There needs to be a distinction here between thought and the concepts and images produced by thought. Thought is the energy of the mind. The mind has being because it is alive. The intellectual products of thought are abstractions and models of reality, they are not all of what thought is.

I don't think one can flatly state that God is an invention of the mind or a mere thinking process. This is a proclamation that needs to be justified.

You are essentially saying "A fictional character is a fictional character." — Frank Apisa

That is not the argument, the argument is that there is no concretion to the substance, and the idea is itself entirely contingent (and proceeds from) man's symbolic structure, the same cannot be said about the matter you ate for breakfast.

JerseyFlight
209
You are essentially saying "A fictional character is a fictional character."
— Frank Apisa

That is not the argument, the argument is that there is no concretion to the substance, and the idea is itself entirely contingent (and proceeds from) man's symbolic structure, the same cannot be said about the matter you ate for breakfast. — JerseyFlight

Don't get angry. That makes you want to make word salads that are undigestable.

You WERE saying that a fictional character is a fictional character.

And I was agreeing with you. They are.

Don't get angry. — Frank Apisa

??? :cool:

JerseyFlight
214
Don't get angry.
— Frank Apisa

??? :cool: — JerseyFlight

"...the same cannot be said about the matter you ate for breakfast."

Seemed like a zinger. Maybe I was wrong.

Hegel says in his Encyclopedia that the idea of God and even the proofs brought forward for his existence are of great value in the dialectical movement of the Idea

Yeah, well Hegel was wrong.

I do not know enough about Hegel's specific notions of theism to discourse on it with any kind of authority. — JerseyFlight

Try this.

The real question is why does one need God when one has thought? — JerseyFlight

The question I have about 'thought's power' is like I would have for 'writing's power' or 'speech's power'. Certainly, h. sapiens has the power of thought, speech and writing. But you can think, write and speak all manner of nonsense; just because you can think, doesn't mean you can think well. Loosers, lunatics, fanatics, dictators and criminals all think, speak and write, but that doesn't really add up to much in their case.

Yeah, well Hegel was wrong. — JerseyFlight

‘He’s only ‘right’ insofar as I agree with him. In all those matters in which I disagree with him, he’s definitely wrong.’

Would that be right?

Thought is what got us into the mess of religion. It created it. Stating one is more powerful than the other is meaningless. Also, if it was, we'd have vanquished these dogmas long ago.

Would that be right? — Wayfarer

No.