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

who is this god person anyway?

From what i been told he is someone i need to know or i will end up:

Dead or in jail or in a mental hospital...

Is there no fourth choice?

It's perfectly safe to ignore him.
Dad has a special agreement with him, he doesn't bother God, and God doesn't bother him. Seems to work ok so far

>> From what i been told he is someone i need to know or i will end up: Dead or in jail or in a mental hospital... <<

Who told you this?

some man on the street with a book told me it.

>> some man on the street with a book told me it. <<

This man seems to get everywhere, maybe you could persuade him onto h2g2 so that we can consider his message. I can imagine him being content as one of those cinema ushers.

There is no way to be absolutely sure whether there is or isn't a god. That means that it's up to each person to decide whether to make a leap of faith. But even if you do make a leap of faith, you may find occasional misery and disappointment along the way. Mother Theresa's journal is said to be full of entries in she said that she could not feel god's presence at all. Clergymen are not free from doubt, either. There are apt to be many times when they seriously wonder if their god is, in fact, there. Welcome to the state of being human.

A scholar named Harold Bloom famously observed that he hated god for not existing.

This is not to say that there will never be a time when a divine being might arise, long after we are all gone. A billion or so years of advances in life forms could possibly produce wonders that are unimaginable to us. Maybe time travel will become possible. The joint efforts of trillions or advanced beings could produce a god, who would then go back in time, start the Big Bang, and then expire, having fulfilled his/her/its mission.

In the meantime, let's just enjoy as much of life as we can and pursue our own dreams.

Maybe a more tractable question is whether or not nations exist ... could they be fictitious creations by the elite in order to pacify, exploit and fleece the populace ... and to get them to fight their wars?

You are too close to the truth, Stone Aart! The elites are not kind to people who figure out what's really going on. My advice is that you should practice a phony accent, develop a masterful disguise, and prepare to go into hiding [but not in airports ]. Or, you could plead insanity.

"This is not to say that there will never be a time when a divine being might arise, long after we are all gone. A billion or so years of advances in life forms could possibly produce wonders that are unimaginable to us." Paulh

I has happened a lot sooner than is contemplated in your philosophy, Paul.

Have you seen how good Kate Beckinsale is looking these days?

I've had my eye on her since the vampire movie she was in!

>> This is not to say that there will never be a time when a divine being might arise, long after we are all gone. A billion or so years of advances in life forms could possibly produce wonders that are unimaginable to us. Maybe time travel will become possible. ... who would then go back in time <<

If this god could go back in time then he wouldn't arise long after we are all gone, he would instead arise everywhere. But I reckon individual human intelligence reached a peak some time ago and is now in decline. I reckon it will be the rats and mice to eventually take over as their intelligence is selected and evolves to outwit Mankind in preventing itself from being eradicated. Now where have I read this

"If this god could go back in time then he wouldn't arise long after we are all gone, he would instead arise everywhere." [Stone Aart]

Did you mean everywhen instead of everywhere?

Also, the universe would pull a Donnie Darko if this latterday deity went back in time and meddled in things that predated the deity's existence. Such time travel would risk destroying the universe completely. It's case where "could" does not equal "should". But going back to a point just before the Big Bang would not carry such a risk. There was no universe for the deity to destroy.

Some physicists have a physicist concept of time and according to the physicist concept of time it is possible that time and space did not exist before the universe. So at that "point" our universe had the same status as a non existent god.

On a separate topic it seems to me that all major religions predicate the need to be good in this life for rewards in the next life. For Abrahamic religions this is the Elysian fields or Hades or something while in Indian - Asian religions this is the next stage / cycle on Earth. Are there any main religions that promote the need to be bad in this life in order to reap rewards in the next life?

ps before time, existence or non-existence had no meaning .... true or false?

""Are there any main religions that promote the need to be bad in this life in order to reap rewards in the next life?" [Stone Aart]

There was a religion in which God was perceived as being evil, and therefore needed to be opposed. I've tried to figure out which religion it was [it nearly upended early Christianity]. So far I've looked at Manicheism and Mithraism, but haven't tracked it down yet. Satanism is the obvious answer, but is it a "main" religion?

"before time, existence or non-existence had no meaning .... true or false?"

Our only experience of life has been with a system in which time exists. Knowing anything about systems in which it doesn't would require knowledge that we can't obtain in any direct way. It's possible to ask unanswerable questions, but why would one need to ask them in any scenario that didn't involve competition [i.e., a match between debating teams]?

There was a religion in which God was perceived as being evil..

Could be the Cathars.

Noggin

Which particular god are you talking about?
Humans have imagined lots of them - 40, 000, 000 according to Hindus
The one that pervades western culture is a kind of shape shifting swiss army knife affair that is used to plug gaps in knowledge, cover up things people don't have the courage to face up to,and justify all sorts of nastiness and bigotry.
This/these god person/s are avatars of our innner needs.

.....and the needs of elites for social control - do as "god says and he'lll burn you forever", "question the existence of god and we'll burn you"

Is it possible for non existence to exist? Isn't that a logical impossibility.

Which might suggest that non existence cannot exist, only existence can.

And that is always and forever, no beginning and no end.

And if it is possible to believe that all that exists has always existed, though not in the same forms, in an infinite time the same configuration that has resulted in you or me (however we regard those concepts) will reconfigure over and over again. Which means that we may possibly exist forever, from time to time. Unfortunately the hard drive gets formatted each reboot, so we will always be making similar mistakes.

"who is this god person anyway?"

It's me, I admit it. Sorry about all that.