The Case For The Existence of God

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The Case For The Existence of God

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- a strategy of argumentation for

the idea that God exists;

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by Carl Baydala

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second draft

23:05 June 6, 2009

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Introduction and Strategy

.Friends, as you know, I am an atheist, or as some have determined, an agnostic. At any rate, I am not a firm believer in the notion of the existence of God. But, that label is not going to deter me from constructing an argument for the existence of the Entity. In fact, I think it is very worthy endeavor indeed, to argue in favor of the Entity, that is. The following argument is sound I believe, but it comes with a price tag as well.

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So, let us pretend that I am on a panel with some theists, whose job it is is to promote the idea of a God. That being the scenario then, and here is how I would proceed.

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Now, I have to convince a body of atheists and those impartial to the idea of God, that this God does in fact exist beyond any reasonable doubt whatsoever. I would want my case to be irrefutable and undeniable.

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In a court of law one has to produce some evidence or some argument to promote his case. And, in the case of God we must agree that no evidence of an empirical nature is of any good consequence to an impartial jury. There simply are no facts or incidents from history that will suffice to prove the existence of God. It is all hearsay or questionable or tainted evidence. All of the evidence can be argued against and refuted. Doubt will remain. The very idea of Christ having lived, for example, is debatable, so this is not a very good route on which to proceed. Even this business of miracles will do us no good. Miracles, in a modern scientific world simply do not occur; it is not logical or reasonable to assume that they do. It is simply against the rules of nature for miracles to occur. Ask Mr. David Hume the philosopher and he will tell you the same thing - they are delusions and products of the mind and no more. So what are we left with then? We are left with rational discourse and logic and the nature of ideas and the power of the human mind to reason and nothing more. We will have to be like the rationalist philosophers, Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza. We need to become a professional believer in ideas and logic and in the very idea of God itself if we are going to make any significant progress in our case.

Materialism and Idealism

As you know, there are two types of philosophers; there are the idealists and there are the materialists. Atheists are materialists and believe that only matter counts and that God cannot exist because He is only an idea; He is a product of the mind and He is no more. But, He does exist as an idea and that will not be an area of dispute. Ideas are existent things, even though they are not material things and cannot be seen or otherwise experienced in a sensory way.

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So, logically then we have to construct some kind of an argument that will put the idea on the same level as that of something material; something that we can feel and touch and see; we need to legitimize idealism for the materialist and to make him accept it for what it is. An idea is more than something which exists soley in the mind.

The inherent quality of an idea

An immediate problem of course is that the jury will quickly realize that ideas are formed in the mind and are therefore just aspects of something material or are simply, extended matter. Well, that is the key isn't it? That Idea is really just some attribute of matter itself I mean? Although you cannot see an idea or perceive it and deal with in any tangible way, you can at least experience it, so that means it does in fact exist. Ideas are things. Ideas can be subjects and objects; and they can exist alone and be entities unto themselves. Thus, God Himself can be an idea and therefore just another form of matter. If something exists in whatever form, whether as an ideal or even as something more concrete, it must ultimately be measureable. So, an idea is just another form of matter, just as mist or vapour is another form of water, which is something that we can see. All matter and all ideas consume space and are not space. We are simply dealing with different manifestations of the same thing;

Driving the case home

Now, you have to cater to the materialists who are still going to be skeptical; you have to win them over and you have to produce the slam dunk and the home run as it were. And, what we do is to use their materialism to our advantage and to win our case. In the above example of using water and vapour that is what we have attempted to do. Friends, there really is no such thing as a difference between idealism and materialism - they are exactly the same thing. Even an idea, closely examined, will contain elements of materialism; and idea will occupy space as I mention above. If we had the technology we could prove that beyond any reasonable doubt. But, we do not actually need any real measuring technology to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt. We simply need to produce as evidence for the jury, an idea. An existent idea. We will even want to produce the Entity and display him in a court of philosophical law if need be. And, we can do that and do it without sophisticated instruments. God does in fact exist - He is all things at all times, including ideas and all other forms of matter. And, this is how we bring the materialists on board; we simply prove to them that God exists as an idea because once we show what an idea really is then acceptance of God is a natural outcome of belief of the nature of ideas.

Nature as God - convincing the Pantheists

But, there is still danger here because we will have an argument from the Pantheists as well. These are the people who see God in all things. Nature is God and that is a very good argument indeed. So, the Pantheists will not be so easily swayed. We have to bring them on board as well. Friends, we have already lured them in by our above argument, even if they appear skeptical. God is all things all at the same time; He is nature and He is idea and matter simultaneously. He is truly supreme and omnipotent. And, that is so because He is everything at once and is most certainly found in nature. Nature is simply that grand expression that describes all to us. For within nature is God and God is manifested in the idea and in matter itself. So, God must exist because there is nothing greater than nature itself ( the Ontological Argument ) which is just everything that we can see and not see all at the same time. We need to ascribe a name to this magnificent creation or manifestation and that name is God.

What is God?

