Are atheists less imaginative about the unknown?

by sabastious 140 Replies latest jw friends

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  unshackled

  Just because a being has the power to cause humans doesn't automatically make it the First Cause.

  
  
  Exactly. Just to throw it out there, our universe could be a "petri dish" experiment for some aliens. But that begs the question: where'd the aliens come from? God? Where did God come from? Sooo....where does the First Cause begin?
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  sabastious

  I have no idea if the First Cause is intelligent or not. Perhaps that concept has no meaning for it. I mean, it is completely different from anything we can imagine, being that it exists outside of our universe.

  I'll take that as a no. Then you are not an atheist.

  -Sab
• 

  sabastious

  Exactly. Just to throw it out there, our universe could be a "petri dish" experiment for some aliens. But that begs the question: where'd the aliens come from? God? Where did God come from? Sooo....where does the First Cause begin?

  The First Cause had no beginning, that's the point; there is only one.

  -Sab
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  unshackled

  So if the First Cause has no beginning, and doesn't need one....why don't we just say the universe always existed? It is just going one step further to invoke a creator and say it always existed.
  
  Edit: Sagan says it better...

  "In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?"
• 

  sabastious

  So if the First Cause has no beginning, and doesn't need one....why don't we just say the universe always existed? It is just going one step further to invoke a creator and say it always existed.

  I know, I know. The First Cause is a tough one to think about. I have come to conclusion that we can't mentally fathom it since everything to us has a beginning. It's easier for me to fathom something with a tangible beginning with no end then something that never started. For us we require a point of reference, of which the First Cause doesn't have.

  Brain hurts!

  -Sab
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  sabastious

  And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?

  Effectively making the universe our ultimate cause, interesting.

  -Sab
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  VampireDCLXV

  If the universe is the ultimate first cause, is it intelligent?

  V665
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  sabastious

  If the universe is the ultimate first cause, is it intelligent?

  Results inconclusive.

  -Sab
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  VampireDCLXV

  I wonder if it tips the scales to consider that we humans are intelligent (in theory) and that we are part of the universe?

  V665
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  unshackled

  Brain hurts!

  
  
  Yep...this is how I felt as a child trying to wrap my around my parents saying "well, Jehovah has always existed..."
  
  If the universe is the ultimate first cause, is it intelligent?
  Good question. Does it need to be? Hence theories of a multiverse, or our universe oscillates (right word?)...constantly expanding, contracting...repeat. Though scientists fairly recently are finding the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. Previously thought it would slow.