The Greatest Conceivable Being

[frankblahnik]

One day God sat down in his recliner and kicked His feet up after a long days work of seeing to the universes every need and requirement. God switched on the TV to watch His favorite show FREE WILL. It was a rerun, but God didn’t care because He produced and directed the show and he even did a little acting as the main star in the show. His character as Jesus in the show, was to open the eyes and ears of the other characters and to free them from the prisons they entrap themselves in. His part was short and sweet, but His Spirit lived on. His Spirit was always in and throughout the show in one way or another.

God sat…and He watched.

He is watching.

He is in you.

Can you feel Him?

Talk to Him.

Just say Hi.

He loves you.

God is the GCB and we should love Him.

 

[FrankSchnabel]

Hi Gottle,

What JD just said.

Hey Frank,

God is the GCB and we should love Him.

Amen to that.

and Merry Christmas to you all!

 

[Spirithound]

God cannot be the or a GCB. If He were, He would not be greater than we are, except in degree. God cannot be conceived of, &** has no properties: not even that of having no properties **​

Dear Gottle, I had to read this a couple times to fully digest it, and it is very deep, and I think true. We can only conceive finitely, which cannot fathom an infinite being, and certainly God must have attributes that we cannot even think of!

 

[JDaniel]

Dear Gottle, I had to read this a couple times to fully digest it, and it is very deep, and I think true. We can only conceive finitely, which cannot fathom an infinite being, and certainly God must have attributes that we cannot even think of!

Spirithound:

One word that seems to throw a wrench of confusion into this equasion is the word, conceive. For Saint Anselm, the word more properly meant, apprehend. Apprehend, in this case is “knowing”.

While it is quite obvious that we, as mere mortals, cannot fully know God, we can, by understanding His attributes, derive a substantial grasp of what and who He is. For example, there are not enough words and sheets of paper to adequately describe omnipotence (one of His attributes), but, I know what it means.

Why else would He have revealed His attributes to us if not so that we might try to apprehend Him?

Merry Christmas and
God Bless,
jd

 

[greylorn]

Then I would have to find another argument for God’s existance to show how atheism is foolish. I would have to abandon my argument and either find or discover another one.

Well, then I would have to define what I mean by the term God. God is infinte, eternal, and unchangable in his being, wisdom, power, goodness, justice, holiness, and truth.

If we show that God exists, then atheists do not have an excuse to not believe in God. If it is shown that God does not exist, then theists do not have an reason to believe in God.

Z/H
Let us get as real as possible on a wonderful website which grants us anonymity, and where ideas will never be translated into action.

I submit that your last paragraph is irrelevant. You don’t really care about atheists, or what they believe, do you?

If you are a normal human being, your beliefs in God are set in the same stone which explains your reason for existence.

Can we cut to that particular chase? Do you know why you exist? Your reason for being? And do you believe the truth of those programmed beliefs?

(Incidentally, to question your current beliefs on this subject does not need to leave you beliefless. There are concepts out there which invite the conscious mind to enter. Before examining them, it is useful to take a good look at your current expectations in terms of purpose.)

 

[Dameedna]

Almost a thousand years ago there was monk, Anselm of Canterbury. He was a man of faith, but he also was a man of reason. Demonstrating the Catholic believe that reason is of God, Anselm sought a rational demonstration of God’s existence.
He sought an idea that would be true to and expressive of religious faith, and he proposed “that than which none greater can be conceived.” We will call it Greatest Conceivable Being (GCB) for short.

GCB is expressive of religious faith because religious man, if he is rational, will worship only the greatest being. The logic of worship, which is exaltation above any other, requires such a definition. So God is the GCB.

Oh so THAT’s what you mean by the logic of worship. I was wondering about that!! hehe.

Hope ya’ll had a good new year and chrissy btw

 

[Dameedna]

Hi Cell,

The “bias” in the definition of GCB is that necessary existence is implied by “greatest conceivable.” If you accept the definition, you no longer can entertain notions that the GCB might not or does not exist.

Which ultimately leads back to the question, what do you mean by God?

**An open-minded skeptic **(who gets it) will refrain from concluding that God exists necessarily because he isn’t sure that it is true that “God is the GCB” makes sense. He will undertake further investigations into the definition to see if it is consistent and coherent. He knows that if he affirms the premise he must become a believer.

**A Convinced Non-Believer **(who gets it) will deny the truth of the premise and therefore conclude that there is no meaningful idea of God. It is impossible for God to exist.

Not sure what you mean by these. What definition is he/she looking to see as consistent and coherant?

What premise is a non-believer supposedly denying?

And I’m not too sure, I like the language you are using here. When you say some-one will “deny” something, you are implying they are doing something wrong. You are claiming a truth, and then claiming non-believers deny it that truth. That’s not very fair Frank, and I think you would do better to reword that.

Same with your “affirming truth” statment. Your language show’s some bias I think. I’m not trying to be rude or mean, I just really think that it detracts from your usually well written and well thought out discussions.

 

[FrankSchnabel]

Hi Dame,

Great to hear from you. Hope you had a blessed Christmas as well.

Which ultimately leads back to the question, what do you mean by God?

Not sure what you mean by these. What definition is he/she looking to see as consistent and coherant?

What premise is a non-believer supposedly denying?

That “God is the GCB” makes sense.

And I’m not too sure, I like the language you are using here. When you say some-one will “deny” something, you are implying they are doing something wrong.

Not at all, my dear. Especially not you!

Substitute “reject” or some other synonym that seems less judgmental. (But I yam right, ya know.)

Hoping yer wedder is bedder down under (nasty cold in nordakotah)…

Frank