What is God? Yes, Friends, I ask what is God, not who is God because God is not a person or some anthropomorphic creation or idea. God just is. And, God must be, otherwise nothing would exist at all, no matter and no idea. Logically, God has to exist, but God is not a man or a woman as we think Him to be. You have to ask youself this question: who or what has the capability of producing something like an idea and matter, space and time -things which naturally exist;

.The Role of Consciousness and Epistemology

and the true definition of idea;

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First of all you have to realize that none of these things exist without consciousness; you would not be able to perceive or think about anything let alone a god. But, you do have consciousness and that is your ability to know. And, how do you know? You know by the idea of the thing, that is how. Nothing is meaning without thought or consciousness. A thing needs the ability to know itself before it can know anything else. And, it acquires this ability through God or idea. God is the source of consciousness. Now, thought in itself is not meaning; it is the messenger or the vehicle of meaning. Thought is like language; it is the purveyor of meaning. So, what has all of this got to do with God? Well, the answer is of course just about everything. Do you think that thought and meaning just happened without a cause - that matter came to togther and organized and began to think about objects in space and even to think about itself? What makes you think that man is so special that he gave himself the ability to think and to create ideas about everything? Where did these ideas come from? The human animal is a delicate device indeed and he is likened to his creator, which is in fact, God; God the idea and producer of even more ideas. And, the only way for man to perceive and to know is through the mechanism of idea. God is idea and idea is God. God the idea is manifest in man. Matter cannot know, but idea can. A materialist thinks that idea is the fruit of matter. But, how can this be if the idea itself has the ability to let you know what your circumstance is? Ideas cannot be known unless they are experienced and a brain composed of matter cannot produce an idea unless that idea is presented to it in the first place. So, here we encounter a great fallacy of the materialists; they think that their brains are producing ideas for them when in fact, it is not capable of doing so without first being exposed to the idea. And, that is the role of God or idea to affect that capability. God the infinite source of all ideas is the origin of these things. But, we also know that idea and God occupies space; it is manifest in some form that we cannot see; yet it exists and as we state above, idea is really just another form of matter. So, the materialist should know that there is no difference between matter and idea. But, there is more to the issue than this: Idea is superior to matter because it can be no other way. Ideas must necessarily exist in time and have done so for an eternity. Eternity is infinity and infinity is idea. And, idea is the same thing as God. God has existed for all time and is eternity and infinity and is Idea; a form of matter and is something which is not divisible as we know. That is why ideas are eternal and can be discovered; they really do exist on their own. So, it appears as if the philosopher Plato was right all along when he talked about the Forms and ideals.

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On the indivisibilty of matter

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Friends, we are not finished our argument just yet. For, there will still be the detractors as you may surmize. And, where would these detractors come from you may enquire? They will come from those non-believers who say that matter is not divisible; matter always was and always will be; it cannot be destroyed. We believe this fact to be true which we state above, but we must use this fact to our advantage;

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The primacy of all is idea of course as we have suggested above and it can be no other way. Friends, the human mind cannot perceive infinity, although this thing does exist, because it must. The only reason it cannot be perceived is because no one has experienced it. And, the only thing that has experienced it is Idea or God and that is because these things exist for all time. But, we know that ideas can be created and spring to life when thought about - they just need to be discovered, and in fact, they are waiting in abundance to be discovered. Perhaps it is time to give the serious doubter more proof of the matter. Friends, eternity and infinity exist. That means that whatever you are thinking about at this very moment has been thought about an infinite number of times in the past. Any idea that you have ever thought of or will think of has already been thought about, infinitely. So, why would you even bother to question the very idea of the origin of an idea or thought, or for that matter, anything at all? All things exist and only await discovery by you, and that includes God and idea - any idea. You cannot formulate or produce an idea because that has already been accomplished for you; it only awaits your discovery. That is the importance of the idea itself; that is the root of its paramount nature. None of us is capable of going back in time and discovering the very beginning of time and space. But, something is and that something is God, God the idea.

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Why God created man and woman

and the opposites

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Well, this is the final test and proof my friends, proof of the existence of God. God created man and woman; two different things which are attracted to one another. And, it is the same thing with idea and matter as well. They must both exist for either one to exist; they are each other's meaning and reason for existence. Man and woman need to come together just as idea and matter need to come together; they are both aspects of the same thing. What good would an idea be if it could not produce something through matter? Its raison d'etre would come to an end. And, that is why God or idea produced man and matter. But, He did not actually produce anything since nothing can be created from nothing. He simply changed the form of things so that all would comprehend. Idea is in charge of consciousness because if it was not then it could not know itself. And, knowing is the purpose of life. To know life is to know God or Idea, for they are precisely the same thing. You cannot talk to matter as matter, but you can talk to an idea which is simply a different form of matter and an idea has the ability to communicate with you as well. That is why God made matter so versatile as to promote understanding and meaning. God in His wisdom did that.

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Idea and Matter and God has always existed for all time just like vapor and ice have always existed. Friends, the clues are all around us, they just need to be discoverd. It is no sense having a tool if you are not going to do something with it now is there? Think of God and idea as manager; they are the creators of things; all imaginable things.

Summing up:

Implicit in my above statement is that idea came before matter, even though matter and idea necessarily need each other, and are in fact, different manifestations of the same thing - think of the water vapor and ice analogy. But, one of them had to come first, even though it is hard to argue that one came before the other since they need each other for their existence. An idea can do all things; it can even produce matter, and all it is really doing is producing itself anyway.

