# 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:** 19
**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 7, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/361 "2018-05-07T20:17:22Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Funny. The part I was keying into us the fact that we can see anything at all, even when we close your eyes and imagine something. I’m not saying it has anything to do with God or other dimensions. I just think it’s interesting how we see and hear things that aren’t there. Kind of like hallucinations or hypnosis. Like I said: imagination. It’s a power of the human brain. My ability to visualize what my characters look like is _mine_, and I’m not giving it up to anyone or anything else that wants to steal credit for it. ---
**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 7, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/362 "2018-05-07T20:49:32Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > No. I believe that not insulting other posters or telling them that their views are idiotic is somehow respectful. You seem to lapse into this bad habit frequently. You posted in Great Debates. As long as people are attacking your ideas, and not you personally, they are well within their boundaries in this forum. Insulting you is not allowed, but your central thesis is fair game. And for the most part people are attacking your logic, not the basic idea. You have presented something that could be defended with a logical and internally consistent argument, but you have failed to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/363 "2018-05-07T20:53:11Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > I think they referenced this place on Bugs Bunny. I believe that Bugs made frequent references to Albuquerque…but since both Schenectady and Albuquerque are both places, it’s possible that there are the _same_ place, right? ---
**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 7, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/364 "2018-05-07T21:04:42Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > You posted in Great Debates. As long as people are attacking your ideas, and not you personally, they are well within their boundaries in this forum. Insulting you is not allowed, but your central thesis is fair game. > > And for the most part people are attacking your logic, not the basic idea. You have presented something that could be defended with a logical and internally consistent argument, but you have failed to do so. To be entirely fair to him, there are parts to his position that probably can’t be defended, because they’re purely speculative. It’s entirely theoretically possible that all of reality is actually occurring in the imagination of a toddler playing with barbies. “God” is “Self” is the toddler - all the minds of Barbie and Ken are just the toddler doing all the voices himself as he talks to himself. Similarly, you could have a person single-playing a board game. I’ve done this a couple times, with cooperative games: you have a game that supports two or more players working together towards a goal, but you have no friends, so you just play all the characters yourself. Within the world of the game there are multiple people, but in actuality there is only one person playing all the characters, where each character has its own cards and skills that operate independently of the others, despite there being one mind behind them. The unifying factor here, of course, is that nobody is real, and reality is _way_ less real than we usually picture it. Our detailed perceptions might be within the imaginations of our single shared ‘player’ as he jumps from one character to another - in reality we might be text on a page, or a collection of cards. When two people talk the player jumps between roles, playing them all; we don’t notice because he wills that we don’t. Most people -anybody but yourself- might be an NPC that hasn’t been developed at all because there’s no reason to, and all of history is really a sketchy backstory printed in a faded manual. And the game could be abruptly ended at any moment when he’s called to dinner. Objectively speaking it’s not a _less_ meaningful existence than any other, presuming you assume that no possible existences have any meaning to them at all. Which, to be fair, is not a position I’m sure I can refute. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/365 "2018-05-07T23:36:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I thought ideas for writers came from Schenectady? I believe it was Barry Longyear who put out a collection of short stories under the title _It Came from Schenectady_. He explained that writers mail a request with a five dollar bill to a PO box in Schenectady and get an idea back a week or two later. > [@begbert2](#): > > … It’s actually pretty _anti_-scientific, for reasons I’ll get into shortly. As for how appealing the idea is, I’ve always found it kind of…not. Mostly because nobody’s ever made living forever sound appealing. What would souls _do_? Spend all their time desperately trying to shove their knowledge into other people as dreams of flashes of intuition, just to feel that their ongoing existence is validated? Yikes. What they do is find another body and glom onto it. They do not become the body’s dominant but just crawl around fucking up the dominant and all the other clinging spirit entities that are also crawling around on the body. To deal with this exfestation, one needs to hold onto a pair of empty soup cans attached to an adjustable galvanometer so that your therapist can help you identify and drive off these spiritual parasites. That was an idea that did **not** come from Schenectady. Kalispell, most likely. ---
**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 8, 2018, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/366 "2018-05-08T00:20:04Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Have you read much in the way of books about the human brain, written my actual scientists, neurologists and reputable researchers? > > I recommend Robert Wright’s, “Moral Animal”, and Stephen Pinker’s, “How the Mind Works”, to start. Thanks for the suggestions. ---
**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 8, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/367 "2018-05-08T00:22:19Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > You posted in Great Debates. As long as people are attacking your ideas, and not you personally, they are well within their boundaries in this forum. Insulting you is not allowed, but your central thesis is fair game. > > And for the most part people are attacking your logic, not the basic idea. You have presented something that could be defended with a logical and internally consistent argument, but you have failed to do so. Well, my purpose was to throw out an idea and see what kind of reaction it got. Maybe there’s a place other than the Great Debates that would have been more appropriate, but here we are. At any rate, it’s just an idea. Take it or leave it; it don’t make no nevermind to me. