Can anyone articulate why a god exists?

Originally posted by darkroom ↑

Finally somebody has woken up, we are all confused, brother.

I don't know if God exists but my state of mind enables me to accept this possibility as more likely than a self generating everything that gets everything right from subatomic to great cosmic wheels of interconnection and yet has not a jot of consciousness. Consciousness may not be that big a deal, relatively speaking. It may be the norm and the physical manifestation of a universe may be truly unique. It would be only natural for consciousness to then leak into the system and produce us.

I'm bewildered, astonished, flabbergasted that I exist. That we exist. That such deep and profound interconnectedness exists at every level of existence. That a balance of forces and equilibrium is regained after each cosmic and global cataclysm. I know that natural order and the billions of great, small and as yet undeclared forces and actions work in harmony to produce a universe, life and sentience. The universe itself by staggering good fortune or other has formed to produce countless habitable zones. The great bodies in the universe act like machines via their life and death cycles to produce the Elemental Periodic Table. Lots and lots and lots of time and some extraordinary coincidental occurrences and bingo.

Really? That would have to be the least likely explanation. I vote for Cause via conscious, spiritual universe, the material universe being like a shadow that has been enabled by natural order. And Cause then comes with a lifetime of searching out, why bother?

If I exist then anything is just about possible. If the beginning of this universe or its pre-matter state had been within the understanding of science then it is likely, even at this early stage of our existence as sentient beings, that we would know more about the moment when the universe was born. We would know more about how life can form within non-life and how sentience can arise via evolution and why sentience is the extreme exception rather than the rule. Every other animal attribute has been selected many times over but sentience only once.

Any notion of God we hold is meaningless in the grand reality, but it may have meaning in our reality.

And yes, we know nothing about spirit other than what has leeched from religion, that being, we are made in the image of God and its eternal quality. A lot has to be accepted for any part of that to fly, I realise, but hey, I exist and that's not possible, so why not?

If I sound confused by these statements it is because I am, and would like to be enlightened. So am I and so would I. Join the club.

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Well, darkroom, you may be right or you may be wrong.

From my perspective I believe that there are examples of simple principles that lead to complex structures. Evolution is an example of such a principle as is the formation of stalactites and stalagmites and of the "humble" snowflake.
This leads me to favour explanations in which simple explanations lead to complexity rather than starting with even more complex entities (God or Gods) to produce by definition (of God) less complex structures.

History is full of examples of being astounded by phenomenon that we don't understand. Understanding, perhaps unfortunately, other than getting rid of superstition also may diminish wonder. Not necessary though. For example I have a reasonable understanding of tides but am still intrigued by them without the superstitious baggage that can come with it.

I too am astonished by my existence, and of the existence of the entire universe for that matter. I am only bewildered (not sure that's the right word) only because I can't grasp how it could be but feel that the reasons for existence could range from a very unlikely set of circumstances to being as inevitable as a brick that you are carrying dropping if you let it go. I tend to lean more towards the less spectacular end of this spectrum - we, together with the universe are here because it's inevitable that we are.

A major reason that I like science is not mainly because of what we do know - and that is intriguing enough - but more from what we still do not understand. I am convinced that the easy way out offered by religion - God did it - has and still does inhibit our inquiring mind and is therefore anti-science.