[extropy-chat] Atheists launch inquisition...

[Brett Paatsch]

Either God, sufficiently defined as to be a meaningful referent
between two people discussing the word, exists or doesn't exist.

So the proposition "that God exists" is either true or false but not
necessarily falsifiable. Some definitions of God are internally
inconsistent and such a God cannot exist. In such cases it is not
a matter of belief to assert that God does not exist, it is a matter
of logic. 

But people play with words like God and in so doing change the
meaning of the word making the referent a source of confusion. 

For example Spinoza said "God is that being than which none
greater can exist." And then added the stipulation that to exist in
reality is better (i.e. greater) than to exist merely in the imagination. 

Spinoza's conception of God as thus far outlined does not violate
the contingency of the universe. On the contrary it seems specifically
designed to fit within it. God is merely the greatest being existing in 
reality. 

However much smaller contingency may make the real world than
any imaginary one God would still be the greatest existing thing
in that real world.

Thinking of God in that way Spinoza could not be an atheist even
if he was the only sentient thinker in the universe - as Spinoza would
then be God.  Not a very impressive one by other conceptions of 
God perhaps but the best one that could exist in reality for Spinoza.

Brett Paatsch