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/368 "2018-05-08T00:58:31Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Well, my purpose was to throw out an idea and see what kind of reaction it got. Maybe there’s a place other than the Great Debates that would have been more appropriate, but here we are. At any rate, it’s just an idea. Take it or leave it; it don’t make no nevermind to me. Yeah, seen this excuse before: If people agree with you then heavy conversation ensues. If people disagree with you, you claim that it’s no big deal anyway, so it’s not worth debating. Although, for something you aren’t that enthusiastic about, you sure are pushing both the idea and it’s originator a lot. :dubious: ---
**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 8, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/369 "2018-05-08T01:27:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yeah, seen this excuse before: > > If people agree with you then heavy conversation ensues. > > If people disagree with you, you claim that it’s no big deal anyway, so it’s not worth debating. > > Although, for something you aren’t that enthusiastic about, you sure are pushing both the idea and it’s originator a lot. :dubious: What exactly do you wish to discuss with me, Czarcasm? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/370 "2018-05-08T01:45:36Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > What exactly do you wish to discuss with me, Czarcasm? What about all the points others have brought up as to how your idea just doesn’t fly? ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/371 "2018-05-08T02:23:59Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What about all the points others have brought up as to how your idea just doesn’t fly? I believe I have addressed those points as they have come along, apparently not to your satisfaction. Is there a particular point you wish to discuss now, Czarcasm? ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/372 "2018-05-08T02:28:19Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m too busy wondering if the atoms in my hand are miniature galaxies filled with people staring at their hands and wondering… > > To settle this matter, the words “God” and “life” happen _not_ to be interchangeable according to any/every dictionary. > > edited to add: And another thank you for the “deepity” link. Shall we start here? I don’t think there is much to discuss, since you want to stick to “standard” definitions of God and Life, and I am proposing to change those definitions to suit what Inwould like to believe. I don’t think we’re going to find much common ground here on which to debate. If you want to stick with the “standard” definitions, then it’s just a flakey theory that has no merit. And yet here you are, some 370 replies later. Go figure. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/373 "2018-05-08T02:31:55Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What do these things mean? I believe the intent of the proposition is to re-examine the nature of God as opposed to the nature of Life. Life requires no worship nor sacrifice nor pledge of allegiance. Life simply is. If I understand Neale Donald Walsch’s proposition the way he meant it, humans would do well to regard God in much the way we regard Life. I’m not saying I buy into this theory completely, but it makes a lot more sense to me than many other religious ideas. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/374 "2018-05-08T02:33:12Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > If life is God, then a lot of religious people claim that God created God, and that God offers eternal God to those who reach the aftergod. > > God, God is confusing. FMG anyway. Witty. I’m not sure what kind of response you’re looking for, but I’ll bet you’re good at mad libs. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/375 "2018-05-08T02:37:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Merrily, merrily, merrily, God is but dream. You may be more right than you realize. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/376 "2018-05-08T02:38:19Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > God finds a way. Also very true, from a religious perspective anyway. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/377 "2018-05-08T02:38:55Z")
How about that you are very obviously fixated on one very specific god, the Ancient Near Eastern one that somehow became a recent breakout hit from amongst his pantheon? Because the vast majority of all gods, past and present, have nothing whatsoever to do with “connectedness.” The vast majority of all gods that have any remaining traces in history are just Big Humans In The Sky with more powers but with mental and physical limitations of their own, not Cosmic Connectness. Thus, your hypothesis that people originally created gods because they felt The Force falls apart on even the most cursory glance at scrutiny. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/378 "2018-05-08T02:39:24Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Walsh’s questions and thoughts, when read much more carefully than he seems to have intended, actually form a pretty nice takedown of all religions in general. I would tend to agree. Can you elaborate on what you mean by takedown? ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/379 "2018-05-08T02:42:22Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > If I understand Neale Donald Walsch’s proposition the way he meant it, humans would do well to regard God in much the way we regard Life. OK, how so? I regard life in that it’s something that exists, can be studied, can have an impact on myself and the people around me. I have no need for a “God” that fulfills that same role; the natural world does all that just fine. It sounds almost like a Deist definition of God, but one that ultimately falls short in the same way the Deism does. It assumes there must be a God because of poor logic, then fills that perceived gap with something we can’t detect or interact with. It really boils down to the question of “How do you regard Life?” Because the way I regard Life is purely scientific and rational. If I regard God the same way, I’ve reduced God to just empty concepts. The argument is unconvincing to me (an atheist) because I don’t see and spiritual meaning in Life. The argument is probably unconvincing to at Theist because they see spiritual meaning in God. Either way, I don’t see how this idea makes anyone better off. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192/380 "2018-05-08T02:42:33Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > You may be more right than you realize. [Um](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20926361&postcount=15). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-and-life/813192.md?page=20)