What would life be like if God/god/gods really existed?

You're very thick, but i'll give it one more try. I have nothing to do with the response tags which appear on any post initiated by selecting the reply button by a particular previous post. That's not following rules, that's using tools. Given the hebetude which you ordinarily display here, i'm not surprised that you are unable to understand the distinction.

*********************************************

Eorl, dinna fash yersel . . . the trolls run free around here . . .

Aye, too true.

So they have nothing useful to contribute to the conjecture posed by the author of this thread? The seek only to destroy it seems?

boyoboy, I wish there was a troll cave.

But, no, having them out in the sunshine does wonders.

Joe(for the rest of the us, for them, not so much)Nation

So your only version of God is a father figure who will look after you.....which you have clearly rejected . Isnt any other definition of God possible or have you decided already ?

Ionus, my brother, we do not have a Father God at present who looks out for us. We have a vengeful angry cuss who occasionally spreads out some joy and beauty to try and make up for his wrongdoing.
Think about it.
Every time I hear that God created Man in His own image, I think, boy, that God must be some kind of abusive drunk. If you ever had an mean alcoholic for a parent you'd know what I'm talking about, you never know what the sumbitch is going to do.
Meanwhile, the spouse (Read that as Mother Church) is always telling the kids(That's us) how HE is loving and merciful and just, but the kids are just terrified of Him and hope that by being real good they will escape His wrath.
But, like all drunks, sometimes when He gets home He falls asleep and some other times He comes in raging for no apparent reason and attacks everybody. Even the kids who really really tried to DO his will.
(Yeah. His will: that's always the fall-back position of Mom Church. When something horrific happens, it's His Will which gets the shrug of acceptance. Just like when dear old Dad put his fist through the bathroom door because your sister, who loved and feared him, happened to be taking a shower before she went to work.
AND when something good happens......the GRACE of God gets its ticket punched as the reason. Sure. Thanks for pizzas, Dad. )

So, let's review:
Able to know what he wants: God NO .. Drunk Dad NO .
Goes crazy sometimes: God YES .... Drunk Dad YES
Is merciful
Is just
is loving
>>>>>>>>>>Yes, but you never know when or how ..Same here.
Vengeful ..................oh yeah ........ don't you know, yes
Angry ..... <sigh> always under the surface <ditto>

Anyway, as for other definitions, I must freely confess I only know what I no longer want in a god, not what I do want, mostly because I find the concept of a god being necessary to my existence so odd. What I do, I do on my own; what I fail at, I fail at on my own.
As for your jibes about pond scum (i do love them) I find that if you can conceive a god who is infinite, I can conceive a universe equally infinite.

Joe(Neither needs a creator, especially an abusive drunk one)Nation

That was a rather long winded speech and clearly some people liked it . But where was the answer to the question ? You cimplain that God doesnt protect the innocent, I ask if that was your only versi9on of a God, and you go on about drunking Dads taking enough time out to slip in a comment on another question you didnt answer.....how does pond scum evolve empathy ?

Do you find the concept of a universe being necessary for your existence so odd ?

'long winded' is my middle name.
I'll be brief.

You mean 'infinite universe'. Um. I kind of like some structure surrounding my existence as it is, but I would to exist in some other dimension. (and maybe do already, we don't know.)
--
Pond scum---empathy
We don't know yet if pond scum has taken the route of being empathic, maybe our ability to send/receive is less than its. So far, no data.
We do have data to show that the present character sketch of God doesn't fit any rational pattern and therefore must be flawed. I hope the believers get on that rewrite soon, as they have done so often in the past.
We don't have all the data to show how the infinite universe works completely, but we are working at finding the evidence rather than just guessing at what must be or adding in a completely unnecessary, equally infinite, creator.
That's the difference, as you must have been told before, we admit we don't know and are unashamed. Others make huge assumptions because they cannot conceive of ever finding a satisfactory reality. Then they bray that they have the truth. um. no.
Joe(not so fast)Nation

I guess it would be impossible to distinguish Yahweh from Zeus without a program.

If you find the concept of God being necessary for your existence then what about the concept of the universe being necessary for your existence ? Is one really that much stranger than the other ?

What the pond scum question was really about is how do we go from that to where we are now where you say we have empathy . What survival mechanism brings about empathy ?

I think you have been having an insulated conversation with other atheists . Tell me how God is flawed ?

The scientific method involves eliminating all other variables and concentrating on one only . How can we do that for human life ?

Exactly . The personification of God will vary between cultures . But that says nothing about the existence of a God, merely the accuracy of people in labeling God .

Yes.

The universe exists, and Nobody will disagree with that.
(I hope he stays out of the discussion)

The concept that a thinking being requires a more complex being to create it is absurd, as it cancels itself out in obvious ways.

What we now know that we could only guess at hundreds of years ago is that we CAN have come to be without creators. The argument now should only be about whether we did or not, not whether we could.

As for empathy, group survival is one benefit, future trouble avoidance another

Really ? The distances between the galaxies, the enormity of space, the number of stars, the nature of the subatomic universe, with multi-verses and time travel....but you cant believe in a dimension that we call God that pushed life into these other dimensions ?



quote]As for empathy, group survival is one benefit, future trouble avoidance another [/quote]You havent described empathy . You have described selfishness .

Exactly . Some people can accept it is all an accident . Others can accept it was forces/dimensions interacting....either way is rather baffling. Choosing one over another is rather biased .

My problem is not with the word "God", (not afraid to use it) I never had time nor patience for debating symbolic aesthetics...my problem is with its formal description...rubbish that is !...

You're saying "magic" is the easier answer. No ****, Sherlock. Hence, religion.

Also, you seem not to understand my answer about empathy. If you see a person writhing in pain after eating a fruit, and fail to understand or even care to make the connection, then why not eat said fruit yourself? Empathy has a number of survival advantages, selfishness doesn't come in to the discussion.

Can you expand ?

Hence, atheists putting their faith in science because it distresses them to think of a God...it grates at their sense of power and worth . But with science, there is no one to to be better than them .

empathy
n.
1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See synonyms at pity.
2. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object.

You have contradicted yourself . If it has survival advantages, then it is selfish .

1 - ...not truly...he actually is quite on the spot...empathy has proven advantageous among social species...actually it explains the success of social species at large...

2 - ...my idea of God is close to Spinoza´s or Einstein´s God...
(in pop terms, an Abstract Mathematical Matrix if you will...)
...above all the idea of an Infinite circle without the convenient distinction between Creator and Creation, Everythingness in its plenitude...

How is it advantageous to survival if it is not selfish ?

It is not that it is n´t selfish...rather then it is n´t linearly selfish, or just plain selfish...is the kind of clever selfishness in which one helps others to gain advantage as a group, either against other groups, or against nature itself at large...its about the gain in the medium long term as opposite to immediate satisfaction...that which distinguishes mammals from reptiles for instance...