Okay, you want to be converted to a belief system by purely logical means. Considering my beliefs are more philsophical than religious, I shall now attempt to convert you to my belief system. (Warning, long, but very thought out and logic-based. No bible thumping or 'you need to believe the spirits' or 'it feels good' here.) I have followed the OP's requests to the letter in presenting a fully logical 'belief' system.
*Ahem*
Fully Logical Arguments for my personal belief system which is logic-based... Feel free to point out any LOGICAL inconsistancies so I may address them by either A. Changing my beliefs or B. Showing how they are not inconsistances if applicable.
Setting the stage for what a God should be.
Most religions involve belief in something 'other', whether it be god(s), spirits, etc. Som religions define a god as any spiritual being (such as a number of ancient european and oriental religions). As a side note, by this definition the angels in christianity are gods, and every Christian who believes in angels is a polytheist in the most defintions of the term. But I digress...
For my belief system, I will refer to its 'other' as 'God', and will define 'God' as the most all-encompassing entity that exists (after all, if you're going to convert to a religion, you want one with the biggest god, not a small one).
Deistic religions typically deal in absolutes. "My god is ALL powerful, my god sees ALL, my god can do ALL, etc." Therefore, to be a god, something should be 'ALL' in some regard or another.
All knowing appeals to me, so we'll strive for an all-knowing God. This does not neccesarrily mean that the God has all the answers, but that all answers that are capable of being known exist within the God. (For example, some questions have logistically impossible answers. Such as [Point 1: Point 2 is lying. Point 2: Point 1 is telling the truth.] Logistically, there is no 'correct' answer for which is truth and which is lie. So, all knowing means containing all that which is known. If what is known changes, said being must include those changes.
Now, to be all knowing, every single thing experienced would have to be experienced by this God. And as many know, perspective has a significant impact on experience. So a God could not know what it's like to be
me unless that god
was me. Otherwise, the God doesn't have the knowledge of the experience of what it's like to be me, with all my limitations and specific instances of knowledge, without being me. So I must be God. However, this presents a problem. You, with your individual experiences, are not me, and I do not know your experiences as you do. But God must contain that knowledge as well if God is to be all knowing. Therefore, God must actually
be me, as well as actually
being you to qualify as being a God. Otherwise, any knowledge of us is contaminated by not truely understanding things from our own perspectives. We're not talking just understanding us, but actually
experiencing us. From our own perspective.
This is a monumental task, and practically ludicrous to try and think as even being possible, to to qualify, the chosen definition of a God, to be all-knowing, HAS to pull through on this. If something can be found to fit this defintion of God, the title can be granted. If not, it can't.
What could a god be?
To be a God (as defined), a few things have to be fulfilled as set down in the previous section.
* It has to be all-encompasing, it has to include all possible knowledge.
* It has to understand EVERYTHING from each thing's own prspective to pull off the previous point.
* It has to literally BE everything to pull of the previous point.
First question, since such a being by being multiple beings at the same time, would be an interesting proposition, we have to see if composite beings exist in nature. The answer to this, surprisingly, is a resoudning 'yes'. A single-celled organism, by itself, is, by definition, an organism. However, organisms, like us, are made up of an uncountable number of cells. Practically any one of these cells, if taken out of the human body and given the right conditions, can be sustained indefinately (heck, even multiply and reproduce through cell division). Each one of us is the composite of all are different cells. At one level of consciousness, we worry about our day to day lives, but on another level, we ARE our cells. We attack microbes that get in our body. transport resources from one cell to the next, We ARE our cells. And although we don't know what each individual cell is thinking on a macroscopic level, we do know what each individual cell is thinking on a cellular level, because on the cellular level, we ARE those cells.
So comes the next question. What connects these cells to make the larger composite being? It changes from cell to cell. Some connect to others through sharing cell walls. Others connect by brining nutrients to others. Others connect by sending out singled to make others twich. Some are connected by just being pulled along by those twitches. All the connections are different, but they are all connected.
So the basis for creating a larger composite being from smaller composite beings is connection, but the nature of that connection is not neccesarrily required to be a certain way.
So to find evidence that a composite God exists, we have to find evidence that all things are connected (having some way to impact and/or be impacted by other things). Remember, at this point this God is not defined by any given religion, merely logical process and observation. To simplify, 'God' is connection between all things.
The connections
For the purposes of this thought exercise, the question of 'is there a god' dwindles down to the question of 'are all things connected?' It becomes redily apparant that they are upon a cursorory glance. Sub atomic particles connect or interact to form atoms, atoms to become molecules, molecules and atoms to form various materials which in turn can be things that interact with others such as viruses that pursue nutrients, microbes that first show all the signs of life, or dust that merely interacts in that it provides gravitation pull, light reflection, etc. These in turn make larger groupings that interact with other groupings forming complex organisms, which in turn interact with eachother and their surroundings to form environments and communities which in turn form lands and countries, which in turn form (while continuing to influence and interact with other things) to form our world. Our world exerts a gravitational pull and reflects light (in some ways similar to our dust particles, and in some ways not) to the system of nearby stellar bodies, which in turn create a larger system which exert similar forces on nearby stars, etc. etc. if quantum theory is right which in turn affect parallel realities to a small degree, giving interaction, etc. etc. ad infinum.
On some level or another, how impressive or weak it may be, we are all connected.
By all being connected, one super-system is made, which contains all things, and changes and adjusts as as result of all of its component parts changing and adjusting to eachother. This is God.
The conclusions
A God exists as the connection between all things. Nothing neccesarrily anything more or less.
Note, this does NOT neccesarrily lead to any jumping to conclusion.
*This does NOT mean that said God loves (or hates) you, or is even capable of said emotions on macrocosmic scale.
*This does NOT mean that said God is even sentient at the macrocosmic scale (could easily be a mindless system, or non-mindless. To be known, we'd have to see it on that level which we are not capable of. If God, as a whole, -rather than just component parts- is even capable of thinking, is unknown.)
*This does NOT mean said God should be worshipped, or desires as such.
*This does NOT mean that people should be killed or prosecuted in name of said belief (in fact, to do so would be counter-intuitive, as it's usully a bad thing when a system begins attacking its component parts.)
*This does NOT mean that converting people will 'save your soul'.
*This does NOT mean that following said beliefs is desirable or undesireable as we do not know what the implications of those on the macrocosmic scale will have (if any).
There are, however, some conclusions that can be drawn from this...
*There is no larger God. If the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish God, or the hindu spirits, or the Ralian's divine aliens exist or anything else, they are not as large as the composite God. Why? They interact with other creatures. Even if they're the most powerful beings, the fact that they interact and aren't the composite being makes them smaller and a part of said Composite God. (
If, as a thought experiment, they did exist, they may possibly serve as a brain or one of several "nerve bundle" centers of a Composite God. But they would know more be the ultimate God anymore than you are just your nervous system.)
*Generally, in most systems, parts need to work in concert. This means mutual respect and looking out for the good-workings of the systems you can perceive is advantageous to the whole. Try to improve stuff, in other words. From smaller systems such as your own, which means eating healthy and exercize, to larger systems such as trying to make intelligent votes, trying to improve the economy, taking care of the environment, pushing forward new researches, etc.
This is my belief system, and the logic behind it (and it is not an official religion, I built this up from the ground up through logical progression when I decided existing religions didn't cut it for me.) If you wish to convert to it, I personally call it "Philosophical Pantheism". If you convert or not, is your choice, and I'm not really sure I care one way or another, but it seemed that presenting the opportunity was an intelligent choice.
