What Assumptions Would You Make Regarding God?

[jgh7]

This is a hypothetical for skeptics. You can only answer it if you're able to humour me with this hypothetical. It need not be your actual belief.

Let's say, for whatever reason, you acknowledged the possibility of one God who (at least) created the universe. In addition, this God also has extreme wisdom & power, and He knew when He created the universe that we humans would come about. This is all that you have acknowledged and you don't pay any strong regard to religion.

With this in mind, do you have any assumptions or inklings towards what this God is like? Examples includes assumptions/inklings regarding whether this God is good/bad, whether He cares about us or not, whether He expects something from us or not, and many more ideas that I can't list. Also, do you have a judgment of this God in any way? Do you think of Him fondly, do you think of Him with criticism, or do you genuinely not have opinions on the matter?

If you don't have any inklings/assumptions/opinions whatsoever when entertaining this hypothetical, that's fine too. I'm just curious what people's opinion is of God when they don't ascribe to any religion but still entertain the possibility that God exists.

[Divine Insight]

With this in mind, do you have any assumptions or inklings towards what this God is like?

I'm totally open to considering the hypothetical existence of a "God" or intelligent supreme being and I am very interested in answering your questions.

Examples includes assumptions/inklings regarding whether this God is good/bad, whether He cares about us or not?

Well this is a strange question because in some sense we define the very idea of a "God" as an entity that is benevolent and loving. The reason for this is because we have already defined terms (i.e. Devil or Demon) for entities that are not nice.

Therefore if I'm going to hypothetically consider the existence of a "God" it seems to me that I would automatically assume that it's nice. Otherwise I would be considering the hypothetical existence of a "demon".

So in sense this is almost reducible to a question of semantics and what we even mean by the concept of a "God". If we simply mean that it is an all-powerful creator who can be nasty, then we don't have much to say about it since we could have no way of knowing what it might be like.

whether He expects something from us or not, and many more ideas that I can't list.

I would imagine that if there exists a supernatural God who expect something from us he would make those things known, and make them known with clarity, as well as making his very existence obvious without any doubt as well.

On this topic I can only say that I don't think much of religions that claim to have invisible God who have supposedly commanded us to do things that appear on the fact of them to be both ignorant and immoral to me. Why should I think that any all-intelligent God would support ignorance, stupidity and immoral ideals?

Also, do you have a judgment of this God in any way?

How could I judge a God that I know nothing about? To know something about this God would require that I have more information about it.

Do you think of Him fondly, do you think of Him with criticism, or do you genuinely not have opinions on the matter?

When I personally consider a hypothetical supreme being I basically imagine an entity that is both more intelligent and nicer than me. This pretty much leaves out many dogmatic religions such as the Abrahamic religions, for example.

There are religions that suggest a God that is actually more intelligent and nicer than me. These religions tends to be of the "Mystical" variety and they don't claim to know precisely what God is like or what God supposedly wants from anyone.

For me the bottom line is that any decent God would need to be at least as decent as myself. I could hardly more benevolent and intelligent than a supreme being that is assumed to be the epitome of these concepts. For this reason I reject religions that describe Gods that aren't even close to being as intelligent or benevolent as myself. And this includes just about every religion that has created a well-defined Zeus-like Anthropomorphic God.

My final thoughts:

If there exists a God who is more intelligent and more benevolent than myself, then the one thing that I can be absolutely certain of is that I would have nothing to fear from such a God.

These religions that demand that their God is out to damn me and that I need to be saved from his angry wrath are the antithesis of what I would consider an intelligent benevolent God to be.

[jgh7]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

Thanks for responding. It seems that I am back where I started. Square one trying to understand God in any way.

But alas, I must face that I am truly agnostic. I have no clue what is out there. It is impossible for me to know if God exists or not outside of some crazy experience that I might have. I'll just have to make my peace with that.

The best I can do is pretend.

[Divine Insight]

The best I can do is pretend.

Short of actually encountering an apparent supreme being that's all you can do. And even if you did encounter an apparent supreme being how could you be sure that it's actually a "God"?

You could never be sure. All you could ever know for certain is that it appears to have powers that seem godlike to you.

I enjoy the fantasy of imagining a magical aspect to reality. But then again I enjoy watching fantasy movies too. That doesn't make them real.

I've also enjoyed things like Peter Pan and Santa Claus as a child. But again, that doesn't make them real.

[Blastcat]

[Replying to post 1 by jgh7]

This is a hypothetical for skeptics. You can only answer it if you're able to humour me with this hypothetical. It need not be your actual belief.

Let's say, for whatever reason, you acknowledged the possibility of one God who (at least) created the universe. In addition, this God also has extreme wisdom & power, and He knew when He created the universe that we humans would come about. This is all that you have acknowledged and you don't pay any strong regard to religion.

