Posted: Oct 07, 2016 9:51 pm
jamest wrote:This is a naive thread in my eyes, as the usual attitude of most theists to this question (including myself), is that God is eternal and thus had no beginning... hence required no cause for its own existence. It wouldn't even make sense for God to be an effect of another cause! I mean, God cannot be 'God' if it's a mere effect of something else. That's why God is consistently defined as the primal cause of everything.
I was under the impression that most atheists were aware of this, hence my judgement that it's a naive thread.
Except that it depends on your definition of 'God'.
God as it is commonly understood, refers to the Abrahamic god.
If you're talking about a general deity, then the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and several other cultures would argue with you that it depends on which god you're referring to, as neither Zeus, nor Ra, nor, for example Thor, created everything.