. I think you have to agree that thinking life in its various forms is just different forms of consciousness or knowing, or different manifestations of ideas. And, at base of knowing is the idea. And, since none of us agrees that something can be created out of nothing then surely the idea must have existed for all time and is the base of all knowledge and even consciousness itself. How would matter come to know itself without an idea? Did matter come alive one day and decide to create an idea? I think not.

So that is how I would construct my argument and prove that God exists. He must exist since He is the same thing as idea and idea has existed for all time as anyone can plainly see. If there was no infinity then life as we comprehend it would be an absurdity. We do not believe in magic, but we can believe in God now that we know what He is.

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The problem of dying consciousness

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Everlasting life is the message of the Bible and of God

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Friends, one day we must all die and with our death goes our consciousness and understanding and meaning. When we die we lose our contact with reality and our conscious association with matter. When we are born we become organized, thinking matter and that is what we are. That is what life is. Life is the ability to know that you are alive and as I have shown in my above argument we know all of these things through the medium of the idea - the idea gives expression to life. Life is like living the dream for life is a dream or an interlude form certain death. When we die the lights go out as it were. But, as matter we never really die of course, we are simply transformed and dispersed. But, just as there is eternity and infinity then we will be again; all things are possible within the confines of infinity and that is the beauty of idea or God to tell us these things. That is the beauty of God, of God the Idea. Dear friends, I mentioned at the outset that there was a price to be paid for knowledge. You may be knowledgeable in the knowing of your existence and your fate by understanding Idea and what it means and from whence it comes. But, now you must realize as well that life is nothing more than a dream or a diversion from death and can be nothing else. For when you die your life and your reality dies the same death and you live in a state of death or non-life or non-consciousness. You are put to sleep for who knows how long; there is no guarantee as to the length of your absence from this thing that we know as life. But, rest assured that you will be put to sleep and lose consciousness in the process. Losing consciousness means that your atoms are being dispersed and reassigned as it were. You will be disorganized and will not be able to think or comprehend anything at all. This thing called life will be no more and it might as well have been a dream for all that it is worth. For when you are asleep what do you feel? You feel a lack of consciousness and you are in a state of not knowing. And, that is what happens at death; it is a constant state of not knowing; it is just another form of dream that life is. For life is the fantasy escape or dream state that death is not. For just as matter has many different forms so it is with consciousness as well. Your matter may well be dispersed, but it is the job of infinity and of idea to make it all happen again for you. They together will organize things for you and make you conscious once again. It may take an eternity, but it will happen again, and again.

My Teenage Years: 1967

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My Teenage Years: 1967

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Above is Yours Truly

in 1967

I am eighteen years old

Here are some snaps from our 1967 YearBook.

They are all girls of course since I prefer to

look at pictures of girls rather than guys.



I don't have space for everyone, but I just wanted to show a few pictures of the girls and how they looked in our graduating year.








I am sure if anyone of them has any complaints about showing up my blog I will hear about it eventually.


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Just wanted to show you all some of the innocent faces that graced our school in 1967.

You can check out the Year Book
below.
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That is Linda directly above. She was my chum and we played cards together. She is a really neat person with an excellent personality. I wonder what Linda looks like at sixty years old.

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You can take a look at all of the pictures in

our yearbook by clicking below.

If you wait a little bit before diving into the pictures

you will hear a song playing. It is Born Free, which

I think was actually a hit in 1966.

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The 1967 Year Book

High school was actually pretty neat now that I think about it. I had quite a few friends that I hung out with at lunch time, so that was a lot of fun. I don't recall any of the negative things that occurred like in Junior High, for example. High school is really a more peaceful place, or it was for me anyhow. I had occasion to visit some high schools in the mid-nineties and they were just a chaotic mess compared to our high school year back in 1967.

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....In 1967 something happened. And, that was the Six Day War that started on June 5th. The Vietnam War was raging in the background of course, but now this new war appeared as well. I remember just after the war happened I was sitting in one of my classes and one of my teachers, who was Jewish, was just so excited about the Israeli victory. He detailed for us how Israel had beaten down its Arab neighbours. I am not sure if anyone in the class was that interested actually. I do not remember being particularly politically astute at this time and I would be impartial to Israel's victory over her Arab neighbours. But, I certainly am very opinionated about events in this area right now let me assure you. If you read my Dear Courier Diary entries from June 4, 2009 and June 5, 2009 you will be able to determine the nature of my opinions on this subject.

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I was actually still quite a strong runner at this point in my life, and that is in spite of my smoking habits. I was not involved in track and field or anything like that, but I do remember that I was still pretty good out of the starting gate in a sprint. Remember, I am probably the fastest ballboy that the Amusement park ever saw. ( my rating ) And, that is what I was doing during the summer months - I was working down at the games in my first job and enjoying every minute of it. I remember I finally got my license back and my motorcycle after a six month suspension. Boy oh boy was I ever glad to get my wheels back.

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In just a year or so I would be going to university and that would be a brand new experience for me. And, I was about to get an attitude adjustment and a completely different view of the world, and all it took was a new environment.

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Well, let me see now what was I listening to in 1967?

