God is Dead!

[Josh Braun]

Friedriche Nietzsche said that God is a projection of "ourselves" and that we imagined him in our minds  and in realizing that, He no longer exists. He goes so far as to say that we killed Him.

It also raises many questions...

Can God die?

Is God really just a projection of ourselves?

Did God die? I'm asking this one because people always say God died on the cross for us, so...

If God died on the cross, wouldn't he be dead?

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

People also say that it was God's son who died, and that he then rose from the dead.

[Josh Braun]

I also heard that there's a huge fucking bunny that hands out chocolate in honor of the fact that God's son rose from the dead.

[CD]

There's also an old obese man with flying deer that lives in the North Pole that gives rich kids the toys they want and poor kids whatever their parents can afford.  And the tags are always signed in Mum's handwriting for some reason but DAMMIT HE'S REAL.

[Josh Braun]

Say everyone did stope believing in God, or that we never had religion. Would God effectively be dead?

[Fake Crowley]

1. Yes. We will use science to murder him or die trying.

 

By this I don't mean that biology or geogology will make him disappear in a puff of logic, or that we'll show that Jesus never existed. And I don't mean that he'll actually be erased from reality.

 

What I mean is that, "God," is, by definition, something that breaks the rules of reality--something that creates contradictions in the world. God is our name for the impossible, for magic--something that can't be done being done anyways. But since breaking the rules of reality is, by definition, impossible, God does not exist. There is a difference between an omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnipotent creator and God. The former can--and, if he should exist, most certainly would--follow a strict set of rules that produce predictable results and which we can understand. The latter does not. God is dying because soon we will realize that we can replicate his power--or even use him as a tool to bend the universe to our will. Science can be replicated and put in a bottle, so to speak--God can not. Everyone is free to disagree on the matter and with my reasoning, but I highly doubt the possibility of there being something that breaks a rule. It might be the rules of the world that governs our rules, or the one above that, or above that, but everything that happens is the result of the laws of reality on some level, and our creator--if he exists--is no exception.

[Josh Braun]

I'm not sure if I understand. You are saying that God will eventually be proven fake by science because he is part of a universe in which he breaks almost every rule, and that he is no exception to the rules.

If one truly believes in God, he is omnipotent in the sense that he created the entire universe and lives outside of time, so almost no matter how much science proves, there is always room for Gods existence. I mean, God isn't going to create a universe in which he wouldn't exist.

[Abreo]

For an atheist, saying that God is dead is a bit non-nonsensical because in order to be dead something has to have been alive.

I've seen the passage that phrase came from but I've never actually read the whole book. Nevertheless I have read about the meaning behind the phrase (when I was first looking up Nietzsche) and it doesn't actually have anything to do with God himself being dead. It's more of a comment on human morality than anything else.

Whither is God," he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. All of us are murderers.... God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him...

It's kind of clear he isn't just saying God died for the sake of pissing people off.

[Josh Braun]

People have rejected religious ideas for the sake of logic since ancient Greece, so I don't see why people made such a  fuzz about Nietzche. Also, the story goes that JESUS died on the cross. But I get your confusion; Christianity both seem to want unify and separate the concepts of God and Jesus, all while claiming to be a monotheist religion. I always found that to be quite strange.  

That's a good point, I've never really thought about Christianity being polytheistic because of God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit, but it's definitely a different view.

So what he said is not that we killed some omnipotent super being but that we killed an idea of one.

He personally doesn't believe in God, but to try to convince others, or show a proof to others, that God doesn't exist, he speaks of good vs. evil and how an omnipotent being didn't create them. That we created them ourselves and that because we are creators, we created God, and to create, we need to destroy.

A rough example, using Nietzshe's logic/belief, is like Christianity was created by us, in the destruction of paganism, and that these morals that "God" created were really created by us because Christianity was. Due to this, we are the ultimate creators.

[Aaron Leathley-Andrew]

I find the discussion on the existence of God to be incredibly intriguing. I think the key point is not whether or not "God" exists, but on the existence of belief. God is merely a manifestation of a group of people's belief. However this belief is very dynamic and will continue to change in order to maintain the existence of something greater than the individual. This is common amongst any religion not just Christianity.

( I personally view science as a religion also. with the exception that the name God has been replaced with the scientific method. It does not mean that either is superior.)

[Josh Braun]

It also comes down to you own philosophy.

I honestly think that this is just like the riddle "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

If God exists and no one's there to believe Him, does he still exist? If God is just a manifestation of a group of people's beliefs does that solidify/prove him or is it just a thought?

[CD]

I suppose if you're a pantheist it's like the tree and the bit where the sound might/not be is God.  So if you chop down a tree, you're hacking at god. But really because you're part of god, god is hacking at itself. So if you die, part of god dies.  But not really because we all become worm food, and the worms are god too.

If I were ever to change from atheism to theism, pantheism would probably where I'd go....

[Eystein,]

Another famous quote:

'Nietzsche is dead' - God

Would be awesome though, if God could have such an awesome sense of humor. Alas He doesn't, which might be because, you know... cause He ain't real!