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Would God Ponder Meaning of his Existence?

AndyC

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Would God Ponder the Meaning of his Existence?

Hmmmm.
 

Cognisant

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Depends on what definition you're using, the Abrahamic god started off like a bad tempered toddler and has apparently mellowed over time, were he to reach a sufficient level of maturity he may become introspective and existential. I find it amusing to think of an entity that thinks itself all knowing only to eventually realize it knows nothing of itself and is in spite of it's boundless knowledge is actually less wise than many of the short lived mortals it has dominion over.

Would a computer programmed to philosophize about the nature of its own existence be a philosopher or just a machine calculating a very nuanced equation, indeed is there a difference?
 

Black Rose

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God has enlightenment so if it does ponder its existence the question it would ask is: (why is there something rather than nothing) and then it would realize: Things exists because of me. I created myself and that is why I am God. The meaning of my existence is to grow. Growth is the meaning of life.

I have a secrete (I know what Enlightenment is)
 

AndyC

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The problem with meaning is that you can always isolate the system in some way to recognize a certain 'beyond' that takes away meaning from your life. So is this like an omnipotence paradox now by which God exists in an infinite number of realities? Or is 'beyond' a function of time and God is beyond time. Hmmm.
 

AndyC

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How could a God even be beyond time, doesn't make sense. Christian God is the definition I'm going with because it's the one I'm most familiar with.
 

Black Rose

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The problem with meaning is that you can always isolate the system in some way to recognize a certain 'beyond' that takes away meaning from your life. So is this like an omnipotence paradox now by which God exists in an infinite number of realities? Or is 'beyond' a function of time and God is beyond time. Hmmm.

The mission of Buddhism is to the perfection of mental health. It may be that the beyond can isolate people but I believe that we should help those people. I was isolated and I was in pain, but I am making myself whole again. God is light and the light shines in the hearts of man. God's family would never isolate anyone because those who accept God accept everyone. We are always in a spiritual battle to realize that life is worth preserving. The attractor landscape has highs and lows. The Buddhist conception of heaven and hell realms. The level between them is where absurdity and nihilism are contemplated. The randomness of good and bad events makes people loose sanity. Only by giving people stability can we help them realize how life is sacred. Randomness leads to despair.
 

onesteptwostep

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The question would be better framed as, "is it superior for a being to ponder about his existence?" because then if it's the case is made that being able to ponder one's existence is superior, then by definition (of God), he would.

(The definition being that God is the greatest possible good of everything).
 

AndyC

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I would agree. But I think both questions do well.
 

AndyC

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The original has implications as to the meaning of existence, the latter is directed towards the validity of a God that ponders his own existence and is trying find an inherent contradiction in the idea of omniscience and omnipotence. I'm interested in both.
 

Cognisant

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The problem with meaning is that you can always isolate the system in some way to recognize a certain 'beyond' that takes away meaning from your life. So is this like an omnipotence paradox now by which God exists in an infinite number of realities? Or is 'beyond' a function of time and God is beyond time. Hmmm.
Unsound reasoning leads to impossible questions.

What's further than infinity?
What's inside nothing?
What exists beyond existence?
What happens outside of time?

All nonsense, literally nonsense.
Just because you can arrange words a certain way doesn't make a question valid, especially when the question itself is breaking the definitions of the words being used to ask it.

trying find an inherent contradiction in the idea of omniscience and omnipotence
Combine all the colors and what do you get? White light.
A plain white sheet of paper contains every possible picture in every possible range of colors simultaneously, that is by analogy the mind of an omniscient entity, suffice to say it wouldn't do/think very much, or rather a lot of nothing.
 

AndyC

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Sorry I should have properly elaborated. By isolating a system within some system that exists at least in speculation, say the human race, we can give it existential meaning or lack there of. That is how I imagine God should ponder his existence, speculating what is the purpose of his existence beyond the absurdity of its simple existence. By doing so, you are essentially recognising something beyond reality in the comparison of existence and non-existence. To do so is not possible, so therefore we have the infinite spiral of realities created by God. Another example of this paradox is the idea of God creating a rock he cannot lift, he would simply lift the reality the rock exists in, etc. Etc.
But if there is something that God is beyond, I thought time might be one of these things, it may be different.
 

QuickTwist

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I recall a thread that had to do almost exactly with the premise of this thread.

