Ask God...

[theoscholar]

This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

[CaptainOfOuterSpace]

Originally posted by theoscholar
If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be? "What the hell is wrong with you?"

[Herakles]

"Why is that you made it look as though you don't exist?"

[GypsyLife]

Originally posted by CaptainOfOuterSpace
"What the hell is wrong with you?"

And we have a winner. :cool:

Question #2 would be, "Are you open to counseling?"

[Rational BAC]

Theist here--

My "only one" question would be------"Why can't I have 100 questions?"

Of course that would be an excellent way to waste my one question, but what the hell---maybe God would be in a good mood that day and grant my wish.

Then my second question would be---"Why can't I have a 1000 questions?"

Or maybe I shouldn't push my luck.

[trendkill]

"Why didn't you answer the first few thousand questions I asked you?"

Atheist, obviously.

[Samnell]

I'm a non-omniscient, non-omnipotent mortal. What's your excuse?

First runner up would be:

Could you annihilate me right now so I'm no longer defiled by sharing a cosmos with you?

Being from the US, the god concept I encounter most often is of course the Abrahamic tyrant of the universe.

[Enlighten Me]

Why are you "too much of a gentleman" (as I've often heard said by Christians) to "impose" yourself upon the skeptical, but not enough of a gentleman to intervene when small children are being battered and raped?

[CoffeeFiend]

Originally posted by theoscholar
This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

Which religion is closest to the truth ?

[Starboy]

No point in asking god the question cause I already know the answer. God would say, "figure it out yourself."

Starboy

[orpheus last chant]

#1What do you have against shellfish?


No really. Did he have a bad day at the cosmic restaurant Godserve, and it gave him a rash?


#2 So if you invented PMS, I'm suppose to hate Satan?

#3 What's the last digit of pi?

#4 Why don't you and you and that ghostly you, put us out of your misery, and puff yourself out of existance?


atheist here....

[xorbie]

My question is more of a request really:

"God, please make me forget this happened, it would take all the fun out of life to know the answer to one of the great questions"

Joel

[sharon45]

This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

Why is it that I have more morals than you?

[Yahzi]

Why the 2nd law of thermodynamics?

Life would be so much easier if you got out more than you put in, and things when left to themselves tended to improve.

[Howard]

What were you dong during the Holocaust?

[Jeremy_the _Atheist]

I (obviously) am an atheist of the non-cognitive variety.

I find the gods of all religions to be utterly incoherent as concepts in and of the themselves and also in light of the universe inwhich we live. If any of these gods existed I think the universe would be a vastly different place, so I am going to use the only god concept that would might fit. I am assuming a deist kind of god.

I can think of a few questions that I think would be good requests to make but I can't imagine a god actually existing that would grant the request but hasn't already. For example I could say, "There is an enormous amount of suffering in the world. Would you please end it?" But if the god would be willing to end it, he could have done so already. Since this hypothetical god has not, then I suspect the answer to the question would be "No." And then my question would have been a waste as nothing was accomplished by it and the only information gained was what I suspected anyway.

So my question would be "What is the purpose of the universe?"

I would ask this because it does not seem to be the best possible universe for accomplishing any purpose I have ever heard of or read about.

Maybe the answer might contain something in it that we could use to improve life for everyone on our planet.

It has been a very very long time since I have seriously considered this question.

TheoScholar, if don't mind me asking, what is your purpose in asking this? And what question would you ask?

[stupiddrummer]

Hey. I like to think of myself as an ambivalentist-I just don't care either way. Though I'm swinging on the side of atheist at the moment.

I'm interested to know why the dinosaurs didn't get some kind of ark.

stupiddrummer

[Godot]

"How you doin'?"

[diana]

"So which of your characteristics was tossed in as a test to see if we were paying attention--omniscience, omnipotence, or omnibenevolence?"

d

[Mathetes]

"Is the Riemann hypothesis true?"

No, better:

"Will 'no' be the answer to this question?"

:D

[variant 13]

Just how big is uranus?:)

I'm sorry I couldn't resist.

I guess it would be:

why did you let it happen the way it did? you dead-beat god you!

[JHamblin]

Originally posted by orpheus last chant
#3 What's the last digit of pi? So, since I can answer this question, does that make me god? Bow down before me and my mathematical might!

