# God and Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 26, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192 "2018-04-26T22:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/201 "2018-05-02T15:04:43Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Thanks for explaining this a bit, but it seems like the tired argument that you understand the scientific method and we don’t therefore you can’t know. Then accuse us of a tactic that requires us to know what you just claimed we don’t know. It is a illogical statement that leads to a false conclusion. Religion/faith makes knowledge claims about things it demonstrably does not know. In that way at least (most?), it’s consistent in the claims it makes about science. > [@kanicbird](#): > > What we have here is 2 of the ‘greatest’ questions of all times, and a conjecture. What is God, What is Life and are they the same. Relating this then dismissing it based on the scientific method and it’s understanding does not prove anything, it is a attempt to dismiss the premise without consideration. In this the scientific method is really irrelevant as there is currently no answer provided by it, yet the questions and I’d say even the conjecture is ancient in their nature (therefore countering your claim that this was intentionally just placed outside the reach of science). The workings of it is explored in the field of philosophy, spirituality and if you must religion. As such it is not ‘proof’ that is the goal, it is understanding of how that applies to the world as we see it from those standpoints. Every time science has answered life’s ancient mysteries, faith/religion has moved the goal posts. I agree with you that some questions have yet to be answered. I submit that we ought to have learned by now to accept, “We don’t yet know the answer, but we’ll keep looking”, as opposed to, “God is inscrutable and he’s hiding where we can’t find him - but trust us, he’s there.” > [@kanicbird](#): > > What can be said of scientific advancements is that they an be used to relate concepts, ideas, to help communicate thoughts better. It is also my believe that science is pattern based, and those patterns repeat across fields for a reason, and that allows concepts to be conveyed. As such, with my former statement, all science is scripture, and to quote the bible, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,…” which pretty much describes science, the scientific method in a universe under God. Here’s the difference: When science gets “scripture” wrong, it throws it out and replaces it with the corrected version. In fact, doing so is encouraged by the scientific method. Religious scripture has often been proven wrong over the years, but it seems resistant, though not entirely immune, to change. But let’s roll with your riff for a bit… If, “All science is scripture”, and, “All scripture is inspired by God”, may we conclude that God is a poor scientist, but he’s getting better? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/202 "2018-05-02T15:07:28Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > God is Skiing: This I would consider Religion, It’s expressing an aspect of ‘really living’ but only for some people, it ‘saves’ those who really live this way (read the word ‘live’ here as ‘really come alive’, not in a biologic sense but in that one finds life is really worth living sense - which I believe puts the OP’s conjecture into perspective). As a religion it also tends to force itself onto others who can’t ‘live’ this way (use the same definition of ‘live’ as above here), it is closed minded because some have found God, the assumption is that is the only way to do it. It is missing that ‘really living’ is God, and that comes in many forms for each person. This ridged believe, called religion, could cause wars. This is the break between religion and God IMHO. But if one were open to the good aspects of religious teachings, seeing that yes these people have found God, they are living life, one can accept that, but see how skiing is not the universal answer, but just part of a bigger picture. Do not fuck with Skiing. I am a God of Skiing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/203 "2018-05-02T16:36:34Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > God is Skiing: This I would consider Religion We even have schisms (Telemark vs Randonee, Lift vs backcountry), pilgrimages (Tuckerman Ravine, Corbet’s Couloir, Chamonix, the Hahnenkamm) and heretics (snowboarders) and holidays (any powder day). ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/204 "2018-05-02T17:21:42Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > I dunno. I think perhaps it’s that life force that gives rise to life, which may well be Life itself. I don’t profess to be the expert here. I’m just asking some questions. So far I haven’t really heard from anyone, past or present, that totally knows how to answer the question. So I will keep looking. Oh, I can totally answer the question, that’s easy. Life arises from chemicals and such interacting. Simple life arose from chemicals that randomly happened to end up interacting in patterns that caused an ongoing, self-perpetuating series of interactions. Complex life arose from variations on simple life that persisted because they had a greater tendency to self-perpetuate. In a sense all of earthly life is one giant ongoing self-perpetuating