Its an uninteresting topic because its been done before and is too hypothetical for my tastes.
 

QuickTwist

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AndyC

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I read through all the posts on the thread and believe my interpretation of isolated systems enhances much of the discussion. The issue I am also tackling is omniscience and intelligence, does it have control if not intelligent, and in a way thereforw not a being, and hence not a God?
 

Nymus Anon

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Depends on what definition you're using, the Abrahamic god started off like a bad tempered toddler and has apparently mellowed over time, were he to reach a sufficient level of maturity he may become introspective and existential. I find it amusing to think of an entity that thinks itself all knowing only to eventually realize it knows nothing of itself and is in spite of it's boundless knowledge is actually less wise than many of the short lived mortals it has dominion over.

Would a computer programmed to philosophize about the nature of its own existence be a philosopher or just a machine calculating a very nuanced equation, indeed is there a difference?

We are basically computers with a body, so if we can be a philosopher then so can the computers we make.
 

Pizzabeak

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No.
 

ChainsofAssery

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I think it depends on how we define God and its abilities. If it is an omniscient, all-knowing God, then it would have no need to ponder; for it would know exactly why it exists.
 

kora

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God is omniscient and timeless in the christian conception, it does not ponder and its thoughts are immediate action, it doesn't need any time to think, it has complete knowledge. St Augustine trips out on God philosophically and what such a being implies you could check it out it's pretty fun, especially when he starts talking about what an eternal being outside of time itself is like.
 

Artsu Tharaz

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Our own minds reflect the mind of God in a certain way, but so does the mind of an atom. See what the two have in common and you will get a clue as to how the mind of God works. God is whole and unified; its paradox is that it is all of existence yet has the universal drive to go further, and so goes further inwards by self-dividing into myriad forms. There is God as the unified mind of our existence, and a God of that God, and a God of all that exists. We can only see an infinitesimal segment of existence but because it surrounds us it is like totality, and by being a totality we are like God. God runs on mathematics, it is 0 (nothingness), 1 (unification) and 2 (division) and through the number 2 projects itself into the observer and the observed. We are like a god in our own right, but not when considering the viewpoint of the earth, for which we are but a cell. I don't think any of what I have said thus far has any substance, sooo...

More vague stuff!

Through the fractal nature of the cosmos, God ponders its existence much as we ponder ours, as a feedback mechanism with itself. Through such ponderance does particular existence come to be.
 

TAC

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If god is a creator and yet the creator is unseen from all of its creations, I would imagine it is safe to assume god is the summation of all its creations. From this angle, you can say that humans pondering life is an act of god or that god is the consciousness of matter in all forms. Perhaps the material make up of humans allows us to have an awareness of that. ability to give it an individual identity. and access and utilize that function in limited capacity.

If god is omnipotent grand inquisitor of space, time, and life; why ponder when you can experiment?

I use if because I do not believe that there is a "god" out there. And if there is. that there are many of them and are fully unaware/disinterested in our existence. The fact that most iterations of god exhume emotional manipulation linked with lawfulness heavily favor that god is a creation of humans, not the inverse as a true god has need for either. I prefer the label anti-theist as I would reject god if it were to present itself to me (assuming free will is an option).
 

DoIMustHaveAnUsername?

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God has enlightenment so if it does ponder its existence the question it would ask is: (why is there something rather than nothing) and then it would realize: Things exists because of me. I created myself and that is why I am God. The meaning of my existence is to grow. Growth is the meaning of life.

I have a secrete (I know what Enlightenment is)

Things may exist because of Him, but how can He exist because of Him.
How can someone create oneself.
To create oneself, one has to not-exist in the first place, and if one didn't exist how would one create oneself?
Then, either he emerged from The Void, or always existence.
Is growth, the meaning or the function?
 

DoIMustHaveAnUsername?

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The problem with meaning is that you can always isolate the system in some way to recognize a certain 'beyond' that takes away meaning from your life. So is this like an omnipotence paradox now by which God exists in an infinite number of realities? Or is 'beyond' a function of time and God is beyond time. Hmmm.
I have wondered the same about God. Regardless of whatever God ponders (if there is one in the first place), I do question the meaning of His existence. Exactly, we can always take a certain 'beyond' to take away our meanings. If there's an ultimate purpose (ignoring the difficulty even conceive some objective ultimate purpose, in the first place) behind everything, everything is also ultimately purposeless because by virtue of being ultimate, the ultimate purpose itself has no higher purpose to be; thus it itself is purposeless.
You may find this interesting: http://www.sfu.ca/~rpyke/cafe/parfit.pdf

I guess, if there is some omniscient omni-intelligent being, It wouldn't need to ponder, it would just know how utterly meaningless it is (or meaningful, if somehow possible).
 

