Does God need an advocate? –
If someone who claims God swung the cosmos into existence with the breath of omnipotence, and there’s nothing beyond him, nothing that will ever defeat him, nothing is more powerful than him, why would God ever be afraid of ideas that would challenge him?
Is God scared of dissenting ideas?
Does he need humans to defend him?
Any authentic God should welcome the challenge and say bring it, bring the questions, bring the valid argument, and test me. Bring me the opportunity to prove myself to you.
If he is truly omniscient, omnipotent, and worthy of worship, he would not hesitate to want proof of falsification.
Shouldn’t God be allowed to do what believers say he is able to do, or is it God’s plan for believers to be the one to defend him?
Embrace your own journey
By design, this series is not intended tell you what conclusion to have. It’s up to you to determine the validity of the God defined by Christianity and the Bible.
Can a conscious being who doesn’t consist of matter, who is everywhere but centralized, omniscient but omnipotent, divine creator of you and a non created universe, has a determined plan for you but gives you free will and intervenes simultaneously, who violates the laws of physics and nature, who impregnated a woman without using DNA from a human genome line, exist?
And can you make a valid truth claim that you know for sure without a doubt about his existence, or is it merely speculation?
It’s also just fine to entertain a conclusion without subscribing to it, rather than adhering to a conclusion prematurely.
We are all made up of the most abundant elements in the universe, consisting of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. We are made of the same stuff that is in the stars. In that sense, you are literally a superstar!
Knowing that we are all equally made of elements from the stars is comforting. That fact helps us realize, we are all an integral part of the universe, and even though we are separate individual carbon based life forms, we are also interconnected among each other.
There are likely elements of energy and matter that we, and our technology, cannot perceive yet. There may be energy that flows through us, and connects us in ways we are not aware of yet.
We probably call it “spiritual” because we haven’t identified it yet. The reason why an energy that interconnects us is possible, while a proposition of God is impossible, is because the proposition of interconnected energy doesn’t violate any laws of identity or natural laws of reality.
I’m sure many of us personally would love it if God existed, but one’s personal preference has nothing to do with the truth value of a conclusion.
Is there any evidence that could be put forth that would change your belief in the God or Heaven type of stuff?
If someone put forth the most valid, indisputable case of evidence, would you still be a believer, or is your belief faith based rather than evidence based?
Are you willing to allow your faith to give way to empiricism in order to align with reality? If not, why not?
If faith somehow overrides evidence and reason, why would you even bother entertaining any evidence and reason?
For example, if someone makes a claim of any sort, and they say they are absolutely sure about it, and they tell you there is no evidence that could be put forth that would change their conclusion, is their truth claim a valid one? No.
Their ignorance of potential evidence to falsify their claim doesn’t make their claim any more true no matter how much they wish it to be true, and no matter how much faith they have that their claim is true.
Part of taking the red pill requires that previous attachments to ideologies be released. Taking the blue pill means remaining content with the current paradigm, therefore any new evidence has no value to that person. Most who take the red pill end up living life to the fullest.
Don’t you think God would appreciate someone who wants an honest relationship with him based on valid reasoning rather than faithful bliss?
No matter what position a person holds on any particular topic, It’s always best to try to find arguments against that position. Take a look at any positions you hold on any topic, do you look for ways to defend that position and avoid potential contrary views, or do you look for ways to falsify that position?
If you are loyal to your conclusions, your ideology is getting in the way of truth. Ideology is the opposite of philosophy.
There are plenty of faithful believers who will continue to believe no matter what case is put forth. One could put forth the most compelling, valid evidence that the God defined through Christianity cannot exist, and they will still faithfully believe. You see, they prefer to believe what they want rather than believe what is objectively true.
They aren’t necessarily directly affecting others in a negative way. It just becomes a problem when they indoctrinate kids, while occulting opposing information. It also hinders the progression of steps toward a more rational society. But there are currently more important issues than worrying about folks not being honest with themselves.