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You have to remember that there was a different kind of

music being played during this time period, but I was

not interested at all.

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Groups like the Doors and Light My Fire,

were popular, but not with me.

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( see my Dear Courier Diary entry on June 5, 2009

if you want to listen to the Doors music )

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I preferred something like the Jackie Wilson song below:

Top 100 Hits of 1967/Top 100 Songs of 1967

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YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTIN ME (HIGHER AND HIGHER)

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Jackie Wilson

1967


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My Teenage Years: 1965

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My Teenage Years: 1965

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This was a very exciting time in my life. I had gotten my first job down at the local amusement park and I was saving up for my first vehicle. My first vehicle would be a motorcycle, but it was still a vehicle of sorts. I wanted to get a license as soon as I turned 16 - and I did.

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I did not know it at the time but this first job of mine as a concessionaire was to last for many years into the future. In fact, I was employed as a carnival worker all through my high school and university years, and beyond. Actually, it would be my insurance job when things got tough for me. And, there were going to be very difficult times indeed - however, at this young age I had no idea whatsoever what lay ahead for me.




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I was going through my Brylcream years, Beatles' jackets, corduroy pants and cannot remember if I bought bell-bottom pants, but most likely I did. Anyway, I was just so proud of my bike. It was a Suzuki 80cc motorcycle. It was chain-driven and air-cooled. I saved up for it and it cost me 200 dollars which was a lot of money for a young teenager. I went everywhere with this bike and I even got a bunch of speeding tickets as a consequence of owning this machine. I would even lose my license later on in high school because I was caught driving without a license that was under suspension. Well, a guy needs transportation doesn't he? This is the time when I would just jump on my machine and drive anywhere I wanted to - it was complete freedom for me and I loved every minute of it. I drove in all kinds of weather- sleet, hail, and even snow. Nothing would stop me from driving this bike. I would even drive out to the eastern Fraser Valley just to greet the arctic air as it flowed out from the interior. I remember a big thrill for me and this bike was the purchase of a chrome fender for the front. What a status symbol that was for me. I was so proud of this piece of chrome. I would be driving a motorcycle for many years into the future, including university.

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This was also the time when I started becoming aware of social issues, of things like religion, for example. Something bothered me about the televangelists. Quite frankly, I thought they were phony and that they should not be on the air trying to con people. So, I sent a letter to an American television station in Washington State voicing my disapproval. Someone kindly wrote back and stated that some people appreciated this kind of broadcasting and that the shows would continue. Well, at least I had expressed my concerns on the matter. At any rate, I realized early on that I was not going to be a Christian or associated with any kind of organized religion, or maybe of anything that smacked of authority;

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I was a very rebellious youth actually and I played a lot of hooky from school. I even wrote my own absentee letters since I skipped so many days. One day I got caught and I even got the strap and I had to write all of my grade ten exams. I passed them all of course. We lived in a very small house and just had rabbit ears for our black and white television. My mother was a single parent and she did the best that she could of course. I remember her giving me a book about girls at this time. It talked about sex and reproduction and that kind of thing. I guess this was supposed to be my sex education class or something. I told you earlier about this girl that I liked. Well, I guess I must have been brooding over her or something and my mother took time to notice. She stated that there would be others and of course she was right. Another thing she told me was that ' you don't have to marry the cow to get to get the milk '. I thought was pretty decent advice as well.

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Finally, I just thought I would tell you about one of my hobbies. I collected maps of all of the states in the U.S. I was interested in geography and foreign places. My hobby was to send letters to all of the state capitals and ask for a state map. I told them that I was planning on a visit and naturally they were eager to send me a map of their state. I remember checking the mail everyday to see how many maps I would receive. I remember memorizing all of the state capitals in the U.S. and I can still do that. I was just fascinated about foreign places since I had never really been anywhere before. In fact, when I got my motorcycle I took the ferry to Vancouver Island. And, when I got there I placed some soil in a capsule, just to say that I had finally been somewhere.

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Here is the kind of music that I liked in 1965

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Hermans Hermits -

Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter

1965

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On Selfishness....

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On Selfishness ....

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by Carl Baydala

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I am in a fairly disagreeable mood this morning and the reason for that is that I am thinking about the state of the world. And, what is the state of the world you might enquire? Well, to my mind, people are generally a selfish breed and this characteristic shows up in the broadest sense in the everyday habits of all of us - yes, all of us, including yours truly.

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And, what accounts for this selfishness you may further enquire? Well, in the first instance there is the matter of survival; we all need to get through our days in one piece, so to speak; we need certain things just to survive; to breath; to eat; and in a modern society we need a job or we need to receive something from those who have a job if we are one of the unfortunates who do not have a job. So, as you can see survival is a critical factor in the needs of mankind.

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Problems develop of course when our needs cannot be met. Either the society is going to devise some kind of a system that will allow us to fulfill our needs or we are going to make sure that we do it ourselves; we will all find a way to fulfill our needs. And, this is the root of the conflict of course. Some people are better at surviving than others and have found ways to not only survive, but to far exceed their neighbours in the matter of getting the things that they need and want.

