The God Placebo

PREFACE:
- participants in the infinite debate please scroll down
- readers that have arrived at this blog with an interest in BiPolar Disorder – don’t fear. This last week has just been a little diversion into hypometaphysics, but the daily grind will soon return.

In yesterdays comments Raine said:

“I came to the conclusions that mankind has a need for "god"… “A superior being, a reason for existence, accountability, hope.... wether God exists and in what form is irrelevant.”

Exactly. Thanks for GETTING IT Raine. So often when I chant my “God is irrelevant” mantra, people get their backs up. They seem to think I am some hell-bent atheist at best, or maybe even Satanic at worst. What they fail to see is that I am not attacking FAITH. Yeah, faith is a very strong power in millions of people’s lives around the world. Without their faith life would be unbearable. But it’s exactly their FAITH that empowers them not “God”.

Let’s say for a moment that God DOES NOT exist. Who is better off? The person who erroneously clutches onto an undying faith in God that gives them strength, peace and happiness? Or the genius who knows the truth about God’s non-existence, and lives in angst, despair and meaninglessness?

So: Whether you’re Catholic, Muslim, Hindu or a Pavlovian, if your faith is working for you – you’re on the right path. Don’t even question whether your God exists or not. It is irrevlevant. Yeah maybe it’s just a placebo effect. But if it cures you. SO FREAKING WHAT??

***

And now onto the infinitely regressing infinity argument:

INFINITY withIN FINITY

To get up to infinite speed on this debate I’d suggest you go here (first) and here (second)

Willbefine very shrewdly pointed out the Moebius Strip. Not sure if you noticed WBF, but the pic I had in my post yesterday was in fact a Moebius Strip, albeit a pretty sophisticated one. So here’s a more simple rendition.

The Moebius strip (from which, incidentally the mathematical symbol of infinity borrows it’s shape) is really just a sleight of hand. It satisfies the “no beginning, no end” requirement of infinity but it fails to address any quantative quality of infinity. It is simply a geometric representation of infinity, but does not prove or disprove real infinity.

And just as you say Infinity might be finite, I propose, that on a quantative level Finity always contains Infinity. Here goes:

Suppose we take a “finite” amount of time – 24 hours lets say. How much time is contained therein? 24 hours you say. Ah, but hours is simply a man-made unit of measurement. What about if we divide the time into minutes, seconds, milliseconds. Still finite right. But let’s carry on, lets divide the milliseconds into a million parts, and those million parts into another million parts. No matter how small those parts – they are still “quantities of time” right? And where does it end? Every part we cut up, we can cut into more, on, and on, ad infinitum.

And there you saw it: BPG’s INFINITY withIN FINITY.

To Amanda and z0tl : You guys have got a totally irrational God. I can live with that. But you’re barking up the wrong tree. Throw an H into the middle of your pie, and then you’re really talking divinity. Phi - The divine proportion.

Lemme tell you a little secret. Saint John said : “in the beginning was the word”. But “word” is just our English translation. The original term used by said John was in fact “logos”, which has a myriad of meanings. One such meaning can be clued from “logarithm”. Yeah, ratio.

“In the beginning was the Ratio”

And whilst we are in biblical lands it might be timeous to point out that the 666 number is also based on a ratio. 2 thirds. And guess what, like Pi and Phi, it also has no ending. Divide 2 by 3 and the 666s just carry on going. Maybe it’s fortunate that the devil is also irrelevant (even if he might be in the details)

James: The doing of non-doing, the knowledge on no-knowledge, stillness in motion. The Extreme Middle Path.

If everything is 100% different, then actually it’s 100% the same.

One Taste.

Kodeureum: Yep, I always knew you were a good Buddhist.

Joel: Where does infinity begin? Simple - in the end.

Lastly to z0tl (again): I’m really surprised that someone of your intelligence can buy into that amateur philosophical piece of crap you cited. Their argument for existence of foreknowledge is about as lame as your president’s intellect.

The future is ENTIRELY in our own hands

(and I’m not talking palmistry)