Quote:
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Is a belief in god rational?
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Sorry, but I can't stand the temptation. Imagine a situation: lightning strikes into a mug some billion years ago, and
accidentally produces some organics, which
accidentally happen to be alive, and trough the billion chances and accidents happen to produce human species with their brains, which therefore are also
accidental byproduct of the whole chain of accidents, sitting and arguing what is rational. Now such an arguing is irrational, since if we admit that the existence itself of one's brain is accidental, then reasoning of aforesaid brain is accidental too and can not be rational= can not be trusted, so it's deductions upon lightning-->mug-->organics-->-->--> human species and brains may also be false with high range of probability, so we are where we were at the start - mind as result of pure chance destroys all ground for reasoning itself. I prefer to be made by Eru, thank you, and have moral ground to count myself rational, since I was made by admitteldy
rational mind.
Now the whole described fits with Eru situation alright. As an oak produces acorns, which are growing into oaks themselves, so rationla Eru, who's always been there (from the point of view of acorns= Eruhini and Ealar, since they are created into time, which is also Eru's creation) produces rational creatures, with the one difference, but essential at that - it is oaks nature to produce acorns, but Eru does no need to produce elves and ainur.
On the other hand, "what was before" kind of question, as was already mentioned somewhere above, is meaningless in case it is applied to Being which created the time itself. There is no
before and
after for Eru, there is always
now. Some speculations on the subject can be found
here