From: ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Proof of God's Existence
Date: 3 Sep 92 18:39:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: camelot.ARA.92Sep3133928
	<1992Sep1.213206.18901@griffin.itc.gu.edu.au>
	<1992Sep2.141141.28788@dde.dk>
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.


I don't see why everyone is trying to prove the existence of God. I think
the people of the world are virtually unanimous in the opinion that
God does not exist. To see why this is so, let us merely assert, in addition
to the mere use of the word "God", some property of God and ask if
people believe that God exists and has that property and overwhelmingly
the response will be no. For example, can you eat God? Some people think
so but most don't. Can you have sex with God?  Does God reside in
a particular idol? Does God have any physical manifestations at all?
Is there more than one God? What do they have in common that makes them
God and why are their other characteristics irrelevant? Does God have
a proper name that should be used to address God? What is it? Is God
on call whenever some country wants to declare war on some other country?
Does God care what people do? Is there something specific that God wants
everyone to do? If so what is it? How does one know? What instruments are
available to determine what God wants? For example, is it reliable
to examine the spots on the gall bladders and livers or sacrificial animals?
Is it reliable to ask someone who has been given a degree in theology by
by an accredited institution of higher learning? Is it reliable to play with
yarrow sticks? Is it reliable to ask a tv evangelist? Can you bribe God to
want something else? Can you intimidate God by putting his idol out in
the hot sun so he feels uncomfortable? Does God like you better if you
slaughter animals or humans in sacrific to God? Does God want you to kill
people who don't agree with you about what God is like? Does God agree
with all of your prejudices about other ethnic groups, and if so please
itemize? Does God care what you eat and if so please itemize? What does
God think it is ok for you to have sex with and what does God think is
hurkel?  Does God want you to get married and if so to how many peopl
and what ethnicity must they have? What does God want you to teach your
children? Can a human become a God? Can a God become a human? Can a God
die? When a God dies, does it go to heaven or hell and if so which
heaven or hell does it go to?
Once one tries to get specific about what exactly one is talking about
when one talks about God, one finds that the majority of the world's
population does not believe it. All that remains if one wants to assert
the existence of something without specifying any properties is the
vague feeling that something exists, a feeling utterly without content or
meaning.  And indeed something does exist: we exist. Without specifying
the content, the fact that we exist shows that the vague feeling that something
exists is true. But so what?

Religion is an advacned delusional system. Throughout history people possessed
of this delusion have thought it was an act of piety to kill others who 
possessed different delusions, or to persecute them in various ways.
We like to think we are exalted in some way because we are smarter than
most other animals, according to are own definitions. But our willingness
to kill others in the name of religion is always there to remind us of
our true nature.

Actually, there is nothing special about religion in this connection. People
are willing to kill each other over fairly arbitrary differences of all
kinds, and each such distinction has at one time or another been
the basis for violence.

Allan Adler
ara@altdorf.ai.mit.edu