Ex-User (14663)

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As some have pointed out, it doesn't even make sense to think of this god as something that can engage in sequences of actions, because by definition, this entity doesn't have a temporal dimension. So either he knows all he can know, or he knows nothing at all.
 

Cogitant

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I am a pantheist.

Simply, 'God' = ∑∞ from my perspective, and is self-aware, as in:

-Omnipotent
-Omniscient
-Omnipresent

Therefore, why would 'God' ponder anything when 'God' innately knows everything?

Rationality behind God = ∑∞

-Nothing/zero is a purely theoretical concept literally meaning non-existence, therefore blatantly cannot, has not, and could not ever exist.

Therefore, everything had to have come from something.

Therefore, there must have been an origin, a singularity or one (energy source). You cannot multiply one by itself, neither can you add to one if there only is one, therefore the one must have had to have divided itself into bits (data bits).

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

-It can split and change form, however.

All this complies with sacred geometry:

[bimgx=250]http://www.annemariaclarke.net/uploads/5/2/9/5/52958611/sacred-galaxy_4_orig.jpg[/bimgx]
I’ve studied science, geometry, energy systems, vortexes; general patterns in nature for years (since I was a teen, which is why I originally studied architecture before I broke xD).

I tend to think that the entire system as a whole is self-aware as are the bits, with awareness proportional to the convolution and elegance of the individual system.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I believe that the parts are all connected and communicating on multidimensional levels.

Everything came from and is a part of the same whole.
God is both the creation and the creator.
Everything is God = ∑∞

Why ∑∞ not simply ∞?

Because ∞ as an observational statement can be applied to, say Φ for example. -I'm being [uni/multi]versally holistic.

I am not religious. But...

As far as Biblical 'God' is concerned, I can rustle up some quotes right now like:

1 Corinthians 8:6:
Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist.

Revelation 22:13:
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

There are plenty of similar descriptions of 'God' in other religions too, but I'm using Christianity since that is familiar (a lot of my family are Roman Catholic).

IMO, adherence to religion implies flocking tendency, insecurity and the inability to critically think for oneself.
It serves its purpose, has a valid social function, but simultaneously blinds with man-made agenda and rules that obfuscate those core grains of philosophical rationality.
+Please TiC that PoV is only IMO ;)

Here is my personal conclusion about 'God':


- 'God' does not need to think. God IS -
- 'God' does not judge. Humans judge -
- 'God' likes patterns -
- 'God' likes to constantly create new things -
- 'God' is everywhere and in everything -
- 'God' cares or else there wouldn't be anything -

-I therefore expect 'God' in MBTI terms to type as ENFP
:D

Disclaimer: this is only my opinion. It may/may not be true. But makes sense to me personally.
 

Gather_Wanderer

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No because God has always existed.

We on this lower plane live in space and in time, which were created together. But God does not. He does not have an originator. He lives in a dimension above us: an eternal realm where there is no concept of time and space. The question is important for us, because we have a beginning. For God it is irrelevant because 'he' does not and 'he' is what gives meaning to all.

The truth is ironic: time and space...and as an extension, us...are actually less real than that of eternity. We are of the finite and materialistic: each aren't actually "real" but perceptions. We are more like figments of another imagination than the true reality is which is above us. We're real but arguably less than the reality of eternity.
 

ZenRaiden

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No because God has always existed.

We on this lower plane live in space and in time, which were created together. But God does not. He does not have an originator. He lives in a dimension above us: an eternal realm where there is no concept of time and space. The question is important for us, because we have a beginning. For God it is irrelevant because 'he' does not and 'he' is what gives meaning to all.

The truth is ironic: time and space...and as an extension, us...are actually less real than that of eternity. We are of the finite and materialistic: each aren't actually "real" but perceptions. We are more like figments of another imagination than the true reality is which is above us. We're real but arguably less than the reality of eternity.

Thats also possible. IN that God indeed just is present in all possible events of the universe.
 
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