interaction - a series of dominoes that sets up more dominoes ahead of it as an incidental side effect of the ones behind them getting knocked down. People have a hard time believing that such a complex series of self-perpetuating interactions could have come to pass “through chance” (it wasn’t pure chance, any more than the fact that things next to something on fire start burning ‘at random’) so they try to posit an intelligent agent to have done the instigating - an arsonist who goes around starting the grass around a burning tree on fire, if you will. This incredulity of theirs doesn’t change the fact that their posited entity is both unnecessary and problematic. You simply can’t explain the initial instigation of life by claiming that something else alive instigated it - all that does is move the goalpost back. The source of the first life had to be in something _not_ alive. Otherwise that first life wasn’t the first. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/205 "2018-05-02T20:30:34Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Okay, then define those words. > > Oh… Wait… > > Look. When we talk about god, we’re generally not doing something like looking at an object and saying, “We need a word for this object”. We’re _starting_ with a concept. “God” is less like “rock” or “stick” and more like “two” or “peace”. Can you point to something and call it “peace”, or point to something and call it “two”, and have that make any sense if those concepts are not already defined? Not really. > > So what you’re saying here is kinda word salad. It literally makes no sense. “Maybe there’s more to \ in order to examine than the way they’re defined”. That’s _nonsense_. Without a definition or an object to attribute a label to, the word means _nothing_. You cannot explore the definition of an object that doesn’t actually exist or which we have no information about. You might as well argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin for all the good it does. > > What qualities does “god” have? Can you define “god” for me? > > There’s two options here. > > Option A: “god” is equivalent to “life-force”. In that case, there’s no reason to use the word god. It achieves literally nothing that just saying “life-force” doesn’t, except attaching a lot of unnecessary baggage to the term. > > Option B: “god” is similar to “life-force” but has some notable differences. In this case, there’s no reason to use the word “life-force”, beyond saying “it’s sorta like a life-force, but…”. It’s just confusing to call god “life-force” when god clearly isn’t life-force, but rather something that means something that is either somewhat or entirely different. > > Why do you insist on using the term “god” to describe something that has virtually nothing in common with the way most people use the term? What does that accomplish? Good question. I want to reconcile that mystery and omnipresence that I grew up with with what my adult sensibilities can handle. Much like growing past believing in Santa, we go on and either teach the same stories to our own kids ( I did), knowing them to be false, but passing on what might be termed the spirit of the Santa story, after all, what harm can it do? Of course, there WAS a real St. Nick that the Santa story is based on, so it’s not completely lying. Not completely. More like embellishing. For me, same goes for Jesus or many of the other Lords and Gods through history. They’re based on someone, somewhere, or at the very least, some aspect of human nature that someone wanted to emphasize in story form. For Jesus, all the hallmarks of mythology are there, including the superhuman feats. Gods share a lot of qualities with the superheroes of the Marvel and DC universe, and that’s probably by design. Superheroes are the kind of people we look up to and aspire to be like. I don’t think of God as a person so much as the driving force behind the person, a kind of Force if you will. I believe there is a force of some type that does hold all life together. I don’t think it’s scientifically provable, and I don’t really care if it isn’t. It gets me through the day and the long nights, which is kind of the point of religion in the first place. I’d be interested in hearing from others who have beliefs that are a little off the beaten path. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/206 "2018-05-02T21:23:28Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Good question. I want to reconcile that mystery and omnipresence that I grew up with with what my adult sensibilities can handle. Much like growing past believing in Santa, we go on and either teach the same stories to our own kids ( I did), knowing them to be false, but passing on what might be termed the spirit of the Santa story, after all, what harm can it do? Of course, there WAS a real St. Nick that the Santa story is based on, so it’s not completely lying. Not completely. More like embellishing. > > For me, same goes for Jesus or many of the other Lords and Gods through history. They’re based on someone, somewhere, or at the very least, some aspect of human nature that someone wanted to emphasize in story form. For Jesus, all the hallmarks of mythology are there, including the superhuman feats. Gods share a lot of qualities with the superheroes of the Marvel and DC universe, and that’s probably by design. Superheroes are the kind of