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Now, some people are going to suffer in a system where they are not getting the things that they want and need. I am not talking about sex and advanced wealth accumulation, but just general everyday things that all of us are searching for. Just look around you and you will be able to see those who are not as successful as others. They want all of the things that the rest of us have, but they cannot, for whatever reason, achieve them. And, just what are the results of these inequities you might enquire? Well, they manifest themselves in numerous ways of course. The most obvious things that you will see are crime and its corollary, namely a police force. You will see the poor neighbourhoods and the rich ones as well. You will see people driving fancy up to date vehicles and you will also notice people driving older cars, or perhaps even bicycles, or perhaps they will have no mode of transportation at all. Further things that you will see will be religious affiliations being formed so as to provide spiritual needs for the dispossessed in order to mollify and eventually to control them. Yes, dear friends religion itself has a hand and purpose in this dislocation of the masses. There are many other institutions that develop as well as I am sure you are all aware, but I just wanted to provide you with a couple of examples to let you know where I am coming from.

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Yes, friends I believe that man and his needs, not being properly met, is a way of understanding how man organizes himself and of the institutions that are developed as a consequences of the imbalances that occur in man. And, it all boils down to man's selfish nature. Now, we should caution here that selfishness in and of itself is not a bad thing. For, simply put, if man was not a selfish creature then he would surely die. Nature has endowed man with the will to live and to survive, and to even prosper. Getting the things you want satisfies needs and this is not necessarily a bad thing. The problems develop of course when all men want the same things and in the same amount. The history of civilization shows us that conflict arises when the needs of all men are not satisfied. So, that is why we continue to experience conflict and inequities in the society. And, it all goes back to man's desires and his general character. Now, most of us survive under these conditions and we find ways to compensate for our positions if they are subservient to others. Some people steal and some take drugs to dull the pain of their condition. Some people go on expensive vacations or buy expensive cars to celebrate their relative success over others. We all do a lot of things based on our needs and our relative successes or failures. But, something that we all do and like as a group is to listen to music. Music is the great soother of society I think and we all listen to different kinds of music as well. What kind of music do you like and when and why do you listen to it? And, when you are listening to music are you celebrating or just trying to dull the pain and to forget, or just try and feel happy? Well, personally I listen to music because it makes me feel happy and I would rather be happy than sad. And, that in itself is a very selfish act indeed - and it is perfectly human to do be that way. But, I like love songs and that is where I want to be. It is where my personality tells me to go, I think. I think music does for all of us what society cannot do; it helps us to get through the day or it helps us celebrate where and who we are. Dear Friends, music is everything and anything you want it to be. So, thanks for reading and have a nice day.

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Here is what things were like back in 1965. I was

sixteen years old.

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Dean Martin - Send Me The Pillow

That You Dream On

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1965

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Vancouver, B.C. Webcams

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Today's post borrowed from

Dear Courier Diary

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Atheism vs Christianity: Peter Slezak vs William Lane Craig ...

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Atheism vs Christianity: Peter Slezak vs William Lane Craig

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analysis by Carl Baydala

Friends, here is another great debate concerning the existence of God. The debate is between Dr. Lane Craig and a Dr. Slezak. I have seen Mr. Craig in combat before and he is an expert at what he does. But, he is a Christian apologist, so his effect is minimal as you may expect. Dr. Slezak is a relative newcomer for me since I have never seen the man in debate before.

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At the forefront of any debate involving the existence of God is the idea of causation. For my money this is the crucial part of any debate concerning the existence of God. The proponents of the existence of God will always say that God created the universe, and that all the rest if history as we say. So, did God really create the universe and is that where it all started?

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Well, I personally, do not think that things are that easy to explain away. Christians do not apparently believe in the idea of infinity as we know it to be. Now, I have recently read that infinity is a mathematical impossibility so perhaps the Christians are falling back on this angle for their support as well. The study of infinity is an associated topic contained within the Cosmological Argument ( the world and the universe were created and exist; there must be a cause for this creation; God is the final cause and creator of all things ) as it supports the notion of a God. ( when you read about paradoxes the idea of infinity is debated as well. I do not think we should get carried away by this notion of the impossibility of infinity. Remember, we live in a finite world and we cannot transcend into the world of infinity and of its mysteries. If infinity does exist, then I am sure that it contains its own methods of understanding and rules of conduct for all concerned, including the Ominipotent One Himself, if He exists, that is ). Another area that the theists rely on is the study of Ontology. It is the study of Being and is the basis for the Ontological Argument

(Anselm’s ontological argument ): there is nothing greater conceived than God, therefore God exists; He is perfect, all-knowing and seeing and is just and perfectly moral. He is an ideal figure. You might to take time out to read about the Ontological and Cosmological Arguments for God's existence contained on the side bar.

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But, I have a problem with this notion of existence and God actually. If the Christians are saying that God has always existed then aren't they saying that infinity is possible as well? How can you have one without the other? You cannot have a universe coming into creation by the Hand of God all of a sudden and then deny that God has existed for all time in the same breath. He is an infinite Being of the past and will be an infinite Being into the future. To my mind that indicates the presence of something like infinity; therefore infinity exists ( even though we cannot imagine it, since we live in a finite world and cannot comprehend infinity ), but that does not mean that God necessarily exists, however.

