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Flame » in reply to re: Dear Eri and Reb,

re: Dear Eri and Reb,
ER — (archived)

Those are good points, you obviously have thought this through. You're a good person to put these questions to, and you too, Eri. I attack the same questions from a different direction. If I make the assumption that there is a god, that is, some kind of cosmic intelligence that created or influences the universe. This is not an unreasonable assumption to make, even an atheist like myself must concede the universe is a very strange and complex place, it really makes no sense, yet it definitely exists and it certainly works. The concept of some kind of deity simply cannot be ruled out, but neither is it inevitable.

Once you accept the possibility of a god, then you have to make some determination of his or her or its or their properties. We don't really know whether or not there is a god, and if there is, we know nothing about him (I will stick to the masculine pronoun out of convenience).

Is there is a god? If there is one, is he still around? Presumably, God could have created the universe so perfectly it no longer needs him to function. Is he dead, resting, on vacation, busy on some new project? If there is a god, is he all powerful? Or is he just a very powerful being, but with limitations? From our point of view, does he care about us? Or are we some insignificant part of creation he is aware of, but is of little importance. We know there are bacteria in the soil of our garden, we know they are important to our flowers, but do we really care what happens to them individually? For that matter, is he even aware of us at all? Until a little over a century ago, we didn't even know there was any such thing as bacteria.

What do we really know about God, how do we know what we know? And how careful should we be about confusing the idea of god and our concept of religion, with its ritual, doctrinal and ceremonial aspects? I can see even a devout believer in a god totally rejecting religion as just superstitious nonsense. Even as an atheist, I can conceive of the existence of a deity, but I find taking any kind of organized religion seriously simply impossible.

I hope religious people can see that "atheists of good will" (as the Unitarians call us, bless 'em!), have valid questions that need to be addressed before we can engage in a meaningful dialogue on these issues. It's not that we disdain or disrespect your beliefs, its just that we find them so alien to our way of thinking.

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