Hi. I just completed the game at http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.htm which assesses how coherent your beliefs are about God / what we can know about God. You may enjoy it...
I note that at the end - the Philosopher's Magazine trys to sell you a book, by one..... Roy Jackson... Try the game - and if you don't do too well - you know who to ask for help...
Cheers, Dave
I am an old man and a retired religious professional in a religion which makes a point of questioning god concepts. I should do fairly well on this one. DB
ReplyDeleteMany of the most strenuously argued ideas, like is there a god, are simply not the kinds of questions which can be answered in any factual way - they are beliefs based on feelings and since they cannot be settle logically they provide endless opportunity for clever but pointless arguments. They are sometimes amusing but almost never of any real significance.
ReplyDeleteIt is apparent that people like to argue, but not so clear as to why. I propose "winning" as the explanation.
ReplyDeleteThe history of our culture is rooted in the Greeks who cherished contests, yearned to WIN and generally set the intellectual tone for, well, we still do not know for how long. But they did invent organized logic in an attempt to have a means of knowing exactly who had won, but even here they failed. Logic has become much more complex since their time, and as a direct consequence, much less rigidly capable of deciding the winner. So eventually some Greek admirer invented science, as THE way to determine the real Truth, that is, the real Winner. Alas, another failure. Science is in fact just organized uncertainty.
We are less certain about anything than we have ever been, and for humans uncertainty is intolerable. How can anyone Win in such a cultural confusion? How about Religion? Come back for more.
Religion has the enormous appeal of being CERTAIN. I don't mean just solid - I mean Certain. He who is certain has conferred upon himself the right, nay, the responsibility of ruling the World, that is, Winning every time.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever wondered why a TV evangelist looks so CONFIDENT. Because he is RIGHT and thus he isd a WINNER. They even take it as their mission to WIN souls to Christ, but who actually wins here. You know, don't you, but it is impolite to say it out loud. I can tell you without fear of contradiction that the Wins are carefully counted each and every day. Winning is the BEST thing of all.
There would actually be nothing wrong with Winning if it were not for the demonic fact that you can NEVER win enough, because as long as there is anything left to win, you really have not won. If this sounds crazy it is none the less the Foundation of Western civilization.
THE FOUNDATION.
Now that I have gotten this far into this God Game I am hoping for someone who can tell me what it is all about, if anything.