By the way, the answer is that there is no last digit, pi goes on forever in a non-repeating fashion. (Sorry if you already knew that... as a math prof it's my duty to point these things out.)

JH

[AJ113]

Originally posted by theoscholar
This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

Atheist

You must have known that an enquiring intelligent person such as me would need reasonable evidence to support your existence, not to mention two-way communication, so why did you make such a shit job of it?

[orpheus last chant]

Originally posted by JHamblin
So, since I can answer this question, does that make me god? Bow down before me and my mathematical might!

By the way, the answer is that there is no last digit, pi goes on forever in a non-repeating fashion. (Sorry if you already knew that... as a math prof it's my duty to point these things out.)

JH


Yeah I know that... It was actually a thing related to some obscure RPG game made by amators, where you ask a supercomputer that, and he goes off working to find it out...forever...

I'd just like to give god a question to keep him busy for all eternity and purposes in such a way to leave us be... too bad I can't do that with some of his pesky annoying worshipers...


Actually strike that. The question is:

#What numbers (and sequences) follow after the coma in pi?

That'll keep'em, busy....

Note: "Sorry god, can't cheat and tell me all of them in an instant...I need to hear them one by one, per second... I'm only human you know..."
Note nr 2:" Neah, you can't tell me "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 in various nonrepetable sequences"

[Howard]

Also, where the hell is my extra set of car keys?

[JHamblin]

Originally posted by Mathetes
"Will 'no' be the answer to this question?" I was trying to come up with my own question, thinking about this one, and other "logical traps" like:

Is the statement "this statement is false" true or false?

The problem is (a) the statement is neither true nor false and (b) even given that, god could just lie. If you buy the things in the bible (esp. old testament), god lying doesn't seem to compare to mass-murder (I'm thinking of the flood, but there are other examples, I know). So what's the use of being able to ask this god a question? It would be no better than praying; you'd get an answer, but you'd have no way of knowing if it were true.

(I'm an atheist, btw.)

JH

[Deacon Doubtmonger]

Why is a supposedly perfect being, therefore supposedly free of emotional flaws, so obsessed with praise, submission and groveling, even to the point of punishing "impure" thoughts and feelings as well as actions???

(Atheist all the way!)

[wade-w]

I'm an atheist; I'd ask the same question as the Deacon.

[jafosei]

This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

As an atheist, if I suddently found out God was real and I could ask a question, I would be mightily confused. The question I'd like to ask is, "If you're so wise, powerful, and loving, why did you require so much pain and suffering from your creation?" It's something I just can't reconcile myself, and it would be interesting to hear a deity's response.

Of course, there's the possibility that I would be completely awed in the presence of the Lord Almighty, and my thoughts would turn to my eternal soul (which would suddenly be a possibility, what with God himself right in front of me). So my question might be, "What am I supposed to do?"

[Valdemar]

Of all the thousands of religions in history, and all the various deities worshiped, which religion were you the head of?

[Rational BAC]

Originally posted by Rational BAC
Theist here--

My "only one" question would be------"Why can't I have 100 questions?"

Of course that would be an excellent way to waste my one question, but what the hell---maybe God would be in a good mood that day and grant my wish.

Then my second question would be---"Why can't I have a 1000 questions?"

Or maybe I shouldn't push my luck.

On a more serious note and putting it in a little different context===if I had only had one question to ask and whatever essence or entity was actually capable of answering it ---and the answer was the truth.

(leaving the word God aside since that raises all kinds of red flags and therefore tends to prejudice and limit the questions)---What would I really and truly want to know?

I would ask "Is there a beginning and an end to time?" And if so---------- "What happened before that and what will happen after that?"

Whoops---that is really 2 questions. Blew that one.

What would you all really and truly want to know?----leaving aside for the moment some of the not quite so serious ones that have been posted so far. (or some of them at least don't seem that serious to me)

I am sure everyone has at least one serious question that you would like the answer to.

One question and one question only. What would you really like to know?

[Eudaimonist]

Originally posted by theoscholar
If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

"What would you like to know?"

Atheist

[Rational BAC]

Here is another one---

Is there an end to the expanse of the universe? And if so what is on the other side of that?

