How to tell if a God is God
If fundamentalists are right in their beliefs, this universe we live in is no more than 7,000 years old, extending in fact only from the Sun out to the orbit of Saturn and no farther. Anything beyond the orbit of Saturn is in that case an illusion, as is anything that seems to be older than around 7,000 years, and their God is truly God, omniscient, omnipotent, Creator of All Things. All right, given all that, such a God would then have no problem creating, suddenly and whole cloth, at an apparent distance of one million light-years from us, a great spiral galaxy, seeming big as the Milky Way, perfect in all details. After all, everything else out there beyond the orbit of Saturn is an illusion, so what's one more illusion to the Creator of All Things?
So if that God is truly God, then let Him create such a galaxy, at that distance from us, here and now! For one thing, every astronomer in the world would know about it within a very short time, and, thanks to the Web, the news would be all over the place in no time flat. It would make believers out of every single one of them -- one of the groups such a God would most want to convert to fundamentalism, because currently most of them are anything but fundamentalists. It would make believers of biologists and ecologists, as well, who are well-educated in all the sciences, not just their own fields of specialty. It would be something that couldn't be ignored. And with those two groups converted to fundamentalism, the rest of the world would follow shortly.
If there was too great a chance that at a million light years out, the sudden appearance of even a huge galaxy like our own would be missed or ignored, then by all means, create it about ten thousand light years beyond the edges of our own. After all, it's all illusion out there beyond the Solar System, anyway, so tidal effects on the two galaxies wouldn't be a problem, and at ten thousand light years, it would be no farther away than the Magellanic Clouds, which are easily visible to the naked eye to anyone south of the equator.
If that God chooses not to do this, it is for one of two reasons: 1) He has better things to do than encourage us to convert to fundamentalism, which means He doesn't give a damn if we all go to Hell, and who would want to worship such a God? 2) He can't do it -- in which case, He ain't God. Either way, why worship that God?
Without those new lights in the sky, we can safely conclude that that God isn't God at all, certainly not the Ancient of Days, the Great Countenance, the Master of the Universe, Creator and Source of everything.
By the way, I'm no atheist, myself. I've had too much evidence in my life of the existence of God -- but of a God that is before time began, after time shall end, everywhere the universe, beyond the borders of the universe and, indeed, all universes. What the fundamentalists want -- all of them, not just Christian fundamentalists, is to lock us all up in tiny little bags of time and space, far too small to allow us to look upon and commune with the full greatness and glory of God, where, successfully stalked by a cosmic predator, we are alienated and alone and cut off from life, every evidence of intelligence beyond our own nothing but an illusion. No, thank you!
So if that God is truly God, then let Him create such a galaxy, at that distance from us, here and now! For one thing, every astronomer in the world would know about it within a very short time, and, thanks to the Web, the news would be all over the place in no time flat. It would make believers out of every single one of them -- one of the groups such a God would most want to convert to fundamentalism, because currently most of them are anything but fundamentalists. It would make believers of biologists and ecologists, as well, who are well-educated in all the sciences, not just their own fields of specialty. It would be something that couldn't be ignored. And with those two groups converted to fundamentalism, the rest of the world would follow shortly.
If there was too great a chance that at a million light years out, the sudden appearance of even a huge galaxy like our own would be missed or ignored, then by all means, create it about ten thousand light years beyond the edges of our own. After all, it's all illusion out there beyond the Solar System, anyway, so tidal effects on the two galaxies wouldn't be a problem, and at ten thousand light years, it would be no farther away than the Magellanic Clouds, which are easily visible to the naked eye to anyone south of the equator.
If that God chooses not to do this, it is for one of two reasons: 1) He has better things to do than encourage us to convert to fundamentalism, which means He doesn't give a damn if we all go to Hell, and who would want to worship such a God? 2) He can't do it -- in which case, He ain't God. Either way, why worship that God?
Without those new lights in the sky, we can safely conclude that that God isn't God at all, certainly not the Ancient of Days, the Great Countenance, the Master of the Universe, Creator and Source of everything.
By the way, I'm no atheist, myself. I've had too much evidence in my life of the existence of God -- but of a God that is before time began, after time shall end, everywhere the universe, beyond the borders of the universe and, indeed, all universes. What the fundamentalists want -- all of them, not just Christian fundamentalists, is to lock us all up in tiny little bags of time and space, far too small to allow us to look upon and commune with the full greatness and glory of God, where, successfully stalked by a cosmic predator, we are alienated and alone and cut off from life, every evidence of intelligence beyond our own nothing but an illusion. No, thank you!