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You have to remember that God is a concept - He or She or It is a creation of the human mind - the rational, idealist mind. No one knows for sure in what form God exists, if at all. We know that nature exists and that nature Herself or itself may be the cause of all that we know. ( Pantheism ) Nature, as God, is much more likely than the God of the Christians since it is readily knowable and therefore believable.

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Man only knows what he knows ( Epistemology ) and has two ways of arriving at this knowledge. Either by empirical methods, i.e., by discovery ( Empiricism ) or by just thinking about things ( Rationalism ) with any prior knowledge or experience. Things are simply known a priori and by common logic.

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The defenders of Christianity and of the concept of God must by definition be more rationalistic or idealistic in nature since they have no real concrete evidence of a God. The empirical data will not confirm one way or the other the existence of a God. So, the Christian apologist then must rely on his intellectual and reasoning skills to commit us to the belief in a God. If you are easily swayed then you are most likely a believer in something like Jesus Christ and the god Jehovah.

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An atheist on the other hand gives more weight to scientific evidence; he needs empirical proof to get him where he wants to be, or sometimes to get away from where he does not want to be, namely believing in a God.

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So, who is right and who is wrong? And, maybe to to point who is the more honest of the two - the Atheist or the Theist?

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We need to come back to how we know. As I pointed out above there are only two methods of knowing; we either think we know something or we actually do know something by experiencing it. The quality of that experience is another topic of debate and is not my concern here. I am talking about the knowing of things that we as humans understand as a group - to know. Nobody is capable of knowing God according to the idea and methodology of empiricism. We know know God because we think we know him via the method of idealism and rationalism, but is that good enough when when we are dealing with matters of the utmost importance? I think not.

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You might be interested in a more thorough analysis of the debate below:

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http://www.philosophyblog.com.au/atheism-vs-christianity-william-lane-craig-vs-peter-slezak/

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Here is the debate for you:

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Atheism vs Christianity: Peter Slezak vs William Lane Craig - blip ...

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Medieval Philosophy and some Arguments for the belief in God

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Medieval Philosophy and Some Arguments

for the Belief in God

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Friends, here is a wonderful little video series on Medieval Philosophy. Contained within this short series of videos is some discussion concerning the arguments for the existence of God. You will learn the origins of some of our modern ideas about the existence of God by examining the beliefs of the medieval philosophers themselves. See for example St. Anselm's Ontological Argument found here:

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Anselm’s ontological argument

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A discussion of this argument is found in section

three in the video series.

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Actually, all of these videos done by the host Magee are excellent in their content. They are direct, and Mr. Magee does not fail to get at the root of all of the things that we as students are interested in.

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The videos on Medieval Philosophy are below.

Anthony Kenny on Medieval Philosophy:

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My Teenage Years: 1964

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My Teenage Years: 1964

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A failure and a success

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Friends, pictured above is a Spring Salmon. A couple of important things happened to me in the summer of 1964 and they both involve salmon. One event was a failure and the other was a success - I was fifteen years old and I was about to find out just what kind of a person I really was.

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My father decided that I should go up to northern B.C. in a gillnetter and see what commercial fishing was like. I really liked the idea and I was eager to go. I remember packing everything including my brand new 22 calibre rifle. I bought this weapon and bullets with no questions asked from a local store. Things were different back then. Why you could even smoke in restaurants and movies if you really wanted to.

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So, me and this elderly fisherman headed up north in this tiny gillnetter. We made our way up through Georgia Strait and into the Johnstone Straits too. There was a narrow gap along the way where the tides ran swift and when we got there the steering wheel cable broke and we were swirling around in a swift moving current. Now, that was pretty exciting indeed. But, we got out of it eventually and moved on. But, once we got to the northern tip of Vancouver Island we could go no farther because the winds were too high - the crossing of the open ocean would be unsafe and very dangerous - so like all of the other gillnetters we had to wait for the storm to pass. And pass it did.

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Eventually we crossed the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound and I had my very first real experience with the Pacific Ocean. I remember the huge swells rolling in one after the other from the west - they were enormous and breathtaking. Being on that small boat was like riding on a giant roller coaster over water. I have never been afraid of water and I like boats and I like fishing. This was exciting. But, it didn't take me long to find out that I was a land lubber - I was getting seasick and it was just awful. I wanted to throw up constantly and all I could do was to lie down and hope that this night mare would end as fast as it started. But, there was no cure for this madness, and no medicine. I just had to ride it out and hope the hell I survived in one piece. I guess my mentor knew right off the bat that I was not going to be much use to him in the catching of the salmon. What a disaster and what a disappointment.

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But, we finally made it to a little fishing village called Klemtu which is in a protected area north of the open waters. I was glad to get back on land. We bought some smokes and some bullets for my rifle. I remember taking pop shots at the seals and other creatures swimming about. We did manage to get one fishing trip in before I would go home. But, it was a bad set if I recall and no salmon just a bunch of junk fish came in the net. I guess we got the wrong tide or something. I really did not know much about the intricacies and techniques of the trade and I never found out. So, things were going poorly all around it seemed. I cannot remember how long I lasted, but I do not think it was very long at all. My apprenticeship as a commercial fisherman was to going to come to a close and I knew that I would never fish salmon for a living. It just wasn't in me. I like the water, but this kind of ocean water and me did not see eye to eye.

