Challenge to Chico

[The Clown Beater]

God can do anything

therefore God can build a wall so high that God cant jump over it

But that means there is something God cant do

Therefore there can not be a God

Genius by paradox.

[sasguru]

If something so great as say the Pyramids of Giza or indeed a work by Caravaggio was created by intelligent life, then surely something so magnificent and complex as the universe couldn't have merely happened just by chance?

And then surely someone so magnificent and complex as the creator of the universe couldn't have happened by chance, so there would have to be a meta-creator and a meta-meta-creator and so on ad infinitum.

[bogeyman]

If something so great as say the Pyramids of Giza or indeed a work by Caravaggio was created by intelligent life, then surely something so magnificent and complex as the universe couldn't have merely happened just by chance?

Oh. Why not?

The physical and mathematical laws of nature are simple and beautiful. Nature 'wants' to be organized. It needs to create order from chaos in order to exist, and it does extactly that.

No God required (tm).

There is a philosphical argument that postulates that we humans will become 'gods' eventually, as our knowledge and sophistication increases (barring wiping ourselves out).

It could be that Chico's God (if he/she/it exists) is simply a being or beings from a race that has been around a lot longer than us.

[PerlOfWisdom]

God can do anything

therefore God can build a wall so high that God cant jump over it

But that means there is something God cant do

Therefore there can not be a God

1. God is omnipotent
2. God is omniescent
3. God is benevolent
4. There is sufferring in the world

God can't stop the sufferring (1), he doesn't know about it (2) or he doesn't care (3)

[sasguru]

It could be that Chico's God (if he/she/it exists) is simply a being or beings from a race that has been around a lot longer than us.

I don't close my mind to that possibility, but there's not a shred of evidence.
Chico and his pathetic Christian cult confuse certain easily induced (especially in a crowd) hysterical/euphoric brain states as communication from "God".

PS Anyone see the sketch in "Borat" where he pretends to "accept Jesus" in an American Pentecostal church? Sheer comedic genius.

[Mordac]

And then surely someone so magnificent and complex as the creator of the universe couldn't have happened by chance, so there would have to be a meta-creator and a meta-meta-creator and so on ad infinitum.

Exactly - religion serves 2 purposes. It explains everything for the terminally stupid (if in doubt, God dunnit) and it enables the rich and powerful to subjugate the masses (God says you can't do that, etc) thereby becoming more rich and powerful, and removing any threats to their positions (strike down the heretic, stone/burn/behead him etc). The sheer number of religions in existence shows us how different people all over the world all came to the same conclusion (the mass populous will only listen to us if we can convince them that we speak not for ourselves, but for a higher order, a supreme being, if you will). The Mormons, for some bizarre reason, wanted to have several wives, so they got this written in at the last minute, but apart from that, they're all broadly similar.

[Spartacus]

There is a philosphical argument that postulates that we humans will become 'gods' eventually, as our knowledge and sophistication increases (barring wiping ourselves out).

What do you mean, "eventually"?

Threaded.

[Chico]

Who created God?

[DimPrawn]

What difference does it make?

Let's say god exists. He doesn't manifest himself and he doesn't do anything so WGAS?

Does he care if we believe in him or not?

[wobbegong]

"God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can.

If he wants to and cannot, he is weak -- and this does not apply to god.

If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful -- which is equally foreign to god's nature.

If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful and so not a god.

If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?"

Epicurus