God in Medicine

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Mythos, Jun 15, 2006.

  1. Mythos

    Mythos

    As a long time member of the medical community, I have been forced to conclude that the God in the bible does not exist. I have lost the belief in it. How can a perfect being create such imperfect children, full of sickness and disease? Sure, I discuss God with the terminally ill, but all the while I know that no God is going to cure them. God is mainly a mental security blanket to make the insecure feel a sense of direction in the unknown.

    As a long time member of ET under an alias, I submit this questions to best and brightest philosophers on this board.

    Mythos
     
  2. statistics have long ago proved that prayer does not change outcomes. all studies show believers have no different sickness\disease statistics than non believers.
     
  3. Belief in a loving god that cares for the individual is the most prevalent and untreated neurosis in the world.
     
  4. fhl

    fhl

    God has nothing to work with in those who don't believe.
    I thought this thread was about God and medicine. "and the leaves on the trees were for the healing of the nations".
     
  5. In order for God to remain limitless, omnipotent and almighty, he/she/it must remain beyond all understanding and measurement, because in the operation of confirming God's existence by the scientific method, which requires verification of hypothesis by repeatable experiment, some quality of God would become permanently fixed, and beyond God's power to change.

    Thus, in that instant, God would cease to be God.

    It's really just that simple. If God is to remain God, then verification of his/her/its existence must remain impossible.

    One can certainly infer the non-existence of God by statistical analysis, because no pattern or probability in God's supposed interaction with this universe can be found. But, the non-existence of God can never be absolutely ruled out, because any scientific test that attempts to do so, must presume, a priori, the ability to verify that which cannot, by definition, be verified.

    So, take comfort in this, and live your life, because the answer you seek cannot be answered, except by your own faith. If there is a God, then you will find out in due time. And, if there isn't, then it won't matter.
     
  6. stu

    stu

    Then indeed KJ, at the point where he/she/it must remain beyond all understanding, God ceased to be God .

    For by what you say, some quality of God ( understanding and measurement) has become permanently fixed as not possible, and therefore beyond God's power to change that state.

    Were God around and able to change that, it too would become permanently ffixed, making what was supposed to be God not God.
    God damns itself either way!
     
  7. Keep on explaining TV to your granny, stu.
     
  8. I don't think that follows. If <i>any</i> scientific conclusion is "permanently fixed" and "beyond God's power to change," then God is not limitless. Conversely, if we take God's power as axiomatic, that means that God can influence the course of science at any point, however He wishes. This is true for any scientific conclusion, whether it concerns God, evolution, or cow flatulence; it doesn't matter. Either God is truly omnipotent, beyond science and human perceptions, or God is not omnipotent, and can be caged by scientific discovery. No work of Man, be it science or faith, can move Him from one category to another.

    An omnipotent God could at His whim allow us to believe that we have incontrovertible proof of His existence. Of course it would also be in His power to instantly eradicate all such evidence and leave behind a world where faith alone confirms His existence. For all we know this has already happened.

    I am an atheist, but I am not foolish enough to consider this anything other than a matter of faith. I do not believe that any scientific discovery could ever disprove the existence of an all powerful God.

    Martin
     
  9. stu

    stu

    Martin,

    God cannot be limitless. For He/She/It to be limitless, It would then quite simply be restricted to not being limited.

    To be restricted in any way whatsoever, is not a limitless God.
     
  10. A God with limitless power could certainly choose to impose limits on Himself. After doing so, He would no longer have limitless power.

    If you consider limitless power to be axiomatic to Godhood, then you could say that God has the power to choose not to be God anymore. I don't see any logical problem with that.

    Of course this is all moot since, for reasons already discussed, we can never observe the limitlessness of God's power. We can only take it on faith.

    Martin
     
    #10     Jun 15, 2006