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I remember taking a seaplane from some village and I think I flew down to Campbell River to catch a bigger plane to Vancouver. The details are a little sketchy now so I hope you don't hold that against me. But, I remember jumping into the bigger plane and I was packing my 22 caliber rifle and all of my other gear with me. Nobody said boo, so that was OK by me. Actually, I never thought much about it since once I got to Vancouver and took a bus home nobody cared that I was packing a rifle with me. Things were just different back then in 1964.

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Once I got home I found a nice surprise waiting for me. It was a big Spring salmon that I had won in a contest. I got a salmon and a carton of Sportsman cigarettes. That was my prize. I had written a little story and sent it in to the local television station. The show was called ' Tides and Trails ' and was hosted by Ted Peck. At the end of each segment of the show they would read out somebody's ' Tall tale '. Well, my tall tale had won while I was gone. My story was basically this: I was out fishing with a bunch of guys and we started to cook the fish after we caught them. But, we noticed that nobody had any salt to put on the fish, so we all started crying on the fish so as to get the salt from our eyes and onto the fish. That is the story line that won the contest. So, they read my story on television and I won the Salmon and the smokes. And, that was the beginning of my literary career. So, I may have failed in some manly endeavour, but it certainly was not the end of the world.

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Here is a sample of the kind of music I liked in 1964 when I was fifteen years old:

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Diane Renay - Navy Blue
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On Being a Man....

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On Being a Man....

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by Carl Baydala

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Friends, my topic this morning is manhood. Manhood is a very important issue for men. It is so important that I don't think any other thing is on the mind of a man more often than this crucial thing, except perhaps thinking about women. And, these things surely go hand in hand as I am sure you are all aware.

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The inspiration for my theme this morning was my stunning losses at the races yesterday evening. Quite simply, my harness racing triactor system let me down and I was zero for twelve races. That means I did not win a dime. Nothing. All I received was the entertainment value of the sport; that was my consolation prize if you will. But, I bucked up. Yes, friends the buck stopped on my desk and there was no one to blame but myself. I took the heat for the losses and I did it like a man. I was gracious to myself in my defeat. I did not swear or call out for an intifada on the world or of racing or of the drivers, owners, and their horses. No, I took my resounding defeat like a man. And, how did I do this? Well, I just assessed the situation and said to myself: this is how the racing gods conduct their business; they are testing me and my durability and I must not let them down - and I did not. I know my system is solid and when the horses are running in top form and conditions are favourable then I will win - and I know that I will win. It is just a matter of time and waiting, waiting for the right set of conditions to produce the desired results for me. Friends, I have faith in myself and my system. Our day will come and I will most likely recover all of my losses and then some. That is an act of faith in the racing gods, combined with being a man. Manhood is tough sometimes, but it is possible to be a man even under extreme conditions. Some men are beaten by the odds and some are not; the trick is to overcome the obstacles - by being a man. And, being a man means knowing what the odds are and what to do about them.

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Dear friends I hope I have made myself perfectly clear on this manhood issue. But, there is more. There is more because when you are talking about manhood you are automatically talking about women as well as I mentioned above. Now, sometimes situations with women can be really challenging. But, let the challenge be what it is - it is a chance to prove your manhood. And, the woman expects it of you so do not let her down. When women give you a hard time or perhaps even reject you for whatever reason, this is time for your manhood to shine as well. Assess the situation and realize what is going on between you and your woman. The love gods are in charge of this critical area just as the racing gods control your fortunes at the racetrack. Friends, I hope I don't have to spell it out for you. Be a man and let things be as they may. A woman will love you all the more if she sees that you are a man. A man waits his turn in love just as he must at the racetrack. Your day will come, but in the meantime you must be a man and accept your fate. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

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Here is the song of the day for you from 1963:

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Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons

Walk Like A Man

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This post was borrowed from my

Dear Courier Diary

segment of my blog. The original post is found

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On being a man....

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My Teenage Years: 1963

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My Teenage Years:

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1963

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President Kennedy

assassinated

Friday November 22, 1963

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My Life in 1963

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the following was borrowed from a recent

Dear Diary post and is found here:

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Dear Courier Diary

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" The Death of Innocence "

I hope I did not frighten you with my title - the death of innocence. But, I think that is what the period 1963 represents; things got a lot tougher and more serious more quickly after 1963. The Beatles and the death of Kennedy were to herald in a new era, but the new era had not yet arrived - but its messengers had. ..in just five years I would be in university and involved in student demonstrations. The enemy was the Vietnam War and authority and control and U.S. imperialism and even capitalism itself......It gets tough when you get older you know. Like, I was just counting on my fingers trying to figure out how old I was and what grade I was in at school in 1963. So, I think I have it boiled down to the fact that I was in grade nine and I was fourteen years old, in 1963 that is. I was looking at the music charts, you know the top 100 songs for the various years and it looks like this was the transition period, so to speak. Because in 1964 the Beatles hit the scene, starting out with their big hits She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. But, in 1963 there were still a lot of songs that I could grab on to. This was also the year in which Kennedy was shot - Friday November 22, 1963. It is just one of those dates and days that I do not forget. Of course everybody thought Lee Harvey Oswald did it. But, now that we have the internet we tend to look at things a little differently of course.

