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If God exists, then who created HIM? HE DOESN'T EXIST!

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Theists usually employ special pleading by stating that everything must have a cause except God. They usually give reasons such as "everything is so complex therefore it must have a designer", yet this argument does out the window when people ask "who created God?" who is supposed to be the most complex thing in existence.

Simply put, if it's possible for God to have always existed it's possible for matter and energy to have always existed.
Intriguing...



Ah yes, the old boulder paradox. Have you ever considered why it's a paradox? This is a result of subjecting "God" to a limited arena, where nothing that is absolutely perfect exists, hence the paradox.

As it follows, like many other paradoxes, attempt to subject God to the limited realm of time, matter and space. Thus, the confusion arises.

This is essentially contains the same framework as "Where is God?", "What does God consist/made up of? etc etc.

To keep it short, God and His attributes cannot be subjected to the relative world, as by definition, is absurd. It's essentially the same as subjected a human (limited entity) to the absolute realm of infinity . It doesn't work. Thus, the paradox arises due to our relative mind set of omnipotence and thus the whole argument. The belief of a God is entirely composed of the notion of Him being limitless and outside time, matter and space. Thus, when discussing His attributes, such notions of "creating boulders that he cannot pick up" are frankly absurd.



The issue of this paradox is its simplicity, as it fails to holistically consider and understand God.

*Might I add: all this "paradox" justifies is that God doesn't exist within the limited scope of time, matter and space. Something that is already known and accepted by many theists. Unfortunately, it doesn't disprove the general concept of a infinite God.



Hmm...
(edited 7 years ago)
That paradox is actually a good one but what do you mean by 'power'? By it creating such a scenario, wouldn't it still be powerful to create such a sitation?
In my opinion power isn't only exerted strength wise physically.
It's still 'powerful' if it has created a scenario where it has willinging allowed certain weaknessness as in the same way, it could use the 'power' which created this scenario orginially, to undo the bolder being so heavy. So maybe it allows itself for a certain time to be unable, but could use the same power of creating that situation to being able to carry the rock again.
Also there are things apparently God wouldn't do because of its nature. There's things in our nature that is expected, apart of us and without them we could even lose a sense of who we are and our lives. The same way we have laws in the univese and in nature that keeps things functioning properly, it's said to be almost the same with God to some extent (though I would never know). For example, with the Christian God, it's said he will never lie because his nature wouldn't allow it. Though he could, it wouldn't make him a reliable God if he did so. Also in Christianity, the whole idea was God limited himself, denying all power when he decided to have a human experience through Jesus Christ. Jesus who was said to be God having a human experience who wasn't all knowing, was able to experience vulnerability, fear, pain. Taking it out of this context, it would mean this God could limit itself if it wanted.
Original post by Dima-Blackburn
Back when I was an atheist, I was so impressed by the paradox. "Wow!" I thought, God has been taken out effortlessly! I must have made some theists LOL back then :rofl:


Curious, were you formerly a Sikh, prior to being an atheist? Also now as theist, are you entertaining adhering to some religion and their deity? (Feel free to ignore).
I guess you could say I was a "cultural Sikh" since I didn't really know much about the spiritual teachings of the religion. During my atheistic phase I would often "flirt" with other philosophies and spiritual traditions but I've "returned" to Sikhism. I would describe my current theology as monistic panentheism as opposed to classic (mono)theism.
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
Theists usually employ special pleading by stating that everything must have a cause except God. They usually give reasons such as "everything is so complex therefore it must have a designer", yet this argument does out the window when people ask "who created God?" who is supposed to be the most complex thing in existence.

Simply put, if it's possible for God to have always existed it's possible for matter and energy to have always existed.


No one claims God to be the most complex thing in existence. 'Omnicomplex' isn't one of his properties. Indeed, an unembodied mind, what God is, is a very simple concept.
Original post by SunnysideSea
No one claims God to be the most complex thing in existence. 'Omnicomplex' isn't one of his properties. Indeed, an unembodied mind, what God is, is a very simple concept.


How could any theist reasonably say there is something more complex than God? A being who knows everything and is able to do everything?
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
How could any theist reasonably say there is something more complex than God? A being who knows everything and is able to do everything?


Power or knowledge have no bearing on the complexity of the being itself. You could use an analogy from engineering: often components become more efficient or powerful as they become more simple and refined.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by SunnysideSea
Power or knowledge have no bearing on complexity.


How does it not in the case of God? A theist would have to believe that the most complex thing he can think of in reality would have been though of and created by God. Are yo saying God is less complex than his creation?
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
How does it not in the case of God? A theist would have to believe that the most complex thing he can think of in reality would have been though of and created by God. Are yo saying God is less complex than his creation?


Quite possibly, yes. It contradicts with nothing, and would seem logical given that an unembodied mind is a very simple concept.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by SunnysideSea
Quite possibly, yes. It contradicts with nothing, and would seem logical given that an unembodied mind is very a simple concept.


God usually is not defined as an disembodied mind, rather that it has a mind as well as spiritual components. It's also unhelpful to disingenuously describe God as "just a mind" to try and evade the complexity argument. Both us and dogs have a mind, but it would be inaccurate to say that because of that both our minds were of equal complexity. It also rests on what this mind can do, which is everything and it knows everything. I fail to see how this would not make God complex.

