|
Kant considered the question of the existence or nonexistence of God as an antinomy, that is, something of which reasonable arguments could be made either way. When logically considered, the whole question devolves into meaninglessness. Kant himself believed in God, but admitted that his reasons for believing were not logical. Even a modern atheistic philosopher, such as Sartre, merely postulates that there is no God and makes no attempt to prove it.
A fairy is not a god. That is a very poor analogy. A fairy is a limited being with some finite magical powers. The God of which we speak in such an argument has the omnipotence to "create" the universe (or rearrange matter to bring the universe as we know it into its present state). Another feature of such a being is omniscience, but theologians, particularly Abrahamic theologians, often take this to mean an omniscience of ethical truths by which God makes judgments concerning the acts of civilized human beings. As one might suppose, the arguments of such theologians as the the nature of divine ethics and morality is as meaningless as the discussion of the existence of God in the first place. Indeed, it is this kind of thinking that has brought the human race a peck of trouble and a world of hurt and, ironically, given religion a bad name.
The fact is that to believe in an omnipotent and omniscient being implies nothing about a divine nature to human concepts like ethics or morality. Once the theist makes this additional assertion beyond the existence of God, he finds himself on thin ice. To assert that the Bible is the word of God (and we know this because it says so in the Bible) is a circular argument which, if accepted, can be used to prove any thing, such as the necessity of mass murder.
To say that a god who is omnipotent and omniscient with respect to the natural universe is concerned about any thing else is quite a leap. To my mind, religion should ask such questions as "Why are there stars in the sky instead of nothing at all?" or "What is my relationship, as an individual and as a human, to all else that is?"
|