Soren wrote on May 31
st, 2009 at 11:18am:
Calanen, it looks to me that you are thinking of and talking about a metaphysical god - an entity outside the world. Since we can only speak about the world, whatever we might say about a metaphysical god will turn out to be an unrecognised projection of this worldy experience and language. So in the sense that smurfs are examples of this fairytale metaphysical projecton, there is no such metaphysical god either. An antropomorphic god, like smurfs and leprachains, is no more than a metaphor, an illustration, a pinning down of an unfolding.
I am not speaking of any God at all, only the arguments used to support the existence of it or him. That is, because I cannot prove that there is no God in this world, therefore there must be one, which is fallacious reasoning. I was simply saying it would not end there, as because I could prove that there was no God in this world, religious types would simply say that the God was not in this universe, so ner.
We cannot know *anything* with absolute certainty, at least until it happens. That does not mean we can never know anything. One of the things, I do believe, is that the sun will come up tomorrow. I cannot know with absolute certainty that it will, but I believe it will on facts and evidence.
Similarly, with God, there are no facts and evidence which support his or its existence. What there is, is a whole host of different made up explanations to assuage the fear of death in a variety of cultures. The explanations differ because none of them were real and all of them were invented to meet the one human need - insecurity over death that arrives from self-awareness. All I can say is - deal with it - there is no God and you may as well enjoy your life and stop worrying about it.
Quote:Nevertheless, Being, existence, has been a question since the Greeks who concieved of it metaphysically, and remains a question even after metaphysics is dissolved with the critique of reason (that is, time, space, causality etc are recognised as categories of reason rather than qualities of the world). So how to orient ourselves towards the question of Being, after metaphysics? Heidegger has a good tip:[
"Let me give a little hint on how to listen. The point is not to listen to a series of propositions, but rather to follow the movement of showing."
Let's start with the Greeks. If we were in the time of the Peloppensian Wars, you would be saying 'Of COURSE there is a Zeus, and Athena! Heretic - you cannot prove there is no Zeus and Athena, so there must be one!
Jesus had not been born yet, neither had Mohammed. Zeus and Athena were the true Gods, along with all the others. But they were as made up as all the others. And in time, there will be more false prophets like Mohammed telling primitive people that God said he can have sex with 30 women and marry 14 including a 6 year old girl, or whatever, and they will be just as false.
Deceive yourself as much as you wish, but don't hassle everyone else about it.