Off topic, I'd like to say I'm very pleased about the level of civility in this thread. It's been a nicer read than some of the political ones. Give yourself a cookie!
On topic, does God exist?
Well, clearly I don't know, but I'm going to go ahead and say "no, god (or gods) as presented by the various religions does not exist". They are the products of man: ways of explaining the natural world and binding people together. Smooth put it rather nicely in
this post.
However, dismissing the various human gods as fictitious doesn't answer the question so, what is a god? When you don't know what a word means, grab a dictionary!
- capitalized : the supreme or ultimate reality: as
a : the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe
b Christian Science : the incorporeal divine Principle ruling over all as eternal Spirit : infinite Mind
- : a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality
- : a person or thing of supreme value
- : a powerful ruler
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/god
3 and 4 definitely exist, but I wouldn't expect many people to define god as such.
1b sounds like
DrLeftover's spiritual cosmology. I won't claim that this cannot exist, but personally I'm not likely to start believing in it either.
1a seems to be the common monotheistic answer and 2 sounds like the more general version. So, let's narrow it down to 1a and 2.
1a An entity perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness. (The rest of the line got dismissed with human religions.)
This sounds like wistful thinking. Perfection is certainly subjective, but even if it isn't... Goodness implies some moral standard to be good by. Per
Fatal Dawn's post about the Golden Rule, an absolute moral standard might exist for humans, but since humans are flawed (see also Smooth's post where she doesn't outright say it), this moral standard shouldn't apply to our entity - it being perfect. Therefore, we have no moral standard with which to judge our entity and we can't call it good even if - by its own standard - it is. In conclusion, I do not believe an entity fitting this description exists. I do not, however, rule out the possibility of there being lifeforms other than the ones on this planet, some of which might be wiser or better than us.
Stargate had its issues with defining divinity. Suppose we have a race of largely immaterial beings seemingly made of light or fire that can communicate telepathically, turn invisible, and do a whole load of other things from their own plane of existence, why should they not be worshipped as gods?
I think
2 gave us the answer. A god is that which is worshipped. Everything seems to boil down to, what do I choose to worship? What do I choose to believe? How does believing something change anything?
The first is a personal choice, I could start worshipping a rock and it would be my god. You might fail to see it as a particularly worthwhile decision, but it's a god now.
What you choose to believe is, again, entirely up to you. The rest of the world might make you out for a crackpot.
The third is important.
If your belief changes nothing in your life, you might as well not believe anything. If your belief causes you to harm others, the people retain the right to pass judgement over you as they see fit - preferably by vote and not by god. If your belief leads you to aid others then perhaps your activities should be encouraged.
If you believe in a deity, it is real to you and exists for you. A fiction can exist as a thought or idea. Perhaps that is a slightly shaky existence, but as a god gains followers so too does its influence grow. How many acts need to be performed in an entity's name before it might as well be a real force?
Having said all that, I would like to end on a note of personal arrogance: my belief.
Just because something exists doesn't mean it deserves worship.