Something that important surely is not a waste of time? If we say its definition is simple and settled, that seems a tool for some human elite to shut down exploration of the human elite's power.

Mike, I didn't mean to suggest that we shouldn't ask the question, or the question is not important, rather the focus of the question of God existing is sometimes lost simply because of the definition issues. Fact is, there's a definition problem with everything, and one could spend all their time talking about definitions. The purpose of my post was to suggest a straightforward all-encompassing definition by which to ask the question of God's existence. Does my definition eliminate all definition problems? Of course not! It's a consequence of human language that definitions are always going to be vague and open for debate.

• As I meant to say to Kyle the other day... - carefuluniverse - July 12, 2003 - 17:58 UTC