Posted: Jan 18, 2011 2:42 am
the mouse wrote:Because the word "god", even capitalised, is not defined. It's vague, and essentially meaningless until it is defined.
Meaningless to whom?
Meaningless for the purposes of rational discourse. It's impossible to have a proper discussion if you don't define your terms.
Look, it's a lot like someone asking "do you believe in karma?"
The only way to respond to which is to try to delineate what the hell they're talking about. Do they mean "karma" as in the sort of wishy-washy "what goes around comes around" insta-karma that many people sort of claim to vaguely believe, and which seems to be nothing more than a general wishfulness? Or do they mean "karma" as in the more specific "how you behave in this incarnation dictates the form of your next incarnation". The two notions are entirely different, and you can't have a meaningful discussion about it without the clarification. (Quite aside from the fact that neither of them is actually the same as the notions espoused by, for example, Gautama - but that's another discussion).
You contest that the OP meant "a higher power", but even that much isn't clear, and is merely a fucking assertion. And it still leaves things undefined and nebulous. What is a "power"? Higher than what? What does it do? None of these things is clear in the functionally vacuous phrase "a higher power". You could be talking about three-phase, for all I know.
Just get two believers talking and see how long it lasts before they start disagreeing about the nature and properties of the thing they both claim to worship.
Here's your problem. Two people can believe in Richard Dawkins, but disagree about his nature, such is he a good father, and a kind man, an intelligent human being, etc..., in the same sense two people can believe in God, and disagree about his nature, such as if God is concerned with affairs of his creature, if he can or does intervene supernaturally, if he loves us or not, or if his nature is revealed in Jesus Christ, etc....
Who the fuck believes in Richard Dawkins? What does that phrase even mean? How does one "believe in" a person?