"Is God real?

What other real thing do you need to ask that question about?

Justice, Britain, Manhood, Oddness, etc. etc. etc.

Could this be an idea created by people to give them a sense of purpose or is there really a higher power that we have just yet to fully discover? — Franklin

It certainly could be. There are already a number of threads on this, some of them on the front page. It would help if you gave some perspective to your question.

Could God be a man-made concept? There is no definitive proof that god exists and different cultures portray gods differently, yet most people believe in some form of higher power. Could this be an idea created by people to give them a sense of purpose or is there really a higher power that we have just yet to fully discover? — Franklin

It's man-made. Study anthropology, history, psychology and sociology and it will show a very common pattern of human behavior. Until proven, we can't even be sure there is something outside of our reality that is a God but who don't interact or knows about us, which puts us in the John Wisdom gardener analogy. The commonalities among those who believe and rationalize that belief is that they don't have enough knowledge of how our brain process reality around us and therefore do not pay attention to when they fall victim of such behaviors and thoughts that would be considered delusional in any study of them and their psychology.

Any rational standpoint would at least start at this conclusion and work from there. Any other position results in a fallacy or bias-based line of arguments since any other conclusion relies on assumptions and belief itself.

Those aren't real...

Perhaps they aren't. But clearly some people ask it of them.

Luke 16:19-31 New Living Translation (NLT)Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

19 Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. 20 At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. 21 As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.

22 “Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and he went to the place of the dead There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.

24 “The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’

25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish.26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’

27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home.28 For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’

29 “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’

30 “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’

31 “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

And will I believe the bible is not evidence, it is till good for uncovering God's nature.

I personally believe that man has a pathological need to believe in something bigger then themselves. Take for example the fact that most if not all governments place one man or woman at the head (even if it is democratically chosen). Humans, by nature are fearful of the unknown and need a guiding force to "lead them in the right direction".

I do say that while still keeping in mind the fact that the math doesnt add up. The chance that us as a species are on this planet with water and land and the perfect difference from the sun is for me, just to much to be considered a coincidence. Therefore I do believe a supreme or divine power must have interfered with our creation. Yet if this thing is "God" that can debated for a lifetime.

You dont believe in numbers? How is that possible?

I do say that while still keeping in mind the fact that the math doesnt add up. The chance that us as a species are on this planet with water and land and the perfect difference from the sun is for me, just to much to be considered a coincidence. Therefore I do believe a supreme or divine power must have interfered with our creation. Yet if this thing is "God" that can debated for a lifetime. — Thesailor123

That's not how probability works though. You cannot arrive at conclusions about probabilities if all information you have about an event is that it occurred once. The necessary information simply isn't there, and no mathematics will reveal it.

"numbers.."

Are you saying numbers are real?

Could God be a man-made concept — Franklin

We need to frame a broader question to arrive at a reasonable answer.

Is God
1. Invented (your question)
2. Discovered
3. Both
4. None of the above

Some people would have us believe it's option 1 which amounts to saying God isn't real.

Others think it's option 2 i.e. God is real and we found out.

We could say it's option 3 which means God exists but we've assigned human-created attributes to it.

I don't know what option 4 even looks like.

You are mixing two people's responses. I asked if you think numbers are real. Numbers are ideas just like God.

lol this is my point exactly. I never said numbers were real, or not real. That I 'believe' or 'don't believe'. — Mr Phil O'Sophy

Neither did I. I asked. So,I'm not sure what point you think you've made. Would you mind clarifying.

So, my first response to the question:

What other real thing do you need to ask that question about? — Bloginton Blakley

The point here is that no one questions the reality of a fist in the face.

We often do question ideas.

God exists only in the realm of ideas. There is no fist in the face from the idea of god, just a lot of arguments and belief.

Imagine this:

I get to use only ideas. All I can do is stand there and think...you get to use your fists.

Wanna trade sides?

Okay, tell god to punch me in the face.

Unicorns exist the fairies told me so.

I did not say god doesn't exist. I said God exists only in the realm of ideas.

Pretty good argument to be made that god always does what some dude tells god to do... at least in organized religions. If we are talking superstition, then we are proceeding from ignorance, not reason; therefore it makes no sense to try and reason a superstition into actual existence.. Instead it should remain in the realm of ideas to be used to shape human behavior.

Should the human allow it.

My response wasn't petty. I was demonstrating how ridiculous it is to pretend that ideas are real.

Your honest response makes my point quite nicely. No idealism, just a silly idea pie in the face... and you did not respond with idealism but as if you were being made light of.

No one argues the reality of a fist in the face, not even idealists.

"Does saying God only exists in the realm of ideas not imply that he has no existence separate from our idea of him."

Nope, I'm simply not just assuming god exists anywhere other than where I know god exists. Just because I can dream up farting Popsicles, does that mean that everyone should assume they exist in reality?

Just because people have dreamed up a god, why should I think that idea exists any differently than any other idea?

"Unicorns and fairies are factitious ideas "

So are gods.

