God (Creator) possibly can explain the creation of the global (Universe), its constants: substrate, elements, structure and mode of operation, but not necessarily all of the local details anytime and everywhere. The Universe can just be a kind of perpetuum mobile (cybernetic) machine that evolves autonomously (after being started). And there must not be any more 'faith' in Creator then 'faith' in a scientific discovery.
All living beings are execution of a code (DNA); it is not so impossible that the Universe might be an execution of some code too. The source of coding of living beings remains completely unknown, but logically, it must exist.

 

God is a boring subject...

 

there is not much to it really.

 

God is an overwhelming responsibility
--Ian Anderson, Thick As A Brick

 

God was a hot topic 2000 years ago like many genres of music that emerged in one period and then disappeared.
After people learned to live without thinking about God, God lost its importance.

 

And yet it's currently one of the longest threads

 

Yes, it is. But no more than loop quantum gravity or quantum chromodynamics.
People pursue their quest in order to explain the world we are living in. God is supposed to explain the appearance (origin), basic structure (framework), order (fundamental laws) and the necessity of change in the Universe. [And its (his) purpose, if there is one]
Physics can explain none of that, nor theology based on beliefs stemming from primitive stages of humanity.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 19, 2022

Now take the next step...
Similarly, neither physics (yet) nor theology (ever) can explain why a brain can...
- discuss square triangles,
- use coherent logic whilst discussing square triangles, and even the origins of square triangles.
- and then con itself into deludedly believing that square triangles are a part of reality existing outside of brains.

To explain such commonplace folly you need philosophy and psychology and a healthy dose of humility that recognises how utterly misguided a confident brain can be (especially your own brain)

“You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
- Richard Feynman

 

I used to went down hard on the Cognitive science of religion that is a much interesting subject that any kind of belief, in my opinion, and that covers these topics:

Why do we belive in things,

which ways are our brains wired to accept those things,

how minimal counterintuitive concepts works:
"from his mind the moon emerged" vs ""from his mind the house emerged" (watch carrefully and closely why the first one permeate better than the other into your brain).

How it works and what is the function of the hyperactive agent detection device, the part of the brain that every animal (including us) dedicates to search for the pressence of an external agent in any given event (that sound... was it made by the wind, or a prey... or the predator) and that its evolution towards the false positives as a method of survival. (Yes, it is very likely that god is a false positive derivated from this device... sorry , but also the mere existence of this device is also contested by evolutionaty biologist so...)

There is a lot of evolutionary psicology involved, neurological research, and archeological approach to the subjet. A lot of open threads on this post can and are already resolved by the cognitive science of religion but it is a relative new branch of the science (from the 90s) so it´s on constant debate and development to improve the design of the experiments involved. The arrival of AIs has been a bless on the field.

If you want to go to the rabbit hole (I spent years of my life on it just because) just start from wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science_of_religion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_detection

There is a lot of bibliography there to enlight you

 

Love it!
I want to add a useful metaphor...
It is permanently funny to see how people think they are seeing straight when they use their mighty brain to put the world under a microscope and they never once consider putting that mighty brain under the same microscope.
Some even fearfully actively reject that scrutiny.
Every other instrument might get checked for reliability - but the most important one is just ridiculously taken for granted.

Squarely facing up to the demonstrable unreliability of the their own over-confident thinking is a step out of reach for far too many people. Wishful thinking trumps truth seeking every time.

 

Last edited: May 19, 2022

Against the express wishes of the OP and the thread title - you are off topic preaching for religion rather than discussing beliefs about whether god exists or not. Are you going to report yourself

 

But don´t blame/judge them/us. We are wired that way. It takes a lot of interest on this kind of subject to be able to partially escape that thinking framework that is there to shield us from cognitive disonancies that otherwise would cause physical measurable problems in our brain chemistry. Whisful thinking is also needed in our early neurological development from childhood to adulthood, and then it stays there, as a neurological construct (I mean, physical conections between neurons) waiting to be used in multiple scenarios (and it also can be used by others to our disadvantage, sadly). What I see It´s like beliving in an intelligent GOD or not relies on another two widely accepted and, IMO, wrong concepts that modern societies are built upon: freedom of thought and freedom of will.

So I´m gonna be presumptuous enough to reformulate the OP initial question.
Do you think you have the freedom of thought to belive, or not, in an intelligent GOD? Because I´m pretty much sure that I don´t.

 

freedom of will is a bit abstract, but there must be at least partial freedom of thought. there is no solid connection between the cells, it is electrical and chemical communication. electrical stimulation and chemical transmission. that is the brain chemistry. i grant significant change in a short period of time may be a problem, but these connections can change over a longer period of time -- even if it is just damage, etc. rewiring as you would put it. i suppose the motor control cells, etc. have a higher priority of not being changed.

the degree of freedom of thought may be the tolerance before significant disruption, as a self regulation mechanism.

there are cases where people have lost one side of their brain and it just rewires itself. i suppose it would be hard to measure the loss of function, but patients are still functional to a high proportion of their previous state. psychiatric drugs alter brain chemistry directly, that would constitute a 'rewiring'. the changes remain after the drug is stopped.

in this context, i do not know weather they start believing or disbelieving anything different.

the brain is too weird complex for me to understand, if they ever figure it out i hope they just write a synopsis.

 

Last edited: May 19, 2022

Time to close this thread.