people we look up to and aspire to be like. > > I don’t think of God as a person so much as the driving force behind the person, a kind of Force if you will. I believe there is a force of some type that does hold all life together. I don’t think it’s scientifically provable, and I don’t really care if it isn’t. It gets me through the day and the long nights, which is kind of the point of religion in the first place. > > I’d be interested in hearing from others who have beliefs that are a little off the beaten path. My beliefs are only off the beaten path in that the ‘beaten path’ in these parts is believing in bearded sky gods. I don’t believe in the Force. I believe people don’t _need_ the Force. I believe that people are incredible thinking entities with a capability for awareness and empathy - not psychic empathy, but sympathetic empathy. People can care about others and work with others and join together with others in friendship, family, brotherhood, and community. Not via magic, but by working together and listening to each other and understanding each other. Compared to that, all religion sounds shallow and hollow to me. Religion posits incomprehensible alien forces and entities which are supposed to fill holes that aren’t empty and span gaps that are already crossed. I don’t need it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/207 "2018-05-02T21:27:23Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > My beliefs are only off the beaten path in that the ‘beaten path’ in these parts is believing in bearded sky gods. > > I don’t believe in the Force. I believe people don’t _need_ the Force. I believe that people are incredible thinking entities with a capability for awareness and empathy - not psychic empathy, but sympathetic empathy. People can care about others and work with others and join together with others in friendship, family, brotherhood, and community. Not via magic, but by working together and listening to each other and understanding each other. > > Compared to that, all religion sounds shallow and hollow to me. Religion posits incomprehensible alien forces and entities which are supposed to fill holes that aren’t empty and span gaps that are already crossed. I don’t need it. I like the way you think. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/208 "2018-05-02T22:22:06Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Religion/faith makes knowledge claims about things it demonstrably does not know. In that way at least (most?), it’s consistent in the claims it makes about science. Perhaps, and I say perhaps, because that does not seem appropriate for this discussion so not worth going into for the point of this discussion. Science really does not enter into this, and it jsut seems dragged into it because it’s convenient for some, not because it matters here. Much akin to the widow who looks inside for the coin she lost outside because the light is better. > [@](#): > > Every time science has answered life’s ancient mysteries, faith/religion has moved the goal posts. Again perhaps, and again that does not address the OP’s conjecture. It’s really irrelevant, but again it may be convenient to bring up but that does not agree with the subject at hand. > [@](#): > > I agree with you that some questions have yet to be answered. I submit that we ought to have learned by now to accept, “We don’t yet know the answer, but we’ll keep looking”, as opposed to, “God is inscrutable and he’s hiding where we can’t find him - but trust us, he’s there.” Again getting on your preaching soapbox. And this is what is meant by atheist preaching or evangelism. And when you boil it down it is mainly Christianity that is this faith, as the claims you make is mostly claims that refer to the religion of Christianity, so that is what you appear to use as your religion. > [@](#): > > Here’s the difference: When science gets “scripture” wrong, it throws it out and replaces it with the corrected version. In fact, doing so is encouraged by the scientific method. Religious scripture has often been proven wrong over the years, but it seems resistant, though not entirely immune, to change.But let’s roll with your riff for a bit… If, “All science is scripture”, and, “All scripture is inspired by God”, may we conclude that God is a poor scientist, but he’s getting better? Again your christian religion, not atheism, shows here - though you may consider it Anti-Christianity. Scripture is ‘wrong’ at times no problem. Paul admits to this, giving commands he admits is not of God. Scriptures are not a ‘here it is’ type of thing, but each is and has a specific purpose, this includes science, progress and setbacks, discovery and dismissal of the old when it no longer serves. As I see it God is a master, we are the poor scientists, but with help and guidance we are learning what God wants to reveal. