<story><title>Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?</title><url>https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/philosophy/spinozas-religion-clare-carlisle-god-einstein-philosophy-religion-review</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nassimsoftware</author><text>In math there is the concept of having a first element of a series and no one questions what was the element before the first element because if you can find an element before the first element then by definition that element you thought was first is not the first.&lt;p&gt;In light of this when people try to disprove God by saying then who created God. God is the first element so if you find out that who you think your God is is created then by definition he fails to fulfill the conditions required to be God. You have to look elsewhere.&lt;p&gt;Ok in english the term God is not precise enough, I&amp;#x27;ll turn to arabic to try to explain my point because this is what I&amp;#x27;m the most familiar with.&lt;p&gt;Ilah is the arabic word for divinity. Wahid means 1. Ahad means the only one. Allah means The God (The only God).&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t find it absurd to think that there is The God (Allah):&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends time because he created time.&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends logic because he created it and all its rules.&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends the physical world because he created it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Nursie</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t find it absurd to think that there is The God (Allah) ...&lt;p&gt;I do, I see no reason to think such a being exists, absent extraordinary evidence, and inventing one seems absurd to me.&lt;p&gt;Why must god be the first element? Why must there even be a first element?&lt;p&gt;People don&amp;#x27;t try to disprove god by askingwhat created god, they are trying to invalidate a particular argument that is used by those who do believe - that the universe &lt;i&gt;must&lt;/i&gt; have been created by some original force because it is so huge&amp;#x2F;amazing&amp;#x2F;complex, and we&amp;#x27;ll call that force god. But there is no reason it &lt;i&gt;must&lt;/i&gt; have been, and if we imagine there is such a thing, there is no particular reason to stop there other than that semantically you have decided to call it the first. Because if the universe was created by a huge&amp;#x2F;amazing&amp;#x2F;complex god, then by the rules of your own argument we ought to look for a deeper cause.&lt;p&gt;So yeah ... it&amp;#x27;s not a &amp;#x27;disproof&amp;#x27; of god, so much as pointing out that that specific argument relies on some dodgy assumptions and is not any sort of proof of god, nor justifies belief in one in any way.</text></comment>
<story><title>Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it?</title><url>https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/philosophy/spinozas-religion-clare-carlisle-god-einstein-philosophy-religion-review</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nassimsoftware</author><text>In math there is the concept of having a first element of a series and no one questions what was the element before the first element because if you can find an element before the first element then by definition that element you thought was first is not the first.&lt;p&gt;In light of this when people try to disprove God by saying then who created God. God is the first element so if you find out that who you think your God is is created then by definition he fails to fulfill the conditions required to be God. You have to look elsewhere.&lt;p&gt;Ok in english the term God is not precise enough, I&amp;#x27;ll turn to arabic to try to explain my point because this is what I&amp;#x27;m the most familiar with.&lt;p&gt;Ilah is the arabic word for divinity. Wahid means 1. Ahad means the only one. Allah means The God (The only God).&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t find it absurd to think that there is The God (Allah):&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends time because he created time.&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends logic because he created it and all its rules.&lt;p&gt;- A being who transcends the physical world because he created it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tshaddox</author><text>The problem you describe works in both directions though. If God is introduced to explain, say, the existence of the Universe, and you’re not allowed to ask what created God or why God exists, then why not just say you’re not allowed to ask what created the Universe or why the Universe exists?</text></comment>