Unanswered questions (General)

by dhw, Sunday, March 29, 2009, 09:37 (5506 days ago)

Since there appears to be a lull in proceedings, I thought it might be an appropriate moment to ask some questions. These are addressed to those who have recently put forward arguments which I've found difficult to follow, but of course if anyone else would like to comment, they should feel free to do so. - To George: In your post of 25 February under "Science and love etc." you rejected my assumption that as an atheist you would say it is not true that God exists. You wrote: 'I do not say it is not true. I say it depends on what you mean by "God". And the fact is that science does back the non-existence of many versions of "God".' My question to you, then, is what definition and/or version of "God" might you NOT dismiss as not true? - To David: You believe in a designer, but you advise us not to attribute any human qualities to it. This suggests to me that your version of the designer has no personal interest in us. If so, I have two questions: 
1) How does this panentheist God differ from that of the deists? 
2) If the designer has no personal interest in us, why should it matter to us ... apart from the scientific satisfaction of explaining the origin of life and the universe (though not of the designer) ... whether there is or is not a God? - To Mark: 
1) What criteria do you use for judging that some parts of the Bible are true and others are not? 
2) If you agree that all religions (including Christianity) are based on tales and traditions written down or passed on orally by people of different beliefs, what criteria do you use for judging that all religions except Christianity are false? - To John: 
1) You say you are a materialist, a monist, and an agnostic. How do you reconcile materialism with agnosticism? 
2) (Maybe the same question put another way:) Bearing in mind that an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in God, and therefore leaves open the possibility that God exists, what sort of God do you consider to be possible? - And two general questions:
1) Are we cells in a superorganism?
2) Are all religions facets of the same universal truth, or are they elaborate fictions devised by humans to explain the inexplicable and to lay down rules for individual and social behaviour?