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From: snafu@ihuxi.UUCP (Dave Wallis)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: I think I know I can know, you know?
Message-ID: <836@ihuxi.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Mar-84 09:57:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxi.836
Posted: Thu Mar 29 09:57:48 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Mar-84 02:18:26 EST
References: <6562@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Inc., Naperville Il.
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Since this discussion is young (in this newsgroup), I will keep this
brief, so excuse any lack of details.
     I tend towards Agnosticism - I don't think we can ever "know" (in
the philosphical sense) that God exists, for the following reasons:

1) If God did exist, we might not be able to tell, since we don't know
*what* God is. We have what we believe is a definition of God ( all
knowing etc), but it is only conjecture, and pretty vague at that.

2) The only evidence we have right now is purely circumstantial - we
believe that God exists because we observe things that either fit our
definition (above), or we have no other explanation for.
Remember the movie "Oh God"? People who claim to have direct contact
with God are generally locked up. Indeed, it is not clear if it is
possible for there to be any direct contact between man and God, since
God, if our idea of what He is like is even in the ballpark, is
obviously not a "person".

Notice that I don't claim that we can't know, but that logically
speaking, it is probable that we can't know, and I don't have
to play the philosophical game of "we can't *really* know anything".

     I further contend that it makes absolutely no diference if we
know or not, or if we believe or not. If God does exist, and I choose
not to believe that He does, and I live a good life (help people,
report crimes, etc.) there are two possible alternatives when I die:
1) I will go to heaven, since I lived a good life, which is what God
wants (remember, assuming He exists) or 2) I will go to Hell, because
I didn't believe in God. In this case, religeon itself is a waste,
since they would be advocating worship of an arbitraty and vindictive
God.
    If God does not exist, it makes no difference whether I believe
or not. If someone believes that God exists, and models his life after
what he believes to be Gods laws (assuming they are "good") and that
belief helps him cope, more power to him.
 
Any intelligent discussions are welcome!


-- 


                              Dave Wallis
                           ihnp4!ihuxi!snafu
                         AT&T Technologies, Inc.
                            (312) 979-5894