Adventuring - The Bear Creek Commentaries

--- Notes on God ---

By the word 'God' I mean an infinite substance, [eternal, immutable,] independent, omniscient, omnipotent, and that by which I myself and all other things, if it is true that there are other existing things, have been created and produced.

Rene Descartes

I wonder if the question, "Does God exist?" is actually a philosophical question or not. It isn't like most philosophical questions that have no solid answer that can't actually be nailed down. Either God exists, or He doesn't. There's not really any room for debate. Whether it is correct to believe that God exists.....ehhhh... maybe. That would be more of an epistemological question about belief, though, not a question about religion. "How do people think about God?" That sounds like a really good meta-religious question and it would be firmly in the realm pf philosophy.

The theodistic question, "Where does evil come from and how could a good, omnipotent, omniscient God allow it to exist?" seems to be one of those nonsense questions that philosophers get stuck on and I've written about that in my Essays on the Therian Timeline. (Here: http://www.theriantimeline.com/essays and here: http://www.theriantimeline.com/essays/essays_2 ). Of course, if you're going by the Biblical story told in Genesis, the whole world is not the place where everything was good - only the Garden of Eden was singled out as that kind of place. Without life and death, fair weather and storms, convenience and inconvenience, a planet where life can exist and thrive is literally impossible - a contradiction - a nonsense place. One thing God simply cannot do is create nonsense.

But asking whether God exists or not is like asking if Reginald Mazosky, Richard Dawkins, or Wolf VanZandt exists. It's asking about the existence of an individual who may or may not exists. We can plumb the depths of existence, I guess.

What do I think? Well, I'm a shaman and I have a spirit guide that I'm quite familiar with and who has convinced me that they are the same being Christians call the Holy Spirit. It would follow that, the Holy Spirit being the Holy Spirit of God, God exists. But there's a problem there.

I have reason to believe that not everyone has had exactly the same experiences and perceptions that I have had. That being the case (and we can talk about how we know anything at all later), we know what we know from our perceptions and I can't expect anyone to believe anything not supported by their perceptions.

So, I'm not sure that it would be possible for me (or anyone else) to philosophize about God. Of course, I could always be wrong....

But it's appropriately the Easter season and I'll take myself on an adventure Sunday and walk to the little church nearest by and celebrate this unphilosophical being in a very unphilosophical manner. "Indeed, He is risen!"