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

AS. That's about right, except that I don't think I'd have bothered with 20177 if I hadn't screwed up 20174 and had to correct it with 20175 - giving rise to a request for explanation.

toxx

The trouble with a God outside time and outside space is that he would have non of the qualities people generally seem to want to ascribe to God.

Many thanks Toxx!

I don't see that, Glubb. God could affect temporal and spatial regions at will. I guess He could also enter space and time at will, though I don't see why He would want to - unless, of course, you take the birth of Jesus to have been exactly that.

toxx

Nothing for me to say at the moment, just a pointless bookmark. *stares into space contemplating Stuff. Not Life, The Universe, or Everything, just Stuff.*

Hi F , back from a few days away, trying to catch up.
Can you explain why infinity must have a beginning, I dont understand



"An infinite time dimension demands that an infinite amount of time passed before the action took place; this is the reasoning that says that time in our universe had a beginning."
Cheeers, mox

StrontiumDog,
Hi re your post
"4) It occured to me some time ago in the light of the above that when thought is viewed as Real in the way I outlined above, then the possibility exists that thoughts in essence have a life of their own, and possibly even will. Although I present it as an hypothysis, I has also led me to wonder if this might be an explanation for a great many things. Although I dont think the model I outline requires thought to have will, consciousness or self awareness, I dont think it excludes it either. "
I find the notion of thought having a life of its own interesting. I'm aware ( again no evidence, ) that we can only achieve a higher level of consciousness and inner peace when we realize that we are not the thinker.

>I find the notion of thought having a life of ita own interesting.

I tend to agree. Take Coren, for instance. Most people would say he was a product of my imagination, but it seems that he isn't, that he has thoughts of his own and a personality beyond mine- which, indeed, he does. Sometimes our opinions differ, although we never fight.

this indeed signifies the perfect relationship

The perfect relationship indeed, or it would be if he had a body.

Hi BB - sorry the reply takes so long, but I've been away

>>Yeah Jez, you are right in a sense but I sort of find it fun. I get the feeling she cant change because she sees no reason to stop what shes doing. Della's done the same for years and to a range of different characters looking at the evidence on her PS. Part of me wishes we were friends and I could help her learn to change her ways, but the prankster part of me wants to be a bit like Loki(?) and enjoy the wind up <<

Don't invite Lik into your life unless you are prepared to live the sort of life he wants from you

It's fun, it's interesting, but it isn't easy. And if you don't quite believe in him, then you don't negotiate the best deal. He'll look after you, but you may get confused by the paths you begin to travel

Jez - Loki-touched in a big way And mostly loving it.

who needs a body with a detachable mind !

You have a bit of a point there.

Andrew S

>>I would quite like to see a polytheist 'take' on creation (to give it a term), not to argue against it, but just to know what they think about it.<<

Hi there - I am late in answering, and maybe someone else got in first, but I'm posting as I read the back log

Polytheist 'take' - well, I am a polytheist, and my 'take' is ...

I don't see a need for a Creator, as such. In my tradition, there is a gloriously improbable story about giants, and cows and eyebrows

I am not required to believe it as a literal history. It's myth, and myths are there to put a meaning on the world. The meaning that that particular myth puts on the world, IMO, is to say that all of us have a spark of the divine in us, all of us are descended from the gods. And that is why polytheists, at least all those I know, from several different traditions, all enter into relationships with their gods, rather than 'worshipping' them as the mono-gods demand. There is no 'submission' in heathenry. In fact, there is a saying:

Kneel to your love, bow to your king, and stand proud before your god.

So - as far as I am concerned, the beginnings of this universe are scientific in nature, and one day, maybe, someone will prove it or not it doesn't bother me. I am here, there are wights all around me, and I am happy to interact with all of them, rock, plant, animal, human, god, ancestor, landwight, houseghost (hello Sarah!) or troll

Though I do take more care around trolls

Jez

> a gloriously improbable story about giants, and cows and eyebrows

What would that be? Sounds interesting.

Esty and Coren

>>I think that people still need gods as someone or something to blame for all the cruelty and wickedness that hasn't left the world. Man never needed Satan. He'd got himself.<<

But polytheist religions don't do the duality thing. No god or goddess is good or bad in our pantheons. They just are, and they do what they do. Loki isn't a bad god, he gets the gods out of mess after mess, and they end up with almost all their tools and gifts because of him, including the walls of Asgard (Gods' Garden/Earth, same as Midgard is Middle Garden/Earth).

The monotheist religions have to invent a second 'god' to explain misery, as they cannot accept that a good god (and their god is, after all, by definition good) can have made a 'bad' world.

It's what comes of trying to fit monotheism into reality. It doesn't work, and has to be fiddled about with constantly, like the early theories of earth-centric cosmology.

Triple-O gods just don't work.

Jez

Association of Polytheist Traditions - http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/APT

Mmmm, thanks Jez!
And I like the landwights and trolls! Your description strikes a chord somewhere. It has a Tolkeinish feel to it... actually, I suppose it's the other way around(?)

Well, Jez, yes, that's all true. It was a bit of a nonsequitor, but it's true. I wasn't saying any of the gods were 'bad' gods. I was saying there don't need to be bad gods for evil to happen. Humans do it all by themselves.

Meh. Well, that's why I object to monotheism. It doesn't make sense.

I don't see that, Glubb. God could affect temporal and spatial regions at will.

Going back a bit here toxx, sorry.

what I meant was that most people want to see God as a Being with some sort of emotional life, dont they (or what would loving God or being loved by God mean?) and yet how could an emotional life be possible outside time and speace, would it make any sense.

I think that, for God, loving is part of His nature - not a reaction to something else. Emotions are surely a reaction to something outside oneself. God loves because He is such as to do what is right. We do it (or don't do it - not an option for God) as a sort of gut reaction.

toxx