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/209 "2018-05-02T22:23:11Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > We even have schisms (Telemark vs Randonee, Lift vs backcountry), pilgrimages (Tuckerman Ravine, Corbet’s Couloir, Chamonix, the Hahnenkamm) and heretics (snowboarders) and holidays (any powder day). I love this 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/210 "2018-05-03T03:56:32Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Good question. I want to reconcile that mystery and omnipresence that I grew up with with what my adult sensibilities can handle. Much like growing past believing in Santa, we go on and either teach the same stories to our own kids ( I did), knowing them to be false, but passing on what might be termed the spirit of the Santa story, after all, what harm can it do? It teaches our children that we aren’t to be trusted? It teaches our children that belief in the supernatural isn’t a terrible idea? It’s fundamentally a lie? You seem to be clinging to stories from your childhood that you _know_ aren’t true. Why? How does this help you in any meaningful way? > [@](#): > > Of course, there WAS a real St. Nick that the Santa story is based on, so it’s not completely lying. Not completely. More like embellishing. This is like saying that there is a real New York, therefore The Avengers was just “embellishing”. > [@](#): > > I don’t think of God as a person so much as the driving force behind the person, a kind of Force if you will. I believe there is a force of some type that does hold all life together. I don’t think it’s scientifically provable, and I don’t really care if it isn’t. It gets me through the day and the long nights, which is kind of the point of religion in the first place. > > I’d be interested in hearing from others who have beliefs that are a little off the beaten path. Now this is a definition of god that sorta makes sense. I’m not sure how you could establish it as a real thing, but it does make _some_ sense. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/211 "2018-05-03T04:11:35Z")
(To clarify, I mean it’s a coherent concept that isn’t linguistically offensive. I don’t think it’s actually a “thing”.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/212 "2018-05-03T06:13:56Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > (To clarify, I mean it’s a coherent concept that isn’t linguistically offensive. I don’t think it’s actually a “thing”.) Understood. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/213 "2018-05-03T17:20:15Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > (To clarify, I mean it’s a coherent concept that isn’t linguistically offensive. I don’t think it’s actually a “thing”.) Well, it’s a _different_ concept of god, certainly, but I’m still not entirely sure what was actually meant. Read one way, it seems to imply that there’s a nonsentient force connecting all living organisms - something like radio, or the electromagnetic field, or perhaps gravity. Injecting some woo, it would be a strata via which things like telepathy, empathy, or other psychic messages could be conveyed from one person to another. Absent the woo, it’s, well, radio, the electromagnetic field, or perhaps gravity. But supernatural maybe! Read another way it suggests that humans don’t have individual minds and we are all puppets of a single hivemind entity that is using us as bizarre people puppets in a horrific puppet show. I _suspect_ this isn’t what was meant, but it really comes down to the effect this “force” is supposed to have on is. Does it impact us, control us, communicate with us? Does it have a mind of its own? Is it a hive mind? Does it see us all like neurons, necessary elements of the collective whole but individually unremarkable and replaceable? Or is it just a medium, with no mind of its own, postulated as just giving us another method of communicating and connecting besides the tools we already have: eyes, voice, touch, twitter? I mean, it’s certainly more coherent than the _average_ god conception, but one could clarify it further. Though (full disclosure) I would only be doing so for abstract entertainment, because I don’t think people need either psychic shortwave radios _or_ spectral puppetmasters. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/214 "2018-05-03T19:32:23Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Well, it’s a _different_ concept of god, certainly, but I’m still not entirely sure what was actually meant. > > Read one way, it seems to imply that there’s a nonsentient force connecting all living organisms - something like radio, or the electromagnetic field, or perhaps gravity. Injecting some woo, it would be a strata via which things like telepathy, empathy, or other psychic messages could be conveyed from one person to another. Absent the woo, it’s, well, radio, the electromagnetic field, or perhaps gravity. But supernatural maybe! > > Read another way it suggests that humans don’t have individual minds and we are all puppets of a single hivemind entity that is using us as bizarre people puppets in a horrific puppet show. I _suspect_ this isn’t what was meant, but it really comes down to the effect this “force” is supposed to have on is. Does it impact us, control us, communicate with us? Does it have a mind of its own? Is it a hive mind? Does it see us all like neurons, necessary elements of the collective whole but individually unremarkable and replaceable? Or is it just a medium, with no mind of its own, postulated as just giving us another method of communicating and connecting besides the tools we already have: eyes, voice, touch, twitter? > > I mean, it’s certainly more coherent than the _average_ god conception, but one could clarify it further. Though (full disclosure) I would only be doing so for abstract entertainment, because I don’t think people need either psychic shortwave radios _or_ spectral puppetmasters. Have you ever wondered what it is within you that’s able to communicate with what it is inside other people? I think it’s kind of like that. You know, like the ghost in the machine. The you in your mind. Your actual self. Your essence. And not a hive mentality so much as a collective. Social media is not a bad analogy, where people share their collective wisdom. I think that’s more like what God is. Life. We’re never not with Life, since we’re alive, and so we’re never not with God. I know this will be too flakey for some people, but I really believe the concept has merit. