where's that timid little god hiding now?

Do you know of the timid little god who accepts as zir "area of influence" only those areas where science cannot go?

Have you heard of "the god of the gaps", ze who gets smaller and smaller the more we discover how things work scientifically?

Here's a link to a DiscoveryNews article, "No God Required", an egregious example of god-of-the-gaps thinking.

This post kills those pesky transcendentalists stone-dead.

The basic mistake lies in the implicit assumptions and definitions. It's easy to prove that no God is required if you cook the books right from the start, using unwarranted assumptions and definitions. But that achieves nothing.

Consider the following quote from the article:

" ... scientists discussed the Big Bang and whether there was a requirement for some divine power to kick-start the Universe 13.75 billion years ago. ... unsurprisingly, the resounding answer was: No. ... The Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics..."

Here's how you do the trick:

• First you define god as "the divine power that kickstarts the Universe".
• Then you point to the Big Bang and say, "see, we don't need god after all, it was the Big Bang that kickstarted the universe".

But there's a flaw in the argument. The trick only works in the absence of logic, and the presence of egregious terminologizers (people who play with words).

Because, as every pantheist appreciates, God IS the Big Bang. God IS the Laws of Physics. God IS the Universe. Creator and Creation are not only identical, they are one and the same thing: Everything.

Discovering laws of physics doesn't mean you're discovering god does not exist: quite the opposite. For every new law of physics discovered, another aspect of god is discovered.

The very word, "pantheism" means "all is god" -- every atom, every thought, every Law, every Bang!

Scientists can discover stuff to their hearts' content -- none of it has any impact on the pantheist conception of the numinous.

Which brings us into the sterile debates of theologians about immanent vs transcendental deity. Clearly, a transcendental deity such as Jehovah -- standing separate and apart from creation -- stands for alienation and separation, by definition.

In contrast is immanent deity, in which Creator IS Creation, in which the whole of Reality itself comprises a Being who is alive, aware and full of love. This Being stands for inclusions and integration. Immanent deity is all-inclusive deity no-one and nothing can ever be apart from, by definition.

But let's not use the word "god", it's too controversial. Instead, let's use the word "Everything", to describe that which includes every thing.

So, aside from anything and every thing else, Everything includes the Big Bang. But what if the Big Bang never happened, what if Big Bang Theory is false? Does that mean Everything does not exist?

Of course not. If Big Bang Theory is false, Everything is still true. If scientists discover that the Universe was born not out of a Big Bang but rather out of a Small Kiss, for example, Everything simply smiles and moves on. God doesn't depend on Science; in fact Science depends on God.

Everything includes the false idea that the Universe was born out of a Big Bang, as well as the true idea that the Universe was born out of a Small Kiss. And BTW, Everything also includes Truth itself, and Falsehood. And Jehovah too.

HOME

---

eBooks by Cosmic Rapture:

NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously illustrated by over 20 grotesque images you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?) We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS A disturbing repository of quotably quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated