Bambi,
You: <i>On the other hand, such a godhead is: 1) ultimately just as limited as you or me</i>
Me: <i>Not in our universe - only in His own.</i>
You: <i>But what's the difference? I mean, in an absolute sense.</i>
It would make a big difference to us. A God could presumably do what he likes in our universe. We can't.
I don't think you need to be absolutely supernatural to be God-like. I am reminded of one of Clarke's laws: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Me: <i>The world's religions describe God as the Great Designer, whose hand guides the universe etc. etc.</i>
You: <i>Such a godhead is no longer a primary cause of all existence. It is merely a primary cause of our existence. Quite a step down from every religion I've encountered so far.</i>
Religions tend not to get into details like this. They tend to regard our existence (i.e. our universe's existence) as all existence (leaving room for heaven, hell and so on). That's enough to keep most of the people happy most of the time.
<i>Having any sentient actor as an explanation of anything that is not obviously authored by sentience is essentially anthropomorphic and naive to a fault. It's a baby's view of the world.</i>
Not if it turns out to be true.
<i>The feeling is that such a God is not only small and limited, but utterly irrelevant and totally unessential for existence.</i>
You are, of course, quite welcome to hold that view. For myself, I prefer to reserve judgment on that issue, since all the data isn't in yet.
<i>So how is the God you propose any different? It's just another proximate cause, not a final one.</i>
This particular god is, but there can be other gods which aren't.
<i>Not to mention that the very idea is spurious, aside from being wrong with overwhelming likelihood. I suppose one can huddle with it in some imaginary reality, but what's the point?</i>
All this is just your personal opinion. As I say, you are welcome to it. I am not arguing that a god exists. I am only saying that a god is not logically inconsistent with anything. I simply raise the possibility of His/Her/Its/Their existence, and keep an open mind.
edit-- PS I couldn't find your mathematical justification to say that God is improbable.
You: <i>On the other hand, such a godhead is: 1) ultimately just as limited as you or me</i>
Me: <i>Not in our universe - only in His own.</i>
You: <i>But what's the difference? I mean, in an absolute sense.</i>
It would make a big difference to us. A God could presumably do what he likes in our universe. We can't.
I don't think you need to be absolutely supernatural to be God-like. I am reminded of one of Clarke's laws: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Me: <i>The world's religions describe God as the Great Designer, whose hand guides the universe etc. etc.</i>
You: <i>Such a godhead is no longer a primary cause of all existence. It is merely a primary cause of our existence. Quite a step down from every religion I've encountered so far.</i>
Religions tend not to get into details like this. They tend to regard our existence (i.e. our universe's existence) as all existence (leaving room for heaven, hell and so on). That's enough to keep most of the people happy most of the time.
<i>Having any sentient actor as an explanation of anything that is not obviously authored by sentience is essentially anthropomorphic and naive to a fault. It's a baby's view of the world.</i>
Not if it turns out to be true.
<i>The feeling is that such a God is not only small and limited, but utterly irrelevant and totally unessential for existence.</i>
You are, of course, quite welcome to hold that view. For myself, I prefer to reserve judgment on that issue, since all the data isn't in yet.
<i>So how is the God you propose any different? It's just another proximate cause, not a final one.</i>
This particular god is, but there can be other gods which aren't.
<i>Not to mention that the very idea is spurious, aside from being wrong with overwhelming likelihood. I suppose one can huddle with it in some imaginary reality, but what's the point?</i>
All this is just your personal opinion. As I say, you are welcome to it. I am not arguing that a god exists. I am only saying that a god is not logically inconsistent with anything. I simply raise the possibility of His/Her/Its/Their existence, and keep an open mind.
edit-- PS I couldn't find your mathematical justification to say that God is improbable.