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/215 "2018-05-03T19:55:58Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Have you ever wondered what it is within you that’s able to communicate with what it is inside other people? I use something called “words.” They are interpreted [by organic circuitry in specific areas of my brain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_processing_in_the_brain). ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/216 "2018-05-03T20:01:41Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Have you ever wondered what it is within you that’s able to communicate with what it is inside other people? I think it’s kind of like that. You know, like the ghost in the machine. The you in your mind. Your actual self. Your essence. And not a hive mentality so much as a collective. Social media is not a bad analogy, where people share their collective wisdom. I think that’s more like what God is. Life. We’re never not with Life, since we’re alive, and so we’re never not with God. I know this will be too flakey for some people, but I really believe the concept has merit. So we’re with God when we’re with Life. Does that mean we’re not with God when we’re not with Life? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/217 "2018-05-03T20:25:52Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > So we’re with God when we’re with Life. Does that mean we’re not with God when we’re not with Life? No, then you are with the worm god. (Worms mostly pray about winning at pinochle.) ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/218 "2018-05-03T20:42:06Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Have you ever wondered what it is within you that’s able to communicate with what it is inside other people? I think it’s kind of like that. You know, like the ghost in the machine. The you in your mind. Your actual self. Your essence. And not a hive mentality so much as a collective. Social media is not a bad analogy, where people share their collective wisdom. I think that’s more like what God is. Life. We’re never not with Life, since we’re alive, and so we’re never not with God. I know this will be too flakey for some people, but I really believe the concept has merit. Actually, I haven’t wondered that, because I only communicate with people via ordinary methods - seeing them, hearing them, talking to them, making physical expressions and gestures for them to see. (Others might say “touching them” and “being touched”, but I never touch anybody.) I am not not a psychic and do not communicate using telepathy. (And if I _was_ a psychic, I’d rather be a telekinetic. And not a wimp telekinetic either - I wanna toss cars around with my mind.) Humanity has long dreamed of being wirelessly connected to each other. But we’re not. Fortunately we don’t need to be - humanity has a lot of skill at communicating with each other. (Though a lot _less_ communicating through text or online. That’s not how humanity has developed.) But in any case it’s good that we’re clearer on your vision for your redefinition of the word “God” - you envision a telekinetic web of connections, which may/may not also include a persistent store of information (such that I can suddenly just _know_ my great-grandfather’s underwear size - no living person remembers, but Life™ and Pepperidge Farm do). This telekinetic web is not opt-in; everyone is connected whether they like it or not, and thus no human ever has secrets from one another. Sitting where you are, right now, you know exactly who I am and what I’m thinking of this instant. Okay, sorry. I have a hard time resisting the temptation to chase down implications of things. But does your idea of god have awareness and sentience? I mean, you liken it to social media, and you just _know_ that Facebook has both achieved self-awareness and is plotting humanity’s destruction. Such a thing could theoretically happen to a telekinetic web too, particularly if it had persistent memory. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/219 "2018-05-03T21:41:02Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I use something called “words.” They are interpreted [by organic circuitry in specific areas of my brain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_processing_in_the_brain). That’s excellent to hear. Your point being? ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/220 "2018-05-03T21:43:08Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > So we’re with God when we’re with Life. Does that mean we’re not with God when we’re not with Life? You mean when you’re dead? No, I think there is still life within you, as your energy changes into something else. In my world view, you are never without life, technically. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=12)