Whoops----2 questions again. Will get the hang of this one of these days.

[getalong]

What would you all really and truly want to know?----leaving aside for the moment some of the not quite so serious ones that have been posted so far. (or some of them at least don't seem that serious to me)

I am sure everyone has at least one serious question that you would like the answer to.

One question and one question only. What would you really like to know? [/B]

I don't know ... I thought the 'what's wrong with you' question seemed entirely rational and serious.

I suppose I fall into the athiest camp. I have a ton of serious questions I'd like answers to, but I suppose the one I'd choose would be 'why do you have so many problems with sex?'

getalong

[faustuz]

Originally posted by theoscholar
If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

What's up?

[theoscholar]

Originally posted by Jeremy_the _Atheist
TheoScholar, if don't mind me asking, what is your purpose in asking this? And what question would you ask?

I read that in a poll 100 atheists were asked the same question. The most common answer in that poll?

I'll tell you when I've finished this one.

[theoscholar]

Originally posted by JHamblin
By the way, the answer is that there is no last digit, pi goes on forever

Could be wrong, but I think that's why it was a funny joke .

[Jeremy_the _Atheist]

I read that in a poll 100 atheists were asked the same question. The most common answer in that poll?

My guess is the most common answer might be something like,"Why is there no evidence of your existance?"

Taking the cue from this board, another guess is "why are you so lacking in moral character?" I think that is a bad question though. It's pretty clear to any thinking person that the god of the OT is just an imaginary tribal god with no real external reality, just like all the other gods of religion. If it turns out there is a god, he is completely unknown to us.

[nessa20x]

Atheist

Ummm...are there other gods?? (nessa looks around in confusion and thinks "oh shit")

[Mr. Neutron]

"What's really in the secret sauce?"

[wade-w]

Stop the insults and personal comments now, people.

wade-w
Moderator, GRD

[Godless Wonder]

Originally posted by theoscholar This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to). Atheist camp (as though my username doesn't give it away). If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be? Hmm, well, my "most frequent idea of him" is as an imaginary being, so asking him questions is out of the question, but if a god were to exist, it surely can't be like the Christian one, or the Islamic one, or Ganesh, or Zeus, it would have to be like none of these, probably a Deist God. Maybe I'd ask, "who created you?" (Probably followed by "Great, meta-religion. Here we go again.")

Also built in to this is the assumption that I know (somehow) that it's god. If I die and then my "soul" or whatever finds itself observing something in a state of consciousness more or less like what I'm used to as consciousness, in that I have memory of my life, and the capacity to think as I'm used to thinking (and if I can't, then am I really even the same person?) then I'm liable to assume that I'm dreaming, or still alive at any rate, so if presented with something that tells me it's a god, I'm likely to still be skeptical. But I'll assume that it's proven to me somehow that this is really a god, maybe he just implants this knowledge into my "soul/mind/whatever"

Presuming that one of the earthly religions turned out to be true, and further presuming it happened to be Christianity, and I am made to know this, I would ask "Why was the Bible the best you could do at conveying your message?" or maybe I would ask "Why is gullibility a virtue?"

(Big Bible-slamming paragraph typed in, and deleted.) Suffice it to say, I was immensely disappointed with the Bible on many levels, poor believability, poor writing, not even good mythology (Greek mythology is much more entertaining) ) . I was even more disappointed in humanity upon reading the Bible for the first time, because I realized I'd been giving both the Bible authors and humanity far too much credit.

(BTW, it occurs to me to wonder, thinking about the Bible as literature, what's the funniest joke in the Bible? Edit to add, I started a thread on it here (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71456).)

[jj]

Which of the Erdos conjectures are true, and are any of them subject to Goedel's theorem?

[Jabu Khan]

What did you do with all those socks?

[Taffer]

"Shit. Can I get into heaven, pretty please?"

Conviction? Guess.

[Ameena]

Originally posted by theoscholar
This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be?

Me agnostic:

"Please God, define youself."
or Please God, are you really existing?"

[Enlighten Me]

Boxers or briefs........?

[Shake]

Originally posted by theoscholar
This is a question for atheists and theists. (It will be nice if you specify which camp you belong to).