As an atheist, I can only indulge your hypothetical as a thought experiment. I know you said it doesn't matter why I would play your game.. but I thought that I would make it clear anyway. I don't have any inclination to actually believe in such a god.

With this in mind, do you have any assumptions or inklings towards what this God is like?

So, SOMEHOW, I figured out that this proposition is true:

A god exists, created the universe, has extreme wisdom & power, and He knew when He created the universe that we humans would come about.

And that's all the assumptions or inklings towards what this God is like that I have. In your scenario, I don't have any more than that.

Examples includes assumptions/inklings regarding whether this God is good/bad, whether He cares about us or not, whether He expects something from us or not, and many more ideas that I can't list.

None at all.

Also, do you have a judgment of this God in any way? Do you think of Him fondly, do you think of Him with criticism, or do you genuinely not have opinions on the matter?

No. I'd wonder about it, but how can I make a judgement on something that I don't know about? You didn't say that I knew his INTENTIONS.

[jgh7]

[Replying to Blastcat]

I guess if anything, I do think fondly of this God when I entertain this hypothetical. I am thankful for my opportunity to exist, and in addition to my parents, I am thankful to this God for starting it all at least.

Now I could see people being angry at Him if their life is nothing but constant suffering. But if people don't feel one way or the other, then they must not view this God creating existence as a good or bad thing.

[Blastcat]

[Replying to post 6 by jgh7]

I guess if anything, I do think fondly of this God when I entertain this hypothetical. I am thankful for my opportunity to exist, and in addition to my parents, I am thankful to this God for starting it all at least.

I agree that there are nice things to this "existence" thing.

I am so happy that I have my loved ones in my life, for example...it's really great that they exist, and that I exist so I can experience all of that loveliness...But I'm scratching my head .. if nothing would have been created... who would have cared? Not me, not my loved ones... When I am unconscious... I really don't care about anything or anyone.

I just had a major operation recently.. and they put me to sleep.. so effectively... I woke up, it was all over.. they did a LOT of stuff to me while I was under.. and I never felt a thing until i woke up. Then the fun really started for me.. I felt a LOT of stuff then.. and my two lovely daughters were smiling at me by my side.

So, I'm rambling.. but the point is that I was perfectly OBLIVIOUS while I was sedated. I could have died during the operation and it would not have bothered me at all. Taking that "relaxing" pill before they took me to the operating room actually put me to sleep... I don't remember going. I remember taking a nice little pill.

Thanking the god for creating instead of not creating has me thinking. I am not sure that I would be with you there thanking the god. He did what he did for some unknown reason... Now.. I'm happy to be alive and watch the grass grow. But on the other hand, nobody suffers if they don't exist. It's a toss up ... I think I am neutral.

Now I could see people being angry at Him if their life is nothing but constant suffering.

There are people like that.

But if people don't feel one way or the other, then they must not view this God creating existence as a good or bad thing.

Right.. I have suffered and enjoyed ... so to me.. it's a toss up. Is life preferable to non-existence?.... Now that I'm alive I think it's preferable... but when I die.. I won't care. When I wasn't born I didn't care.

And yes, I actually do like watching the grass grow.

[rikuoamero]

[Replying to post 1 by jgh7]

With this in mind, do you have any assumptions or inklings towards what this God is like? Examples includes assumptions/inklings regarding whether this God is good/bad, whether He cares about us or not, whether He expects something from us or not, and many more ideas that I can't list. Also, do you have a judgment of this God in any way? Do you think of Him fondly, do you think of Him with criticism, or do you genuinely not have opinions on the matter?

No I don't have any assumptions. I'm more careful than that. This hypothetical me just believes there is a god who knew that one day humans would be created. Beyond that, I wouldn't make assumptions.

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

The best we can tell of God is that he's the Hide and Go Seek Champion of all time. Of all time.

[OnceConvinced]

I would think that he would be neither evil or holy. He would have special magical powers to create things and control things. I would see it as like authoring a book. You make up the rules and you decide what happens to the characters. Sometimes you have bad things happen to them. Sometimes you have good things happen to them. God goes one step further and makes his book a reality and gives his characters freewill. But yet he can still control events in their lives. Bring in new villains or new love interests. All that sort of stuff.

I think God would probably get bored with constantly doing the same thing day in and day out. Writing the same story lines over and over. He may create a planet of people, but after a while he'd want to do something else. He would either leave the people to their own devices or erase them from existence.

A god would not be sadistic like the bible god (eg, wiping out everything in a flood, or burning alive millions of people. worse making them suffer for all eternity). In fact a real God... especially if he was loving and caring would be nothing like the bible god.