Atheists Are Right, "God" Isn't "Real"

[Rev. Jupiter]

"He who says there is no God, without having defined God in a complete and absolute manner, simply talks nonsense. I wait for his definition, and when he has set this forth after his own fashion, I am certain, beforehand, of being able to say to him, "I agree with you, there is no such God"; but that God is certainly not my God. If he says to me: "Define your God," I should reply, "I will take good care to do nothing of the kind, for a God defined is a God dethroned." Every positive definition is deniable, the Infinite is the undefined." - Eliphas Lévi

Discuss.

[Ardito]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Hamar Fox]

I agree with the sentiment. God can't be defined, understood or known, so nobody should ever ascribe any quality to 'him' whatsoever. All we can know about God is that 'he' isn't anything we know; which is to say, he isn't absolute, conscious, autonomous, omnipresent, omnipotent, a first cause, moral, a designer, a creator, good, a 'he' or anything any religious person has naively defined 'him' as.

[Ardito]

I agree with the sentiment. God can't be defined, understood or known, so nobody should ever ascribe any quality to 'him' whatsoever. All we can know about God is that 'he' isn't anything we know; which is to say, he isn't absolute, conscious, autonomous, omnipresent, omnipotent, a first cause, moral, a designer, a creator, good, a 'he' or anything any religious person has naively defined 'him' as.

You have failed to note intuitive knowledge, which is at the centre of all mystical/transcendentalist thinking. That one cannot explain it does not mean that one does not know it.

[þeudiskaz]

"He who says there is no God, without having defined God in a complete and absolute manner, simply talks nonsense. I wait for his definition, and when he has set this forth after his own fashion, I am certain, beforehand, of being able to say to him, "I agree with you, there is no such God"; but that God is certainly not my God. If he says to me: "Define your God," I should reply, "I will take good care to do nothing of the kind, for a God defined is a God dethroned." Every positive definition is deniable, the Infinite is the undefined." - Eliphas Lévi

Discuss.

It's a neat little sentiment. Unfortunately, it has no necessary bearing on reality, or fact.

It certainly proves absolutely nothing.

[Rev. Jupiter]

It's a neat little sentiment. Unfortunately, it has no necessary bearing on reality, or fact.

Precisely.

The point is that reality and fact ≠ truth.

[þeudiskaz]

Precisely.

The point is that reality and fact ≠ truth.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, exactly.

[Rev. Jupiter]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, exactly.

That's evident.

[Hamar Fox]

You have failed to note intuitive knowledge, which is at the centre of all mystical/transcendentalist thinking. That one cannot explain it does not mean that one does not know it.

Ok, so you can intuit God, but can't understand God. So God could be anything. A walrus, two walruses, a musical walrus. It could also be a walrus that wants us to murder each other, or wants us to only eat haddock. This is the problem of religion. It's forced to be so vague in its scramble to evade the perspicacity of reason that it ends up inadvertently neutering itself.

[Ardito]

Ok, so you can intuit God, but can't understand God.

>implying understanding necessarily means one can put it into words

That's exactly my point.