What exactly about this god is not based on previous knowledge and experience?
Well, actually, I think He is based on previous knowledge and experience. Because He IS. Because we are more than physical beings, we are also spiritual, and so we seek out the spiritual because it is part of us and within us to do so. Were we purely physical beings, we could not do this.
But if he did not exist... or the spiritual did not exist... then my answer to the question above would be:
God, himself.
This god was made up and limited by the knowledge of those that created it. It did not come from the outside, but from the inside.
Yes, because we ARE more than just the physical. It is why we seek more than just the physical for an answer.
There is not one trait that this god is attributed with that is not already evident in humans. There is not one bit of knowledge that this god had, that was not available to the people that created it.
Eternity is one not evident in humans.
Knowledge, I will have to disagree with you. Raising the dead, healing the sick, the so called 'miracles'. The understanding of no beginning, no end, before science has discovered it. The simple term... putting on and taking off the flesh... I am certain is understanding of something that science has yet to uncover; though it has learned things that could be considered backing such an idea. We won't know this for a fact yet, because science is not there yet. But we do know, according to Einstein, that matter and energy is constant... that it is two forms of the same thing... that matter and energy can move from one form to another, because the amount of both remains constant in the universe, and we know that energy can become matter... (or is it the other way around?)
Science is going to prove things that some tried to describe, imo, but did not themselves have the knowledge nor words to do so. The trick is whether we will be able to recognize that some of those things were communicated to men, who just did not have the scientific terms or understanding to communicate that knowledge beyond their limited understanding. Like being limited as to how something appears, rather than describing the technical aspects of a thing.
And you are wrong about one shade---humans CAN think up things beyond their reality. Fiction. The big questions, The WHY. That is what makes us different than other species. Had George Lucas ever seen a light saber? No. Do we conclude that knowledge of light sabers must have come from an outside source? No. We know that Lucas saw lights and lasers and swords---and he simply combined a bunch of known things with his imagination to come up with a new weapon.
Fiction is still based on things we know, and simply manipulate into other things.
Your argument, Tec, does not acknowledge what humans are capable of. We can do more than take in information, we can build on it. We can CREATE. We can think symbolically. Why you insist that humans just could not have made up god concepts is just beyond me. I am creating a god as we speak.
Build on what, is the question.
We cannot build on nothing.
In a world full of fiction and science, music, art, literature, to hold the position that humans are incapable of making up gods to answer their questions is just---I don't know---closed minded? So let's think about gods. Why such a widespread concept (although NOT universal). Well it makes sense. In the human experience, everything created is created by humans. It is not a huge leap to come up with a superhuman that creates the larger things. Did you dream of someone who died? But you can't see that someone while awake? But they were there! But not here? So there must be some special 'there' where they still walk.
Could be there is some special 'there' that they still walk. That dreams help us see more. That dreams themselves might suggest that we ARE more. However, I stated earlier that I do not know about dreams... that it is a good question to ponder, and for me, to ask about. I will wait for an answer, and perhaps also research more about their cause and our need for them.
Einstein thought thoughts that no one ever thought before. We are capable of taking in available evidence and extrapolating it. That's logic. Sometimes we start from a place of ignorance--and we end up anywhere. Sometimes we start from a place of knowledge, and the journey is more directed and supported. But to pretend that it is just impossible for humans to create gods and spiritual things is to deny that we are able to think creatively and symbolically.
We can think thoughts that no one thought before... but not on things that we have not observed and built upon.
It is not adequate evidence. In fact, it is not evidence at all.
It is evidence for me... though certainly not proof, and not infallable, so to speak. Though I have used it as more of a question. I cannot even conceive of how to go about 'conceiving' something entirely outside my realm of existence.
Peace,
tammy