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This was also the period of my first big crush on a girl. She kind of looked like the Mona Lisa now that I think about it. It was just one of those Platonic or puppy love kind of things I suppose, but they are very exciting when they happen of course; this was also the time that I drafted a ' Boyfriend - Girlfriend Contract '. I guess this girl inspired me to do that.

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.I did not really like the Beatles and the British invasion actually, when it actually happened, I mean. And I did not like the Rolling Stones and drugs and acid and all of that kind of stuff. These things were to make their appearance soon enough. I am an old love songs kind of person which I have already told you about of course and a group like Jerry and the Pacemakers would garner my attention or even Hermans Hermits. There were no Beatles hits in the 1963 top 100 songs.

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Anyhow, here is just a sample of the kind of song that still grabbed my attention in 1963, and as I told you things were going to change quickly once the Beatles hit the scene.

Here are the Ronettes in 1963 singing Be My Baby:

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Here is a related article for you friends.

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Added on Saturday August 14, 2010

Reverse the Revolution of 1963

Face-Off - Does God Exist

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Face-Off - Does God Exist

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Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort face off in a debate with the Rational Response Squad over the existence of God....

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Here is a further debate concerning the existence of God.

It is not your traditional participants that are engaging in the debate, but rather, people from the entertainment industry.

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In watching the first part of the debate, I found it to be rather

theatrical in its presentation. The believers in God were first to go and I felt like I was being sold a product. The main theme seems to be that God is the creator and that just about explains everything - everything created needs a creator. The blurb below explains the participants in the debate.

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Part two is largely composed of the moderator asking questions to each side of the debate. Evolution is a major focus of the discussion. The question of ' transitional forms ' is debated; where is the evidence that man evolved from something else? The question of the existence of Jesus Christ arises.

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Questions from the audience is the final part of the show. Did God create evil? Can atheistic nations produce values like the Christian ones? What is the fate of the nations who are not exposed to Christianity and the word of God? What if you are wrong and God does exist? Response: I would rather go to Hell than worship a tyrant. What about cancer and suffering? A very irate woman asks this question.

If the Lord created a perfect machine then how come things go wrong? Answer: we live in a fallen creation. Christian says: Jesus did exist and evidence of the Last Supper. The U.S. is the most Christian nation on earth, but there are many others who maintain better living conditions and social services and hav less crime and violence.

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Closing remarks

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Here are the links to the debate:

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Face-Off - Does God Exist - Part1
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Face-Off - Does God Exist - Part2

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Bachelor Philosopher Number Six: Baruch Spinoza

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Bachelor Philosopher Number Six:

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Baruch Spinoza

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Baruch Spinoza

(1632 – 1677)

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bachelor, atheist, pantheist,

a systems man, materialist philosopher

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Consider this characterization of philosopher Spinoza:

" God thus has no existence separate and apart from the material world, which has not been created because it has always existed. He is "free"-to obey the laws of nature, and so on. In other words, "God" is only nature. This Pantheism of Spinoza is really a thinly-disguised materialism. Despite its peculiar form (probably an unsuccessful attempt to ward off accusations of atheism), this is head and shoulders above the mechanistic outlook of contemporary scientists. Instead of the mechanical conception of matter being moved by an external force, here we have matter which moves according to its own inherent laws, it is "its own cause."

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Source Here

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Spinoza's primary work was something called " The Ethics ". In this book he outlines his philosophic system and explanation of life and God. The following quote pretty well sums things up for me. In the following you will understand that there is no God like the Christian imagines and no Teological concept to consider; there is no design or Divine Hand of God on earth or in the universe. The universe just is, always was, and always will be and will be these things under its own terms which it has established and will establish forever and ever upon all and everything. Infinity, therefore, does exist. ( my words ):

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" Spinoza's fundamental insight in Book One is that Nature is an indivisible, uncaused, substantial whole — in fact, it is the only substantial whole. Outside of Nature, there is nothing, and everything that exists is a part of Nature and is brought into being by Nature with a deterministic necessity. This unified, unique, productive, necessary being just is what is meant by ‘God’. Because of the necessity inherent in Nature, there is no teleology in the universe. Nature does not act for any ends, and things do not exist for any set purposes. There are no "final causes" (to use the common Aristotelian phrase). God does not "do" things for the sake of anything else. The order of things just follows from God's essences with an inviolable determinism. All talk of God's purposes, intentions, goals, preferences or aims is just an anthropomorphizing fiction. All the prejudices I here undertake to expose depend on this one:that men commonly suppose that all natural things act, as men do, on account of an end; indeed, they maintain as certain that God himself directs all things to some certain end, for they say that God has made all things for man, and man that he might worship God. (I, Appendix)

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God is not some goal-oriented planner who then judges things by how well they conform to his purposes. Things happen only because of Nature and its laws. "Nature has no end set before it … All things proceed by a certain eternal necessity of nature." To believe otherwise is to fall prey to the same superstitions that lie at the heart of the organized religions....."

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Source for above quote found below:

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The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Spinoza: Biography, History and Philosophy

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Anthony Quinton on Spinoza and Leibniz ( You Tube )

( Interviewed by Magee )

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