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edhopper

(33,606 posts)
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 09:21 AM Apr 2018

Is the Universe to big for God?

Back when there was only the Earth with lights in the sky, a God that could keep track of every blade of grass and grain of sand was more conceivable.

But now this omnipotent and omnipresent being must be aware of a every atom in million trillion stars on millions of trillions of planets in trillions of galaxies.

Where is this being, does it reside extra-universally? Is there any physical process it uses to think? Has the Universe just become to large for this concept of a God to be viable?

17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is the Universe to big for God? (Original Post) edhopper Apr 2018 OP
You're funny! PJMcK Apr 2018 #1
Not really, edhopper Apr 2018 #3
His Eye Is on the Sparrow. MineralMan Apr 2018 #2
It's "too" big zipplewrath Apr 2018 #4
And yet many of his believers edhopper Apr 2018 #6
Yup zipplewrath Apr 2018 #8
I understand how it works. edhopper Apr 2018 #13
I know everything about my cars. I can provide MineralMan Apr 2018 #14
We don't need God to take care of all - We got Trump packman Apr 2018 #5
What does God watch? Cartoonist Apr 2018 #7
No zipplewrath Apr 2018 #9
And they pop in whichever version suits Voltaire2 Apr 2018 #11
Santa Clause God zipplewrath Apr 2018 #12
The ancient philosophers were aware of Voltaire2 Apr 2018 #10
Of course it is Pope George Ringo II Apr 2018 #15
No. guillaumeb Apr 2018 #16
... Major Nikon Apr 2018 #17

edhopper

(33,606 posts)
3. Not really,
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 09:42 AM
Apr 2018

God of the Gaps is when the explanation for "we don't know" is God, without any evidence.

If anything, my examples are counter to God of the Gaps.

I ask how a being can be omnipresent in a Universe this large without any physical evidence for it even being here.

If the answer is "we don't know" then that is the non-God of the Gaps reply.

MineralMan

(146,325 posts)
2. His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 09:38 AM
Apr 2018

Every sparrow. Or so the song goes. God has excellent vision, apparently. He can watch over everything all the time. No doubt he watched my neighbor's cat catching one of the many sparrows that shelter in the bushes in front of my house.

And never mind all the time it must take him to watch every adolescent boy sinning on a regular basis. It all goes in God's "permanent record," you know.

People believe that. It's amazing.

zipplewrath

(16,646 posts)
4. It's "too" big
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 09:57 AM
Apr 2018

Also, I'm not sure what the concept of "conceivable" is for an omnipotent being. It's sorta a given that one cannot understand such an entity.

zipplewrath

(16,646 posts)
8. Yup
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 10:11 AM
Apr 2018

But that's different than understanding it's full magnitude. Most folks don't know much about their cars, but they know how to drive them.

edhopper

(33,606 posts)
13. I understand how it works.
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 02:28 PM
Apr 2018

no mysteries. And with some study I could repair most things in it.

I don't think that is the analogy you were looking for.

MineralMan

(146,325 posts)
14. I know everything about my cars. I can provide
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 03:25 PM
Apr 2018

any level of detail down to the metallurgy of each component and the detailed functioning of them all.

The two things are not even comparable.

Cartoonist

(7,321 posts)
7. What does God watch?
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 10:10 AM
Apr 2018

According to believers, all of them, and don't give me that broad brush bs, I mean every single one who believes god is omnipotent, god sees everything.

He watches everyone when they masturbate.
He watches everyone when they pee.
He watches every rape, every murder, and every crime and does nothing.
He watches every show on TV and listens to every radio station 24/7.
He watches every preacher who uses his name to fleece those who love him. And he's OK with that.
He reads every newspaper, every book, every email, every blog, every site, and every post, including this one.

And he does this on every inhabited planet in the universe.

zipplewrath

(16,646 posts)
9. No
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 10:13 AM
Apr 2018

Actually there are various explanations for the infinite being, none of them are universal.

There's the Clock Maker God
There is the Puppet Master God
There is the Caretaker God...

Theologians have argued for literally millennia about which ones are the "true" god.

zipplewrath

(16,646 posts)
12. Santa Clause God
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 11:45 AM
Apr 2018

Dad used to hate the passage about "knock and the door shall be opened...". He called it the "Santa Clause God" concept. I suspect it was in part because he was more of the "clock maker God" kinda guy. Some people are fairly consistent in their point of view.

Voltaire2

(13,123 posts)
10. The ancient philosophers were aware of
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 11:10 AM
Apr 2018

the problems of omniscience in a universe clearly more vast than the “globe and sphere” religious cosmology. See for example Lucretius.

About 1,500 years later it got all problematic all over again.

Pope George Ringo II

(1,896 posts)
15. Of course it is
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 07:34 PM
Apr 2018

In every dimension. Putting aside the physical scale you mentioned, the first couple of generations of stars from our patch of stardust are a little outside the bounds of a humanocentric deity. And there's every indication the universe will continue long after Earth gets consumed by our sun. That's a lot of time at both ends which is utterly wasted if the inhabitants of one planet on a middle-aged third generation star are the sole purpose of the universe. There are some unflattering words for believing that all of that matter for all of that time was purely for the entertainment of some over-developed primates.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
16. No.
Thu Apr 5, 2018, 07:41 PM
Apr 2018

All of creation is a part of the Creator. And be extension, all of us share a part of the Creator by being a part of the creation. That we cannot understand it is a reflection of our human limitations rather than any proof of the Creator's limitations.

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