Eric H

This is my first post; and I have been reading with interest all the arguments about free will, good and evil.

I believe that the same God created all of us; and as such, I believe that all the religions of the world have a moral obligation to work together to bring about peace on Earth.

It seems that both groups of people whether you believe or don’t believe in a God would like to see peace on Earth and no suffering; but could such a world exist?

Supposing you had the power to create a new universe and life in any way that you liked.

What would be the greatest way to create a new universe and life?

Would you create life with any form of free will as a greatest option?

Can there be a greatest purpose to create life?

Would there be a greatest purpose that you would want the life you create to achieve?

In peace

Eric

Philosoft

I am so ignorant of the possibilites each of your questions entails, it's not even funny.

You do realise the hidden premise in each question is, "Assume you are omniscient" do you not? And, since I can no more assume I am omniscient than I can assume I am a woman, your questions are meaningless.

Keith Russell

Greetings:

Life is an active process.

What would we do with our lives, if 'peace' was achieved?

The phrase 'rest in peace' has nothing to do with life. Plenty of time for 'peace', when we're dead.

Keith.

Psycho Economist

Life is. Does there have to be an answer to "why?"

Sentience is an outgrowth of adaptations resulting in more and more complex neural structures. Again, does there have to be an answer to "why?"

It sounds like you might want to make friends with the nearest B'ah'ai congregation. Not necessarily join, of course, I said make friends.

As to how I would create the universe...the tools that physics grants us precludes the study of what existed before the Universe, if anything, so that question might never be answered from an empirical standpoint. There would need to be a theoretical revolution surpassing, literally transcending, Einstein's relativity.

Life? We're still working on that one. There's some great work being done by astronomers and biologists to figure out how prevalent life is or could be in the universe, and how we moved from amino acids to proteins to genes, to prokaryotes and finally to eukaryotes (true cells). That question is at least, for now, within the realm of science.

Thor Q. Mada

The question is flawed. The omnipotent, allmighty and eternal being of our imagination, which we came to call god under various denominations, why ould such a being create the univers and more especially us. To play with us like the little girl with her toy house, because being eternal is eternally boring?? Unlikely isn't it??
We are a kind of less than perfect pet for a somebody??
In some denominations that god send his son to earth to die and save us???
In almost all denominations, after our death, if we have been good according to a set of rules of engagement and hygiene, we then go keep him company??
Sound all very likely isn't it??
Oh yes, I forgot, rules of logic don't apply, and we shouldn't even try to understand god.
And yes, he loves us dearly. Letting us kill each other through the centuries, enjoying starvation and ill health, while he is watching to see like a giant experiment how we behave and gives us entry tickets based on that!!
Wow!!

Andrew

I think you misunderstand.

His post nowhere says that you are supposedly an omnipotent, omniscient being. Do we know whether these are even required to create a universe and life?

I believe his question can be answered by simply thinking of how we ourselves would order things - what the people would start off believing, and so forth. That, surely, can be answered, can it not?

Jayjay

What would be the greatest way to create a new universe and life?

Define "greatest". I think it would be great to create a world filled with mythological beings, swashbuckling adventures and epic history. But that's just because of my human limitations and silly fetishes. On the other hand, if I was on the exact opposite spectrum of godhood and fully omniscient, I don't see why I would create a new universe at all, after all I'd already know how it turns out in advance.

The middle ground would probably be something that maximizes the richness and diversity of life and information content. However it's really impossible to tell since at the moment I am not even close to being omniscient and can't really tell how exactly this would be achieved.

Would you create life with any form of free will as a greatest option?

I think free will is a contradiction in terms, so the answer to this question is definite no.

Can there be a greatest purpose to create life?

I do believe so, yes. When creating something, I would probably want to end up with something that is complex and interesting, rather than simple and dull. Life is a pretty interesting, I figure, but again I could of course be wrong. Perhaps if I was sufficiently intelligent I would be much more fascinated with the mechanics of black holes or something similar.

(Okay, after reading the last question I think I misunderstood this one, so my answer may seem contradictory. I read it to mean something in the lines of "is there any reason to create life", and that's what I answered above.)

Would there be a greatest purpose that you would want the life you create to achieve?

Probably not. If there was a greater purpose to achieve, I could just create that and skip life altogether.

happyboy

i'd create a universe that had no knowledge of me,and then leave, never to return. no need to burden the sentient beings of my universe with crap like religion.....

happyboy, the caring god

Keith Russell

Eric H.:

Far more intersting (to me, at least) than your question about what kind of universe I'd create, is this statement:

"I believe that the same God created all of us; and as such, I believe that all the religions of the world have a moral obligation to work together to bring about peace on Earth."

I'd be interested in having you explain the complete chain of thought that led you from 'the same 'God' created all of us'

to

'all the religions of the world have a moral obligation...'

I don't see the former as in any way leading to the latter.

Care to clue me in?

Keith.

Wiploc

If I was like Jehovah only nice, I wouldn't put the tree in the garden. Or I wouldn't tell the kids not to eat the fruit. Or I wouldn't have invented sin. Or I would have made the wages of sin milder (say, six months in an International House Of Pancakes rather than eternity in hellfire). No flies. Definitely no mosquitoes. Even the Republicans would see the advantages of birth control. This is too easy; one could go on forever.
crc