's what we do know, what we do experience, that gets us going in the right direction...
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