Saturday, April 2, 2016

Properties of God

God is not directly observable, in the scientific sense. Therefore, one of the following is true. In no particular order:
  1. God does not exist locally.
    1. God never existed. Athiesm. 
    2. God existed at some unobservable point in time, but not at this point. Mortal god. 
    3. God exists at some unobservable point in space, but not at this point. Spatially-constrained god. 
  2. God exists and cannot choose to be observable. Limited power over physical reality. 
  3. God exists and does not choose to be observable.
    1. God is not aware of the possibility of becoming observable. Limited imagination or knowledge. 
    2. God actively chooses to not be observable
      1. God desires to be unobservable with no further end. Inscrutable God.
      2.  God desires to be unobservable to achieve some other end. Limited in means achieve desired ends.
Per Descartes, some thinking being continues to exist to read these posts. Presuming God to exist, one of the following must be true.
  1. The reader is, in some sense, God. Pantheism. 
  2. The reader is not in any way God.
    1. God can not prevent the reader from existing. Limited power over physical reality. 
    2. God does not choose to prevent the reader from existing.
      1. God is not aware of the possibility of destroying the reader. Limited imagination or knowledge. 
      2. God actively chooses to allow the reader to exist.
        1. God desires the reader to exist with no further end. Inscrutable God.
        2. God desires the reader to exist to achieve some other end. Limited in means achieve desired ends.
Many of these lead to very odd definitions of "god". I would define a being that is mortal, constrained by space or physical reality, or limited in imagination or knowledge as not being a god. That eliminates most of our bullet points. Looking at what remains, let us assume that God is extant and separate from man. Given that we cannot observe God, and that we continue to exist, we must conclude one of two things: either it is literally meaningless to question the motivations of God; or the actions of God are constrained to be self-consistent in some fashion in service of some larger goal.

When we ask the questions "Why did God create?" or "Why does God allow suffering?" we are implicitly assuming that God's motives are not inscrutable. But by elimination, that implies that God has a desired end, and that that desired end is not not consistent with the states of reality we are supposing. In short, the kind of God we can ask such questions about can't have everything He wants at once. God allows you to continue existing because that's better for his ends, whatever they may be.

So then it is reasonable to ask, what is God's end goal? Again, we can narrow this down. If God is not constrained by physics, His goal must be unrelated to the physical state of the universe. His goals must, therefore, be spiritual, where we define spiritual to mean "unconstrained by time and observed physical reality". We are positing the existence of a spiritual reality separate from the realm we occupy, and that both God and his goals are part of this spiritual realm.

If God's goals are spiritual, either God is the exclusive target of his own goals, or there are other aspects to spiritual reality besides God. Either way, we conclude that our physical existence must have some capacity to affect a spiritual realm. The very question "why does God allow suffering" implies that our actions and experiences have eternal impact, and that God is manipulating that eternal impact in some desired fashion. You're suffering because God needs you to.

Now, supposing God's goals are spiritual, we can divide their possibilities. Either God's goals involve us, or they do not. If they involve us, there is a spiritual us to be involved, a soul. What goals could God have concerning a soul? What states could an eternal soul have, that God might wish to alter? Existence or nonexistence, communion or separation? Those are concepts we can somewhat grasp, but there are doubtless concepts that we cannot. Here we are unable to even properly speculate.