Mach

Regarding the hypothetical discussion of a supreme being having created the universe, then abruptly stopped interacting with it. Are there conceptually justifiable reasons for this?

Starfleet had a similar directive. Don't we do this to some degree today even?

The prime directive from Star Trek
Quote:
The Prime Directive dictates that there can be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations, consistent with the historical real world concept of Westphalian sovereignty. It has special implications, however, for civilizations that have not yet developed the technology for interstellar spaceflight ("pre-warp"), since no primitive culture can be given or exposed to any information regarding advanced technology or the existence of extraplanetary civilizations, lest this exposure alter the natural development of the civilization. [...] even if that change is well-intentioned and kept completely secret [/quote]

So, perhaps a deity in our imagination, could be well justified in creating something, and then deciding before the implications were known, that he would let it take it's course *no matter what*, on the basis of non-interference.

I know that someone right now is starving that I could literally save with my time and effort and resources. I choose not save them (and so do each of you). Are we not all doing exactly the same as this on a smaller scale?

-Mach

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Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content.- Conan

winston53660

Godchecker.com - Your Guide To The Gods. Mythology with a twist!

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The silenced majority

You don't know how busy he is.

1069

Maybe.
I get very involved with my Sims games, and then abruptly and totally lose interest in them.
Maybe god, like me, has good intentions but a short attention span, and is easily bored.

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"I do love this idea that one can scream and scream and scream, with that utopia just one more scream away."
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Edify_Always_In_All_Ways

I don't see any reason God couldn't create a near-omnipotent, omnibenevolent being that could help us humans, so I'd have to answer with my typical atheist cynicism.

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Why?

1069

What if god isn't necessarily rooting for the humans?
He also created tapeworms, and the ebola virus, after all.
What if he's just a spectator?
True, the bible says that humans are god's special little favorites, but then again, the bible wasn't written by tapeworms or viruses. Perhaps their opinions on the matter would differ.

winston53660

With you taking up all the time....

scourge99

i guess the real question is.... what's God's true purpose for existence in the universe? Just to keep his pets happy?

At least Buddhism has an answer for this question.

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Petty Desire or Grand Ambition?

Iriemon

Kirk is God? I always suspected it.

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Matthew 5:9

1069

I'm envisioning him more as a kid with an ant farm.
That kid's goal isn't necessarily to keep the ants happy; it's to watch them do interesting things.
If he begins to get bored with them, he might shake the ant farm up a little, just to see what they'll do.
But actually, I think that kid grew up and went off to college some time ago, leaving his ant farm behind, obscured beneath a pile of mismatched crusty sweatsocks, dusty Metallica CDs with cracked cases, and the broken controllers of now-obsolete gaming systems: the abandoned flotsam and jetsam of childhood.
Nobody's watching us anymore.