Pursue challenges daily to gain inner strength in order to help others. If you help others because God called you to do so, that is a great end, but perhaps you should give yourself the credit for being a good person instead of doing it in servitude.
What will happen to all the folks that haven’t gotten saved, who do “God’s work” without being on his payroll?
How could God be called benevolent when amazing but unsaved people dedicate their lives to helping others, not because they answered God’s call, but they do it upon their own volition, and they still don’t get a ticket to Heaven because they didn’t follow the protocol of getting saved?
Look at how many folks Ellen Degeneres helps daily, and she doesn’t get a ticket to Heaven?
I would be happy to give her my ticket. She deserves it.
When one lives rationally, life becomes more vivid, clear, and focused than compared to floating in the subjective fog of faith to a higher external authority.
But isn’t having faith to a higher external authority the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to this life?
If there is no God or creator, does life have meaning and purpose?
If there is no God and no creator or designer of all this, we could assume there is no predestined plan, and no intrinsic meaning or purpose to all this existence. So what’s the point?
In the 3.5-ish billion year history of all species of life that has existed on earth, only 1 in 1000 still exists. The other 99.9% are extinct.
If you believe there is an intelligent designer responsible for all this, that’s a very poor track record.
Just look at all the current variety of plants, trees, insects, and mammals and other life. The probability of all current life to have been in existence as being around .001% shows that the odds of all currents species existing at all are slim compared to the big picture. You made it past those odds.
And the odds of existing as a human are smaller. You made it past those odds.
The odds of existing as a Sapiens are smaller. You exist regardless of those odds.
Think of all the potential Sapiens lives that could have come into existence under different circumstances which never came about. You made it past those odds.
Think of all the mortal struggles of your ancestors in the history of your genome, all the mating that had to occur, all the conception in the master bedroom of a cave, all the survival through infancy and childhood for another generation to be able to reproduce again and again in your genome line of hunter/gatherers, nomads, agricultural feudalism, etc. while staying resilient against mortality long enough to result in the one and only you. You made it past those odds.
There’s a lot of mating that has taken place that has resulted in your particular gene sequence that should not be taken for granted. Don’t let all that mating result in a wasted life of aimless apathy.
Not only did you make it past those small odds to exist at all, you will only exist for a finite amount of time.
When this one lifetime chance is realized, we break free from the superficial barriers others put on us. We wake up from the dormant manner of treating this life as practice or preparation for the main course in an afterlife of infinite mulligans.
If we go through life believing there is a pre-packaged purpose planned for all our lives, what’s the point?
If it’s all predetermined, there’s no creative input that you can add. You can’t improve upon an omniscient plan already in place.
If we understand that there is no pre-packaged purpose and meaning to conform to, we realize we are the creators of purpose and meaning.
You are the artist free to create a likeness of purpose on a fresh canvas of your life.
You are the architect free to design your sandcastle of significance upon this tiny blue speck within a creamy milky way galaxy among thousands of galaxies clustered together among seemingly endless amounts of other galaxy clusters.
When you realize you can compose your own beautiful symphony that celebrates the precious gift of finite mortal existence, your life will blossom with authentic purpose.
When you embrace the essence of your mortality, you will have a calm indifference to life’s adversities and pleasures equally, like inevitable shore bound waves in the ocean.
The meaning of life is in the deliberate living of a life not taken for granted.
Love others, focus on family time, make genuine friendships, help out in your community, and treat this life as the piece de resistance.
When I lay my head on my pillow at night, whether it was a great day, or a challenging day, I find comfort in knowing I lived that day truthfully while doing my best with the events of that day.
There is only one shot at this existence, after that, you as an individual become extinct.
Your immortality will exist by the lasting effect you had on others during your stay.
Since that is the reality for all of us, it extends my love for you even more, whether you are faithful or not, and it reminds me to do my very best for myself, and for others every day, no matter what I am doing. That is more exciting than any illusions of an afterlife or servitude to a deity.
I thank you for your time and interest.
Much love to you.
