Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
I don't think so. The difference between whether one believes in a transcendent reality or not is substantial. For deists, a belief in transcendence has become the only grounds on which they can maintain a belief in God.
|
I guess that's true, but for a deist what balances on the question of if there is a transcendent reality? They can believe in something beyond the physical real, believe in something after death, but other than the hope that that may bring, it's not like they depend on specific actions or beliefs to secure that or to secure any kind of change in their current life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
For me, I am dissatisfied with the notion that there is anything transcendental: this is just another "god-of-the-gaps".
|
In math when you end up with a singularity, an infinity, this is indicative of a boundary condition, a place where whatever you are doing isn't adequate to describe whatever it is you are describing.. we see this in physics with black holes and the big bang when time is zero, places where the otherwise extremely successful solutions to general relativity break down. Indicating that they aren't up to the task of describing reality.
I find parallels in language, when we use terms like omniscient, or omnipotent, or infinite, or perfect, or any words which are supposed to describe an absolute.. rather than being descriptive, they fail to be descriptive at all and are just indicating that there's no real answer so we'll just use this word of <insert magic word> to make ourselves feel comfortable. Transcendent, or any kind of dualism, feels the same.. just a word to describe something that cannot be described or even doesn't exist but that has become so loaded over time that people just accept that the meaning is valid.