Start Back Over As One

Many apologies to my readers. Real life rudely extended my blogging vacation. The good news at the end of all it, there was a lot of beer. Really a lot. A keg and a half's worth. But that's a story for a different time.

But more than just apologize, I want to thank the commenters who kept the last thread going, notably, Anonymousette, K., Holy Hyrax (get a damn blog) and HWHL. I'm not sure why he thinks he is on my list of blogs to avoid, but he brings a blissfully ignorant perspective that fills me with nostalgia.

I also want to thank Ezzie for taking over wacking Dov Bear with the clue bat in my absence.

In the comments on the previous post, both Holy Hyrax asked if it was possible to be rational and believe in God. Mis-Nagid seemed to indicated that some belief systems involving a deity are rational, but I am not familiar with them.

The arguments for God that squeeze Him in the role of First Cause are not irrational in that they don't contradict any physical evidence, but they strike me as fairly ridiculous. The line of questioning begins with the assumption that all things have a creator. The kiruv klowny rabbis that I have spoken end their argument right there. All things have a creator, therefore this world must have a creator, and that creator is God.

Which is ridiculous. The whole premise is built on the assumption that all things have a creator. Who created God? The questioner then drops this assumption with the Judaic conception of the timeless Creator. David Hume made this line of questioning fairly ridiculous to Christian deists, and if one attempts to find the God of the Jews in this ridiculous argument, they will be fairly disappointed as well.