Introduction
Theists make many assumptions about the force that causes the Universe to exist. Whether this force or not is God is unprovable, hence we have theism being based on faith. In addition to the basic assumption that God exists[1], theists make many additional leaps of faith, such as God being all-powerful, emotional, benevolent, that God wants to be worshipped and omniscience along with other particulars of various monotheistic religions. This essay highlights those assumptions and reminds us that the existence of God does not mean that we can arbitrarily make these assumptions about God.
Contents:
Because something that is like a God exists doesn't mean we can then call it omnipotent. Arthur C Clarke wrote 'Any technology, sufficiently advanced, will seem like magic' and likewise, any particularly powerful being can seem as God to us but this doesn't mean it is all-powerful. Assuming that God is all-powerful is an assumption, not a logical part of belief. There is no proof that the Universe was created by a god, therefore the assumption that the most-powerful-being in existence is as powerful as omnipotence is an assumption. A force could have inspired the Bible or Qu'ran, or any other prophet recognized by the Bahai Faith, to write those books. It could even have been a good force. But it doesn't mean it was all-powerful. To state such is an untenable assumption.
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If God exists, it doesn't mean it knows the same emotions that we do. Our emotions are a result of our brain chemistry and hormones (we know this because if we alter these chemicals, our emotions alter accordingly). God does not have the same bodies that we do. To state that God feels emotions (loneliness, anger, pride, hatred, love, doubt) is a ridiculous assumption on our behalf and merely shows our immaturity as a species to conceive of intelligent beings that are _not_ like us! Personification of our emotions on to God is compelling for us to do, but we have no way to defend our assumptions that God feels any emotions that we can understand.
God could be an unconscious being without free will or any concept of morality.
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If God exists, it could be neutral or have a morality completely different to our own. Stating that it is "good" from our point of view is a matter of assumption, defining God as "good" is something we cannot extrapolate simply from the belief that God exists.
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We do not know if worship is meaningful to anything else but ourselves. If God is omniscient, it knows all the respect we have for it and worship itself doesn't show God anything it didn't already know. Just because God exists doesn't mean that it wants worship either. Why would an omnipotent being want to be worshipped? There is no good answer to this question, worship is a function of dogma and tradition, and not sensible belief.
If we conclude (this appears to be true) that worship can make people feel happy then it's probably more honest for us to consider worship a form of meditation.
Atheists and theists both make some similar assumptions. The theist's basic assumptions about the existence of God and the Universe are very similar to an atheists and both use the same kind of logic to arrive at conclusions about the creation of the universe. Logic alone cannot say which belief is correct. (But occam's razor provides a hint that it is atheism, the simpler belief, that is likely to be true). My essay "Faith" attempts to list these.
"If God is all-knowing, then the instant God was conscious it would have known all the pros and cons of creating a Universe and knew that it was going to do it. Therefore there is no reason for God to wait. If God chooses to wait then what is the reason?... there must be a reason. This reason, to cause God to wait, would be a limit on his omnipotence. If there is some reason why God hesitates in creating the Universe then at some point that reason no longer existed and he went on to create the Universe. What caused the "reason" for the wait to go away? Therefore the Universe must have existed for infinity, it must have been automatically created the same instant God was.""God did not create the universe" by Vexen Crabtree 2002 Aug 27
The above quote leads us to realize that even if God exists we do not know why the Universe was created. The reason that God created the Universe is still unknown. If there was no reason, if it was illogical, then atheists say that it is more likely that the Universe exists for no logical reasons without God, rather than for no logical reason with God.
Saying "God exists because who else could create the Universe" and other such statements are based on meaningless assumptions by theists.
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I find all-knowing to be impossible because it is impossible for any being to know that it knows everything: Therefore no being knows everything.
"Open theology" is Christian belief that holds that God is not actually all-knowing. It is evident that the assumption that God is all-knowing is not universal, and is an unproven assertion by theists that believe it.
It is probably true that if you are all-knowing you have to be omnipotent, and if you are omnipotent you can attain omniscience with ease. The two properties appear to imply each other, so proof of only one of them is required. But, as all-knowing appears to be self-contradictory it is likely that omnipotent is also impossible.
The mere existence of God doesn't provide us with proof of anything else. We can't base the assumption that there are bad and good spirits on the fact that God exists, because the two are different topics entirely. Likewise, proving that ghosts or angels exist does not prove that God exists.
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If science or philosophy came up with a logical proof that God exists, then we will still not know which Bible, Religion or beliefs about God were correct. Most Bibles and religions' beliefs contradict each other, so we know that most of them are wrong.
We can't conclude that the most popular religion is most likely to be correct, but at various times in history various beliefs have been most-popular. For example, most people believed the world was flat. Doesn't mean it was! In the future, Islam will be the most popular religion. It doesn't mean, however, that it becomes the true religion. Popularity is not a measure of truth.
If science proves the existence of God we still do not know if Christianity, Islam or Devil Worship are more logical. If God exists, reincarnation could be true, Buddhist-style. The existence of God isn't evidence for or against most beliefs.
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Proof of the existence of a God is only a minor point of most belief systems. Furthermore it is the job of the theist to prove that God is all-good, all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful. They also must prove that God should be worshipped. They need to prove that Heaven and Hell exist, and that other aspects of their faith are true. The mere existence of God is not the same as these assumptions about God!
Bane Of Monotheism contains many essays which offer arguments that the above assumptions cannot be true.
Relevant pages by Vexen:
It doesn't make sense to assume to call God "he" or "she", as it has no gender
Refuting Monotheism
Major arguments against the existence of God
Notes
By Vexen Crabtree 2002 Sep 25