Also, I feel there would be a contradiction. If you are arguing that God is less complex than creation and that knowledge and power have no bearing on complexity (which I disagree with), on what basis would you consider God to be superior to human beings?
(edited 7 years ago)
What a stupidly arrogant thing to say: "That simple paradox is enough to disprove most religious ideas about god(s). Sorry religious people, you're going to need to rethink things a bit."
This paragraph alone massively reduces the credibility of anything you say. It just tells everyone that half your argument is based on hyper-self-righteousness.

Anyway.
"But if they do manage to create the boulder then they're not powerful enough to lift it, so they're not omnipotent."
Is that how you think divine omnipotence would work? It's not something that's supposed to be confined by our ideas of logic. We don't even know exactly what is meant by omnipotence in that context; it's certainly not the scientific, straightforward idea that you think it is.
That's an incredibly superficial argument that you think refutes every idea of religion.

I'm not arguing with your point as much as I am arguing with how arrogantly conclusively you presented it.
Original post by z33
what if God controlled the path evolution took?
God cannot be created or destroyed, just like energy can't be created or destroyed
cause and effect is a thing of the material world, as is time, and God isn't within it, the same laws don't apply to Him


Evolution is random mutations providing an advantage over other organisms over time.If god guided evolution then how can the mutations be random?
I'm not religious, but according to Thomas Aquinas's Cosmological Argument everything has a cause (e.g. I was late to school. I was late to school because my car broke down. My car broke down because it's crap etc in a chain). There has to be a first cause because an infinite chain of causes and effects is impossible. Therefore, the Earth must have a first cause. Only God is powerful enough to be the first cause. Therefore God must exist.

Not sure how God exists ... maybe he was created when dust and stuff came together or formed himself?

Personally I am an atheist so I don't believe in God :/ x
Original post by z33
what if God controlled the path evolution took?
God cannot be created or destroyed, just like energy can't be created or destroyed
cause and effect is a thing of the material world, as is time, and God isn't within it, the same laws don't apply to Him


So, if your soul is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed, are you saying your soul has always existed and thus attributing to yourself eternal existence?
Original post by abc_123_
I'm not religious, but according to Thomas Aquinas's Cosmological Argument everything has a cause (e.g. I was late to school. I was late to school because my car broke down. My car broke down because it's crap etc in a chain). There has to be a first cause because an infinite chain of causes and effects is impossible. Therefore, the Earth must have a first cause. Only God is powerful enough to be the first cause. Therefore God must exist.


The problem with this argument is that it's a total non-sequitur. It not only assumes that God exists with no evidence whatsoever, but also assumes that only a god could be powerful enough: two baseless premises.

The first cause (if there even is one) need not be sentient, intelligent or magical. It could be an unthinking law of nature/phenomenon.
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
The problem with this argument is that it's a total non-sequitur. It not only assumes that God exists with no evidence whatsoever, but also assumes that only a god could be powerful enough: two baseless premises.

The first cause (if there even is one) need not be sentient, intelligent or magical. It could be an unthinking law of nature/phenomenon.


That's a good point tbh :smile: x
Reply 57
Original post by Robby2312
Evolution is random mutations providing an advantage over other organisms over time.If god guided evolution then how can the mutations be random?


How do you know if they were guide by God or not? Also, when you toss a coin you could say the probability of it landing on heads is 50% but really the probability can be swayed the angle of your throw or the surface it lands on. So maybe God didn't directly cause the mutation, but just changed the conditions, the environment, so the likelihood of that particular mutation occurring increases, effectively guiding evolution.
You could be like "well why doesn't God just directly affect mutations, or why doesn't he just create animals why would he use evolution" but anyone could be like "why doesn't God make my homework do itself and show that he's real"

Original post by Plantagenet Crown
So, if your soul is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed, are you saying your soul has always existed and thus attributing to yourself eternal existence?


wait hold up why is my soul energy :/
Original post by z33
How do you know if they were guide by God or not? Also, when you toss a coin you could say the probability of it landing on heads is 50% but really the probability can be swayed the angle of your throw or the surface it lands on. So maybe God didn't directly cause the mutation, but just changed the conditions, the environment, so the likelihood of that particular mutation occurring increases, effectively guiding evolution.
You could be like "well why doesn't God just directly affect mutations, or why doesn't he just create animals why would he use evolution" but anyone could be like "why doesn't God make my homework do itself and show that he's real"



wait hold up why is my soul energy :/

That's what religious people usually say the soul is and they use that point about energy to "prove" that the soul must survive after death.
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
So, if your soul is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed, are you saying your soul has always existed and thus attributing to yourself eternal existence?


I see what you are saying with this. But in this sense, using this concept and let's say if God is energy and energy couldn't be created or destroyed...bearing this thought in mind, in religions such as Christianity, it says in the bible 'god breathed his spirit into man'. Man as in, humans and humanity. Meaning, we all are supposedly a part of him and he did make 'man in his image'. So it is possible that in a sense, apart of God and since he 'always existed' maybe our souls did always exist since he is said to be 'the beginning and end' so in the sense that we are extensions of his spirit that is said to always exist. How he is the source and we are extensions of his 'energy'. I'm not God so I don't know, just pointing out some concepts.

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