Emotional Laziness

So why is the word 'God' such a big compromise of intellectual integrity? Well, clearly a picture of a bearded man in the sky has something to do with it. Most standard conceptions of God seem to fly in the face of science, the natural order of things, even just plain logic. But let's see if we can get more precise. Because I would argue that in the end Vijay's (and 1 year ago I would have said my) aversion to word 'God' is as much an emotional block as an intellectual one.

Let's put aside any concept of a God that hears prayers and intercedes in the events of our earthly lives. To me the big question is this: Is there a source of meaning outside of our brains?

For a while I maintained that there isn't, but I've come to feel that there is. And I've gotten there with experiences of wonder and with thoughts about complexity. Somehow the underlying fabric of the natural world is a dynamic cause of order and chaos, and we exist along a chain of increasingly complex evolutionary structures. And our structure is so complex that it is aware of itself and asks questions about its own formation. That part goes on in our brains but only as a result of the last 14 billion years or whatever.

Now, I didn't immediately name that source of meaning as 'God', and I'm still not super entirely comfortable with the word. But here's where I think the emotional block lies. If we think that our existence stands in relation to the structures and dynamics of all things, then the power of the 'act of naming' is not to just to connect to the other people around a shared name, but to connect emotionally to the source of it all.

To me this is only the beginning, because a concept 'God' does not predetermine the emotional relationship. It comes connected to, sometimes burdened by, all sorts of connotations and feelings: fear, awe, thanks, punishment, praise, humility, pride, love and on and on through almost all of them. And that's probably the power of the concept.

So Vijay, is there a source of meaning outside of our brains? And, if it's not already implied, is that source of meaning meaningful to our lives?

By the way, I'm starting to read GEB.