On Godliness

[Warren Ockrassa]

On Feb 24, 2008, at 4:14 PM, Doug Pensinger wrote:

> So that set me to wondering; would those of you among us that are  
> religious
> consider the possibility that their supreme being(s) was at one time
> something similar to what we are today?

When I was religious, that was the only possibility that eventually  
ended up making sense to me. And, of course, the LDS view isn't the  
only one -- Hinduism has had it for millennia. (Depending on the  
meritorious karma you've accumulated you can easily be reincarnated as  
a god in a future life.)

> And to those of you that are atheist; would you consider the  
> possibility
> that there may be entities in the universe, evolved from lower life  
> forms
> that could for all intents and purposes be considered gods?

Yes, but those wouldn't be "god" as defined by the world's major  
deistic systems -- i.e., they would not have created the universe and  
everything in it.

I'd be quite surprised if we lived in an otherwise sterile universe,  
actually; and given the age of the cosmos positing an ultra-advanced  
godlike civilization is no more mad than positing a civilization that  
hasn't yet got out of its equivalent of the bronze age. But those  
advanced civilizations still don't qualify as the gods of the old  
testament, the Koran or the Vedas.

--
Warren Ockrassa
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