On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:55:23 -0700, "shrikeback"
<hewpiedawg@hotmail.com> wrote:

"Ben Goren" <ben@trumpetpower.com> wrote in message
news:42c381e7$1_2@spool9-west.superfeed.net...

shrikeback wrote:

Ben Goren wrote:

shrikeback wrote:

Therion Ware wrote:

I'd be inclined to think that a search that yields no
results, or a negative, is at least as valuable as one that
reveals a positive

Actually, a search that yeilds no results is inconclusive.

Not if that search is exhaustive.

There are limits to the possible exhaustiveness of a search.

Depends on what kind of a flashlight you use. Euclid's flashlight
was powerful enough to search all the prime numbers and discover
that the largest one simply isn't there.

Similarly, if you look in my .sig, you'll find /my/ flashlight,
and it'll let you look at all the powerful beings in existence and
discover that the most powerful one isn't there, either.

Cheers,

b&

--
BAAWA Knight of Blasphemy
God can never prove that this sentence is true.

Well, that is cool. I heard on Usenet that Homer Simpson
prayed, "God please don't answer this prayer." It is
of course true that omnipotence is self-contradictory.
But is proving that God can't do everything the
same as proving Its non-existence? It depends on your
definition of "God".

We're not the ones who define it as omnipotent.

shrikeback wrote:

Ben Goren wrote:

God can never prove that this sentence is true.

Well, that is cool. I heard on Usenet that Homer Simpson
prayed, "God please don't answer this prayer."

Hadn't heard that one. It's a variation on my proof, of course,
which is itself no more than the application of Godel's (second)
Incompleteness Theorem to God himself.

It is of course true that omnipotence is self-contradictory.
But is proving that God can't do everything the same as
proving Its non-existence? It depends on your definition of
"God".

If God is not omnipotent, then there's something greater than
God--even if it's just the laws of the universe.

And since he
can't change them, it really doesn't make sense to say that he
created them. And a direct corollary of my proof is that God isn't
omniscient, either.

In other words, there's no supernatural, period. Anything that
exists is bound by the rules of the universe.

Sure, there may be some super-intelligent race of bug-eyed
monsters playing David Copperfield tricks on us, and some of the
paranormal phenomena may turn out to have a foundation in reality,
but that's about it.

Oh--and the ``problem with evil'' demonstrates that, even if there
is some sort of higher-but-not-ultimate power looking over our
shoulders, it's either guilty of failing to render necessary
assistance or not especially powerful.

What room is left for a god?

<olrik666@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1120111185.841238.321860@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

shrikeback wrote:

"Olrik" <olrik666@yahoo_BACON!_.com> wrote in message
news:enKwe.141604$Yu4.1896698@wagner.videotron.net...

shrikeback wrote:

"SheBlewHimDidYouBlowHim" <killgod@killgod.com> wrote in message
news:5nvwe.14721$eM6.11389@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...

I've been waiting for the dumbshit christian god to stop by my house,
he
has yet to stop by, where is the dumbshit ?

He's busy kicking some pagan *****.

And it's not very good at it, now, is it?

I don't know, He's wiped out a good many of them over the years.

Where?

Think of all the now dead indigenous religions throughout the world,
all destroyed by viral Christian imperialism.

Atheists outnumber xtians, for one thing (think China, for
example), hindus are still very much here, and islam is also quite
active.

Actually, I looked it up a while back:

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html.

Christianity is still the number one religious category. Think 1 billion
South
Americans, where women still don't have the right to an abortion. Be
fruitful,
multiply, and overwhelm. The key to the darwinistic struggle for memetic
survival.

But the numbers for Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist are higher than
the
last time I looked, at 1.1 billion, and in third place. We're number three!
We try harder! Last time I looked this site put us at number four.
It should be noted that half that group is theistic but non-religious.

BTW, is pantheism atheist? We could throw the Buddhists in with us if it
is.

Your "god" is impotent (as well as inexistant, but that's another
story.)

"My" god isn't impotent. For He said, "Let there be Viagra. And He
saw it was good." And Mary was very pleased.