Essay talk:On Deities

I'm also an atheist - but I can't help but feel that this essay is a bit strong on emphatic statements, and a bit laking in analysis.

From the first couple of lines: It is impossible for any sort of deity to exist unless that deity exists only outside the present universe and has no effect on it. How do you know this to be true? and If, however, a hypothetical deity did exist, it could have no special or divine power unless it was not bound by scientific law. Why should having divine powers necessitate it being bound by scientific laws? If I imagine a hypothetical entity why couldn't I imagine one not bound by physical law?

(Breaking it up into paragraphs might make it a bit easier to follow as well.) :-)--Bobbing up 05:35, 3 December 2007 (EST)

Yeah, I'm an atheist as well. I think the first line is the essay's thesis, i.e This essay seeks to demonstrate that it is impossible for any sort of deity to exist unless that deity exists only outside the present universe and has no effect on it. which I take to mean that if a god did create the universe that must mean the god existed before the universe and thus exists outside of it. Further there is no evidence that this diety has done anything since then. As for the other bit I take it to mean that ''divine powers are by their very nature counter to scientific or natural laws, thus if a diety with divine powers did exist it woud be counter to natural or scientific laws." Basically god has to have come first, has to have been from someplace and has to be magic and those three 'impossible' things make it almost certain that no god exists. Except for that little god who steals my socks from the drier. That one does exist. 204.248.28.194 07:49, 3 December 2007 (EST)