You become the ubermensch? 

In my opinion, there never was a god to die in a literal sense, though one could argue it's possible for it to die a metaphorical death, depending on your perspective.  For example, the god that I once feared greatly, no longer exists to me like it once did.  As for whether god does exist outside of our minds, it's something I doubt greatly, but there is no way anyone can prove or disprove entirely. Therefore, it doesn't matter to much to me.

Quote from: Shana-chan on June 21, 2014, 12:18:26 PM
I know I know, God is eternal, he can't die, but, if you read two passages in the bible, it seems to indicate otherwise and both were said from God himself. The first is "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end"

Well, this quote, attributed to Jesus, only happens in the gospel of John. Most Christians biblical scholars believe that the gospel of John is but a fabrication... but that is another thread so to speak. What I can tell you is that the quote is wrong translation of the Aramaic as the last letter of the Aramaic alphabet is not omega but rather tau... but all of these ^^^ is really inconsequential...

It seems to me that what Jesus meant was that by closing the alphabet, he left no room for other folks to teach about G-d. Using "words" was a common Hebrew/Aramaic practice, and words often assumed "powerful" powers. For example the words abracadabra and amen are Hebrew words with mystical power. Amen which means "so be it" was used as to seal an event, and abracadabra which means "I create like the word" was used as a magical incantation. Do notice the usage of "like the word," which is clearly a reference to G-d.

You can also interpret the "I am the alpha and omega" as "I control your beginning and your end"

While it's been nice reading everyone's opinions and beliefs and such, this thread was never intended for that. This thread asked a simple yet complex question that opens up lots of what WOULD be the case/happen. In other words, REGARDLESS of your belief/opinion this thread and I have been asking you to even if for a moment consider the possibility's of what I've mentioned and asked. If you can't bring yourself to post based on the idea that God may or is dead and all that I said in the OP post then please don't post here at all as it is derailing the actual topic of this thread.

Sorry if this was rude, I am just amazed at how few people even here aren't willing to think outside the box and accept tat their opinion/belief may not be right and as a result, they can't even answer this thread's questions/scenarios. Example, I saw more than I'd have liked that people were saying God isn't dead then they pointed to scripture.. That's not what THIS thread is for, This thread is for what I said in the OP post, if people can't respect this then, I'll get a mod to lock this thread as I'm tired of not hearing what I'd created this thread for but rather hearing the complete opposite which makes one wonder why they bothered to create the thread in the first place.

Sorry if anyone found this rude or took offense to it.

Quote from: Shana-chan on September 13, 2014, 01:42:44 PM
While it's been nice reading everyone's opinions and beliefs and such, this thread was never intended for that. This thread asked a simple yet complex question that opens up lots of what WOULD be the case/happen. In other words, REGARDLESS of your belief/opinion this thread and I have been asking you to even if for a moment consider the possibility's of what I've mentioned and asked. If you can't bring yourself to post based on the idea that God may or is dead and all that I said in the OP post then please don't post here at all as it is derailing the actual topic of this thread.

Sorry if this was rude, I am just amazed at how few people even here aren't willing to think outside the box and accept tat their opinion/belief may not be right and as a result, they can't even answer this thread's questions/scenarios. Example, I saw more than I'd have liked that people were saying God isn't dead then they pointed to scripture.. That's not what THIS thread is for, This thread is for what I said in the OP post, if people can't respect this then, I'll get a mod to lock this thread as I'm tired of not hearing what I'd created this thread for but rather hearing the complete opposite which makes one wonder why they bothered to create the thread in the first place.

Sorry if anyone found this rude or took offense to it.

See, the whole problem is that this question is pretty much nothing but philosophical. What is life and death? To humans it is we are born, we live and either die from an accident, disease or old age. What is Death though? A lot of belief systems think that death is a new beginning. We, as humans see it as the end of ourselves or our loved ones and a finality but what truly happens after we die? Even in dreams and symbology of the psyche, death represents a change. Not an ending but a new beginning.

So the whole question relies on two things and these two things are sort of unanswerable. Who or what is God? And does God even exist in the way we do? And what is death? If there is a consciousness that goes on after the body ceases to breath and then starts breaking down then death is nowhere near a finality but rather a new way of existence. To some people God is dead, metaphorically to them. To others God is alive. To some people death is the finality of this body in this world. But what if the consciousness survives the physical death.

So really Shana-chan, the only answers that can make sense to anyone is the way people perceive God, life and death. That is why you are getting so many differing answers because people believe totally different ways. It really is an interesting post, but if you are looking for specific answers, I don't think you will get them. Because both, God and death, we truly can't understand the concepts just our own perceptions of both.

Well, if you discount the notion of God as magic, then the answer is God ends with the thermal death of the universe, and was born at its creation.  If you accept brane theory and a four dimensional universe or something like cosmic foam and a multiverse, then God is constantly being created and destroyed along the decision  tree.  God in this thought experiment becomes a proxy for space-time.

If, on the other hand, you place belief in a being which exists outside of reality as commonly understood, then the question is meaningless.  God, so defined, cannot be created or destroyed, but merely is.  What its purpose is also becomes a meaningless construct, because that which is outside of causation must necessarily either be purposeless or the sole purpose possible.

A more interesting question to me is if God is not magic, what possible purpose can a supreme being fill.  Yes there are gaps in our knowledge of how the universe functions, but a God of the gaps isn't very satisfying.  A God whose purpose keeps shrinking isn't a God.  So what would a God, living or dead do?  If nothing, then they are irrelevant even if they exist.  It just isn't plausible to me that the irrelevant is all powerful.

That kind of leaves God as something outside of reality.  What would that look like?  Myth I suppose.  I don't discount myth as mere fable.  The myths of people provide meaning, and direction to lives.  Terry Pratchett supposes that God's are real as long as there are believers and when belief dies so do the Gods.  When a myth loses its relevance to a society, it rarely dies but morphs into something newly relevant and co-ops the old into something the current society can use.  But use for what?  To create systems of ethics?  To control the conversation?  To lubricate the functioning of societal norms?

I think it does all those things which explains why myths and religions persist over time.  So if God and myth were to die, would society be poorer?  If God was dead would we reinvent something equivalent?  I think we would, I don't believe that God exists in objective reality, but the idea of God, is alive and well in psychological reality.  I am much more concerned that God is the psychic manifestation of power and is, as it has always been, a tool of manipulation by those who control the conversation.

Peace,
Julie