God

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I was also baffled as to what 'god' had to do with the subject you're posting about.

you're talking about human society as a super organism- God (whether he exists or not) is a seeming nonsequitar.

Now that youve explained your word usage its plain it IS in fact a nonsequitar because you're not talking about god at all- you were just accidently confusing us by miss using the word.

BUT... on another level God as a belief system is relevent- because religions (and other mythic systems) are part of the way human society martials us (the cells) to function as a body.

I agree with naturalplastic, your use of the term "God" is really going to tend towards conceptual confusion.

Are there superorganism elements to society though? Sure. Suicide may be valuable to promote this understanding, as most suicides are caused by significant losses of social stature. So, the notion is a threat to an overly atomistic conception of what it means to be human. I do think that the market has some elements of superorganism traits, so when people talk about "the invisible hand" and "supply and demand" they're really just creating models to understand a superorganism's processing of reality, kind of like an ant colony. (Mind you, to say that the market is sort of a superorganism isn't to make a comment on it's intelligence, just to make sure I'm not opening up a conceptual tool to unnecessary attack)

The reason why I like the term god, is because I want to emphasize the relationship. The control we have over our cells, also I want to stress that its conscious like you or I, maybe in a different way, super-organism to me sort of implies a plant, or an unthinking amoeba. God implies it is a being that thinks, that makes decisions somewhat like you or I.

I still think it's the most fitting name for it. Maybe you wan't to call it a super-organism in order to preserve your status as an atheist, that's fine. Call it the super-organism theory, even if you do call it god I don't expect it should change your life, it's not something we need to pray to, or fear or to worship, all it is, after all, is the human race.

This is how I define what a god is, this super-organism. All other conceptions of god or mythological. Hereby when people ask me what a god is, I will tell them this theory, this relation of ourselves to a greater being just as are cells are to us.

I do believe this theory, therefore I believe in god. It's just the same thing as I believe in humanity, I believe in nations, I believe in companies, these things can all be seen as god. Or are all subsets of a greater god.

It's fun when you think about it,

you're making less and less sense.

Im not out to defend atheism.


God (if he exists) is the creator of the universe. Your not talking about the universe. you're talking about human society evolving and creating itsself over time independently of any cosmic creator. So talking about god not only confuses the reader-it implies that you're muddled yourself as to what the heck you're talking about.

If you were talking about the whole of society AND of nature, and the whole planet, and the cosmos, then it would make sense to talk about a putative creator behind nature and the cosmos. But you dont seem to be talking about that.

Besides- I would think the religious are the ones who would be offended by you turning Walmart, and the U.S. Government into "God" as your seem to be doing.

Human society has been evolving over the last few thousand years into a kind of super organism- thats a fair analogy. But it still IS like a plant- and not like an individual human with a conscious brain. But even dumb plants and animals are incredibly complex systems not to be sneezed at.

What does "inteligence" have to do with your analogy anyway?

you're talking about "cells" in a body- inteligence and consciousness are irrelevent to the working of the cells in your body. We humans have no more "control over our cells" than do snails, slime molds, plants, or sponges, despite our consciousness and inteligence. Your liver does fine without your brain.. So saying "im using the word 'god' because Im talking about inteligence" is nonsense because you're NOT talking about inteligence at all. you're talking about the unconscious working of cells and tissues in a body that do not involve inteligence.

It's really semantics, it's obvious I am not talking about the christian god, there are gods don't have to create the universe to be referred to as "god".

If the religious are offended that's too bad.

It's hard for us to speculate whether this thing has intelligence or not, whether it can make decisions and experience consciousness like you or I, my guess is its much more conscious than you or I, again my reasoning going back to a pair of cells.

Imagine blood cells trying to speculate what its like to listen to radiohead.
The blood cells if they had intelligence would have no way of knowing what is radiohead, what sound is, what words are. That experience happens at the collective level. So if we're cells of some greater consciousness, we have no idea what that experience is like. It may be just or more foreign than the experience of the cell to the body.

Again the argument is pure semantics, I guess I just like the ring to it. So if you want to call it the super-organism theory that's fine. You made your case for why it isn't appropriate to call it god. I still like to use that word though. I think it's the most accurate word we have.