Posted: Jan 11, 2019 11:05 am
Thommo wrote:It's meaningless to me as well. By "god" someone means a divine, intelligent, conscious agent, with powers unimaginably far beyond those of mortal man that is an object of worship.
That is what is often or commonly meant, yes, but that is not what is being suggested. There is no suggestion that this has anything at all to do with that sort of god.
Thommo wrote:So if we talk about some value (and there isn't necessarily a highest one at all, maybe my desire for oxygen? For the right temperature? Those are the things that if absent would give me the most rapid and immediate directive to act.), thought, feeling, philosophy or other mental structure (and again, we're playing fast and loose here, those are words we assign to form categories that are just representations, not the things themselves) then it corresponds with not a single one of the key defining features of a god.
I can't say what your highest ideal is, or even if you have one. I'm not sure I have one. I'm not much of a 'believer' in anything, in some ways, at least in some ways (I'm actually curious as to what my highest ideal, the thing I believe in the most, actually is, though I am accepting that belief will be involved).
Thommo wrote:So why call it a god? Why not a tax return, an interesting piece of musical theatre, that feeling you get when you wake up 13 minutes before the alarm goes off and you try and decide whether you'll feel better or worse if you go back to sleep?
I don't understand the question. Why not call it god? Or if you like the nearest equivalent thing to god?
I'm also not sure what you mean by for example tax return. Do you mean why not call a tax return god (in which case the answer would be that a tax return is not a belief) or do you mean why not say that belief in the importance of filling in a tax return is like believing in a god (in which case the answer might be that you theoretically could, if the importance of filling in a tax return was the most important thing that you believed in, your highest ideal, but I'm not sure if it is for anyone I know).
This topic is essentially about what you believe in, the most. As such, that feeling you get when you wake up 13 minutes before the alarm goes off, might not qualify, even if it involves a belief or beliefs.
Now, you personally might not have such a belief. But I think may do.