The Ground of Being

I like Stroppy Rabbit. Don't always agree with her. But the fact I don't always agree with her is not something that would make her get all grumpy, and I approve of that. If we all agreed with each other, where would we be? Stepford, probably. Or maybe Royston Vasey. So I'll go with passionate but respectful disagreement.


For example. In her post "Missing the the point (again)" she remarks, beautifully in passing, "..whether or not God exists is a boring question. It's been pretty well settled that God does not exist. Some theologians have got round this problem by saying that this is because God is existence, or the Ground of All Being, but then that leaves the question of what that might mean."

It's the "pretty well settled" that caught my attention. I don't know where I was the day the vote was taken, but I'd had voted the other way had I been there, I'm pretty sure.

See, "the Ground of All Being" is a terribly 1950s kind of way of putting it, but I do see some of where it comes from.

If God exists, far as I can see, the "Ground of Being" is the thing God must be. Here in the blue corner we have this multi-dimensional, possibly multiversal thing which is the whole of space and time as we know it (and mostly don't). Over in the red corner we have a suggestion that God is a localised fairy-story superman. I don't go with that. If God's God, then God's the thing it all comes from, the source of reality, the ground that all logic, all physics, all mathematics, all stuff flows from - or God don't exist. You can have it either way. But that ground of all being - God's got to be that, if God exists.

Doesn't mean God can't choose specific, of course. It's God's universe, and I'll accept God can manifest Godself all kinds of ways - maybe one special way per planet, or per isolated pond of space-time from which no meaningful information can ever flow, or just once, ever, on Earth - or all sorts of ways I can't imagine. And also in folk-memories and dreams and myths and all sorts of things, embedded into the world and the subconscious in exactly the way that the Ultimate Question wasn't, in Arthur Dent's brain.

My head hurts now, but I just wanted to say that. And if they hold another vote and you're there, Stroppy Rabbit, can you put in a proxy "yes" for me on the existence of God? Ta.

Richard Dawkins refuses to debate the Existence of God with the Beaker Folk

Beaker People have been left shocked by Richard Dawkins' refusal to debate the existence of God with our Druzilla.

I should probably admit that we've not asked him, but I don't see any reason why he should wriggle off the hook on that technicality. Druzilla has encountered God down the end of the Orchard, and tells us that she can show him to us if we want. Last week when we went down there with her, she indicated God's presence to us in the shadows. When we pointed out that we couldn't see or hear anything, she told us that was because we were lacking faith. Then she showed us a gap in the hedge - and told us that was the "God-shaped hole" we've heard so much about.

But we don't understand why, just because she's a deluded fanatic and we've not asked him, that stops Richard Dawkins debating the existence of God with her. If we're going to carry on calling him "The Good Professor" when he's not really a professor any more, we reckon he should be forced personally to debate the existence or otherwise of God with everyone of faith that wants to have the argument. We realise that this might take him some time, but let's face it he's married to a Time Lord, and it's not like he needs to work for a living any more, so we can't see why he can't manage it somehow.

Proof that God exists

Everyone has been asking for proof that God exists.  Some have been getting terribly excited.  I've heard some awful theories about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and the Quantum theory that without an observer nothing could happen, so where was the observer in the first place?  Not to mention the fine-tuning of the strength of gravity, the value of the Boltzmann constant and whether dark matter is really there, or it's angels holding hands that keep the universe together.  All the usual Sunday School stuff, really. So I'd like to settle this once and for all.

1) Keep calm

2) Light a tea-light.

3) Play some Enya.  "Shepherd Moons" is always nice, and so fitting to these kinds of scientific discussions.

4) Drink some camomile tea.

5) Give it a day or so.   It'll pass.

6) Try not to wear anoraks.  The hoods suck the spirituality straight out of your head.

I hope this has helped everyone to understand the evidence for the existence of God.