RE: God is not a cat in Schroedinger's box!

>-----Original Message-----
>From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
>Behalf Of Howard J. Van Till
>Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 7:35 PM

>Yes, but not in a convincing manner. It looks to me like you are falling
>back into the same style of reasoning I was criticizing in the first place.
>Beneath these statements is the tacit assumption that if both A and B are
>human products, they must be of equal quality. I don't think you really
>believe that.

When applied to philosophical systems, and to theological systems, I do
beleive that. It is because there is no objective mechanism to tell which
one is better other than internal self-contradiction. Assuming both systems
are internally consistent, then I do beleive that one can't be any better
than the other.

You have not applied your view to any of the cases I asked about. In what
way is Hume's system better or worse than Descartes? Tell me how you
determine which system is better. Tell me how you determine which system is
better, Islam or Christianity? What assumptions must you make to draw a
conclusion.

>
>I had asked:
>
>>> Are you claiming that your portrait of God is not a humanly
>>> crafted product?
>
>You replied:
>
>> If all I have is a Portraits-by-Glenn(TM) image of God, then I
>have little
>> more than a self delusion.
>> Aren't you aware that there are people who believe they have spoken with
>> aliens from space? Is their portrait of the aliens really so
>much different
>> than what you are advocating for a portrait of God?
>
>Sorry, but I do not see an answer to my question.

It's there. look a bit deeper, Howard. Self-deluded people think they have
had experiences of aliens. There is nothing implicit in an 'experience' with
God which is any more subject to verification. Thus an experience with
'god' may be nothing more than a Scroogian bit of undigested cheese. And if
so, the person who draws his portrait of god from that experience is no
better than those who think they see little green men or the pink elephants
of the DTs.
Received on Sat Oct 9 16:28:19 2004