If you meant fictitious, and not the very ironic factitious...

:)

The narrative is usually God making commands of his creation, — Mr Phil O'Sophy

Of course that is the narrative how is a priest gonna have any credibility if he tells everyone that he made up god to give himself authority?

Your arguments all begin with the assumption of knowing God does not exist — Mr Phil O'Sophy

Does not neither. ;) You are just expecting me to treat the idea of god differently than the idea of unicorns and fairies... Why should I... until God shows up?

there is a significant epistemic difference between the the existence of such a thing as God, and the existence of such a thing as a unicorn.

While no one can state as a matter of pure fact, that either unicorns or God does or does not exist, the philosophical arguments for or against their respective existence is quite different.

i would argue it is reasonable to believe that unicorns ( flying horses with a horn in its forehead) do not exists on earth, because we know something about what horses look like, we know something about what it means to fly, and we know something about horns and foreheads. We can say with some amount of reasonable certainty that if we saw a unicorn, we would recognize it as such. Next we have looked in a lot of places, for a real long time, and we have not seen one. There for, I will conclude it is reasonable to believe there is no such things as unicorns.

Now for God, i would say that both the CA and some of the design arguments are reasonable. Specifically since big bang science the CA has strengthened, eliminating the " who created the creator argument" So while neither argument speak directly to the characteristics of such a being - the idea of a necessary, non - contingent being or an intelligent designer is reasonable.

now are the counter arguments that God does not exist that so powerful as to outweigh these arguments that make them moot? I would say not. The only arguments i know of are the argument from evil, which has a reasonable counter argument of skeptical theism, and various no- seeum arguments that are weak.

So I would conclude that it is without any reasonable basis to lump the possibility of unicorns as being equal to the possibility of such a thing as God.

You are just playing with ideas. This idea, that idea... there is no reason to suspect that the god idea is in any way different than any other myth. The unicorn stuff doesn't follow because until we find a unicorn there is no reason to believe one exists. Same with God.

because until we find a unicorn there is no reason to believe one exists. Same with God. — Bloginton Blakley

the problem with "no-seeum" argument is an incredibly long line of times they were wrong.

Until we find such a thing as a virus there is no reason to believe one exists -
Until we find such a thing as an atom there is no reason to believe one exists -
Until we find such a thing as a quark there is no reason to believe one exists

you get the point there are thousands of things that did not exist in until they did. All our not being aware of something proves, is we are unaware of it.

And once those things were proven to exist, we knew they existed... That's how it works. First you come up with an idea and then you check it against reality. But if you notice, scientists didn't just say, "Hey, there is this thing called an atom!" and then walk away. They proved there was such a thing as an atom.

This is why you don't find the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot in the scientific record.

Does God exists? Well, now that is a good question.

I think before we discuss this, we should know what God is? 'What is God'?

As humans view, God is a being/entity which is immortal, omnipotent, can create and destroy, has ability of telepathy, Psychokinesis and a lot more. In short God is all powerful who is beyond our realm .
With our limited thinking, we can't grasp the exact concept of the whole word 'God' as we can only understand/learn about what we see/feel. We haven't even understood perfectly how a human body works. Even though we know about a lot of things yet none has completely perfected in anything. Hence we are incapable of understanding what God is, as of now.

When it comes to science, I see God as a higher intelligence who have exceeded us in millions of light years in terms of technology, intelligence, capable of understanding how the universe works and surpassed all physical and mental capabilities. Higher intelligence as I said can be a being from another planet who has been around, way before our species was born on this planet.

However, I do know something very sure, there was something that triggered our whole existence because everything we see around us are well organized and placed in order. Flower petals in Fibonacci series is one such example.

So what is God to you? If we understand what God is, it is easier to know whether God exists or not or else the whole debate is useless.

the problem with "no-seeum" argument is an incredibly long line of
times they were wrong.

Until we find such a thing as a virus there is no reason to believe one exists -
Until we find such a thing as an atom there is no reason to believe one exists -
Until we find such a thing as a quark there is no reason to believe one exists
— Rank Amateur

Except no one believed any of them until they were conceived as viable hypotheses and when observed and tested, confirmed as true. You also Texas Sharpshot-picked things that were proven, while there's an even longer list of things that we today laugh at that people believed.

You cannot hypothesis God since no argument for any kind of God leads to a notion of specifically God as the end of that hypothesis. All of those had a clear hypothesis, but everything about God arguments is wild assumptions and individual concepts.

Burden of proof applies always. An argument that uses the "if you cannot disprove it, it's real" is a flawed argument and it's why Russel had such an impact on science to force it to stick to truths and not fantasies or pseudoscience.

Your post reads like a conspiracy theory rant, specifically because it's the argument they use. The conclusion of what you say; would mean we can just give up any kind of attempt at discussing the world and universe since everyone can neatly stick to their own world-view and beliefs. I see no room for such nonsense in philosophy.

I agree with @YnY. What is God first of all? People can disagree on this just as easily as whether God exists.