h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome, Jamie and Cafram! I'll get around to adding you to the page shortly.

Pattern: Majeste? You real think I'm majestic?

TG: No matter what happens with the collaborative entry, your God piece will always have a welcome home here. And if you decided to go back to it and make it ever more ascerbic, all the better. As for lack of responses, I'm guilty of not responding to you from time to time, because you always start off like you're going to pick a huge fight with me, and then I end up agreeing with what you say. I know a lot of people like to post quick messages that say nothing but "right on" or have only a smiley, but that's just not my style. If you want me to converse, you have to provoke me.

* pokes Colonel Sellers with a large stick *

Come on then!

* pokes again *

Is it more likely that there is one God or many Gods? This is of course assuming that there is at least one God. What do we think?

If there is going to be one God, then my preference would be for there to be at least two. Preferably more. My thinking here is that humanity errs by assuming that absolute power won't corrupt God. I think the religious system should have checks and balances just like government, otherwise there's no guarantee that humanity won't be wiped out on a whim.

Has anyone else read Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. The theory in that book (a fantasy satire) is that a god's power is determined by its number of followers and the blindness of the followers' faith. There are therefore many thousands of gods languoring in obscurity because nobody of any importance believes in them.

In this universe there are few classes of object that are unique. So if there's one, there's likely lots.

I agree that it seems reasonable to assume that if there is one, there are probably others.
*runs off to find that Terry Pratchet book*

Do we really care how many gods there are? I think it's better just to ignore the miserable old git(s) and get on with our lives...

Can I do a bit of free advertising while I'm online? My long-awaited (by me) article on John Searle and his sceptical view of AI, is now 'Pending' and due for release any day now. My (admittedly feeble) excuse for mentioning it here is that we were debating the subject of Artificial Intelligence at the FFFF in some detail a couple of months ago - anyone who fancies a good set-to on the subject might care to keep an eye on the main page over the next week or so...

Ok. Back to religion...

That "Small Gods" book is realy the killer kind of book! I loved it and it nearly helped with my religious traumatization.

I like the idea, because you can transfer it to any kind of theme, that is not confirmed by certain ideas and impressions through what we believe are our senses. If everybody believes, the world is flat, things will be coped totaly different to sociaty believing it is round. The world has worked with this idea in the past, so why shouldn´t it work in the future too?

So the fact, that certain groops of people I believe call themselves christians, believe in a certain kind of god, will have a certain effect to my life, in me trying to avoid any contact with them. Now if this isn´t a powerful effect of christian faith!

Thanks for the plug, Lear. I remember that discussion, and will keep an eye out.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one here who likes that book!

You know, I think I'm all debated out on Searle...

AI is impossible.

Anyway, personally I would think that lots of Gods is preferable, and more likely, than just one. If there was really just one, would so many different religions have sprung up, almost all of which teach that they are right? (well it'd be silly to start a religious book with the words "these are the words of God. They are wrong" I don't think that'd be a very popular religion...)

And I wasn't allowing the possibility of no God in my question, although I certainly allow for it in real life (even if I'm disinclined to believe that way - I think there are probably lots of deities or spirits of some kind).

The idea that the power of a God depends on the number (and quality?) of its worshippers is quite common in fantasy literature, and that Star Trek episode where Kirk defeated Apollo by refusing to believe in Him.

I like the idea of Gods in a range of sizes. One big God is OK, supported and aided by several medium-sized Gods, lots of small ones and a vast number of tiny ones of many and varied descriptions. This gives us enough so that each brook and stream can have its own, which I've always thought was a charming idea.

Oh, and can we have dryads too, living within the trees and looking after them? Tinkerbell is fading! Clap!! Clap!!!

We shouldn't forget nixies and pixies, elves and satyrs either. Then there're brownies, kelpies, silkies, leprechauns, devas, sprites, demons and devils. Mustn't forget the evil side of supernature, must we?

Pattern-chaser

One episode of the Simpsons had the town hit by a hurricane. The sign outside the church shelter said: "God welcomes his victims" although I think they spelled it right.

If there were more than one god, as most religions believe (democracy says there are many gods!), then if the wind god destroyed your house, would you live in his? NO! You would go and stay in a temple of some other god/goddess. It just seems safer to have many gods. Also, they won't be as buisy and you will get more prayrs answered.
And if there is only one god then Odin, Thor, Freyr, Freya, Frigg, Baldur, Hod, Tyr, Uller, Sunna, Loki, Zeus, Apollo, Hades, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Posiedon, Baal, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, Ganesh,Crishna,Santa Claus and the rest will be very dissapointed.

Yes, Santa is a God. He sees everything, people pray to him, he performs miracles,he has magic powers he rewards good and punishes evil. What more does he need?

One episode of the Simpsons had the town hit by a hurricane. The sign outside the church shelter said: "God welcomes his victims" although I think they spelled it right.

If there were more than one god, as most religions believe (democracy says there are many gods!), then if the wind god destroyed your house, would you live in his? NO! You would go and stay in a temple of some other god/goddess. It just seems safer to have many gods. Also, they won't be as buisy and you will get more prayrs answered.
And if there is only one god then Odin, Thor, Freyr, Freya, Frigg, Baldur, Hod, Tyr, Uller, Sunna, Loki, Zeus, Apollo, Hades, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Posiedon, Baal, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, Ganesh,Crishna,Santa Claus and the rest will be very dissapointed.

Yes, Santa is a God. He sees everything, people pray to him, he performs miracles,he has magic powers he rewards good and punishes evil. What more does he need?

Sorry again about the double post. The computer said it couldn't do the first one. AI is shaping up to be like a government agent.

I'm rather fond of the idea of having hundreds of thousands of assorted Gods as well. It makes the whole thing more friendly, somehow. I've always found the idea of praying to an all-encompassing God rather daunting, which is one reason why I never do it.

The more gods - the more freedom from faith!

(just a thought)

Not necessarily. In some Eastern countries where many gods are the norm and lots of people subscribe to multiple religions, there is a lot of pressure to believe in *something.* Sometimes atheists are considered ignorant or else incredibly wishy washy when they claim can't find a deity worthy of their support.

Good point. But as the Advocate for Everyone Having At Least One Faith Each I naturally prefer the idea of as many Gods as there are people - and some spare ones as well.

I guess, this Forum was mainly ment for buissness-discussions. How about opening up a Wallhalla, Modeled on the Musehome(which was Modeled on the Archangels). We could all be GODS. I met Zeus at the Bar Bachus, so why not be a god myself? Look at it. In here we are only members of a board. What fun must bickering be if you do it at the top level !

Jamie's and Cafram's applications have now been fully processed.

In a way, the multi-god concept makes so much more sense, since Odin, Poseidon, et. al., have always been represented as rather capricious. That concept fits better with the way the world actually works than to try to imagine some benevolent caretaker. A large segment of the atheist population isn't guilty of the sin of knowing too much, as I am. They just get so embittered with the Judeo-Christian god that they reject him.

Englander: This forum is for business, but it's also for general conversation. And, I'm sure you've all noticed, it tends to meander around quite a bit. But I don't think this is the place for some sort of Godhome. If someone wanted to set one up, though, I'm sure it would be a popular sort of those imaginary clubs people are always starting up.