If God (defined as your most frequent idea of him) were real, and you were allowed to ask him one question, what would it be? OK, I can't believe no one's picked up on this yet. So here goes:

As an atheist, one who does not believe in the existence of god(s), your question is meaningless. My "most frequent idea of [God]" is that He doesn't exist, therefore there's no one to answer my hypothetical question.

orpheus last chant queried:
#3 What's the last digit of pi?Easy, m'dear! 42! I thought everyone knew that!

[theoscholar]

Originally posted by Shake


Easy, m'dear! 42! I thought everyone knew that!

And I thought everyone knew what a digit was.

[King Rat]

I'm holding up a digit right now. ;)

Question for god eh...

Who died and made you god?

[Wizardry]

theoscholar & King Rat,

There was a warning about personal comments earlier. Please mind it.

-Wizardry
GRD Moderator

[King Rat]

What personal comment?

I was makin' a joke fer chrissakes! Note the Winky-Wink emoticon!

At least bust me for something legit!

[Yahzi]

Originally posted by Wizardry
King Rat,

There was a warning about personal comments earlier. Please mind it.

Hehe... I assumed King Rat was displaying the offending digit to God, as his one allowed question. It never occurred to me that it could be interpreted as aimed at someone, well, personal.

We can make personal comments about God, right? ;)

But you can't blame the mods for being jumpy. Better a warning now than a flame later. I find the modding here salutory.

[Wizardry]

I assumed that the reference to theoscholar's post and the subsequent on-topic comment implied that the finger was directed at theoscholar. If not, then disregard. I just wanted to keep a possible escalation down, misinterpretation was possible.

I suppose that the lesson is to always stay on topic.

Seriously, though, no more talk about this. Don't even reply to this post, we're far enough off topic anyway.

[Jeremy_the _Atheist]

As an atheist, one who does not believe in the existence of god(s), your question is meaningless. My "most frequent idea of [God]" is that He doesn't exist, therefore there's no one to answer my hypothetical question.

I was humoring the person asking the question and assuming a hypothetical god.

My most frequent idea of god is that the word is just noise.

[CaptainOfOuterSpace]

What would you all really and truly want to know?----leaving aside for the moment some of the not quite so serious ones that have been posted so far. My first question ("what's wrong with you?") was indeed serious, if misunderstood. It's the equivalent of, "Name all the personality disorders that you have."

On an even more serious note, if I was given a chance to ask God one question, I would probably remain silent, since God wouldn't answer either way. Plus, if I remain silent, I can be sure that I won't look like a looney.

[factfinder]

---You must have known that an enquiring intelligent person such as me would need reasonable evidence to support your existence, not to mention two-way communication, so why did you make such a shit job of it?---

That was my question! (minus the intelligent part).

Part II - Why didn't you make me more intelligent?:D

[Shake]

Originally posted by theoscholar
And I thought everyone knew what a digit was. [Foghorn Leghorn]
That's a joke, son! (Gag, that is.)
[/Foghorn Leghorn]

:D

[Jamie_L]

Well, there are so many different versions of "god" in the world. I don't believe in any of them, so I don't think I can make any kind of assumption about which god it would be if it turned out there really was a god. As a result, my question would probably be different depending on what god I actually found myself dealing with.

In all likelihood, it seems that if there is, in fact, some kind of god, it is probably not like anything worshipped in any religion, and is probably something quite alien to me. If faced with such a being, the most attractive questions probably would be the great big ones. I'd probably be torn between:

What is the purpose of the universe?
and
What happens when we die? (If god were real, my materialist notions of oblivion after death potentially go out the window as well).

This question is often asked, however, with a more specific god in mind. Usually, I hear this question as: "If you found out the Christian God were real..."

In that case, I'd be tempted to ask a more specific question. Most tempting would be:

"Why did I not believe in you?"

I mean this in all seriousness. This is a baffeling question to me if, in fact, god is real, god is omnipotent, and god wants me to believe (which is what most Christians tell me, in one way or another).

Another interesting question I might be tempted to ask:
"Why parts of the Bible are true?"

Jamie

[Jobar]

I'd flip a coin, and ask either

"What's the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?"

or

"Am I He, and are You He, and are You Me, and are we all together?"

[braces_for_impact]

Um, why are you so obsessed with that little bit of skin on the end of the penis?