IUBio

Deities cannot exist because of their consciousness

Wolf Kirchmeir wwolfkir at sympatico.can
Sat Dec 6 16:05:15 EST 2003


On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 10:51:29 -0600, Alan Wostenberg wrote:

>So we agree a Supernatural being could use a pulsar as His mouthpiece, 
>or ano other physical system? Not sure your point here, Wolf.

Regardless of how a supernatural G manifests itself or communicates with
humans, it must always be in terms and by means that humans understand. Hence
G will appear as natural, not supernatural. Hence we can prove nothing one
way or the other about a supernatural G.

IIRC, it was Augustine who pointed out that all talk about G is metaphor - we
can never say "G is such and such", we can only say "It is as if G were such
and such." Or words to that effect. But if that's all we can say, we can't
prove anything one way of the other - because someone else can always say
"Ah, yes, but it's as if G were so and so." And even if "such and such"
contradicted "so and so", we couldn't draw any conclusions from that either,
for the reality they both allegedly refer to could be perfectly consistent in
its own terms while appearing as inconsistent in our terms.


-- 
Wolf Kirchmeir, Blind River ON Canada
"Nature does not deal in rewards or punishments, but only in consequences."
(Robert Ingersoll)






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