A mathematical definition of God

Reformulation 8/18/2022

For me, the word “God” is a variable, as in mathematics or computer science, that represents an unknown – the unknown prime mover. That unknown might be a single thing, or a set of things. The set might be small or very large.

As to the nature of that unknown, that is a theological question. Is God like what is described in the Bible? Does God have consciousness? Does God have intent? Does God care about me personally? Does God actively intervene in a creative, as opposed to mechanistic, way in the events of the world? When I have a mystical experience -- conscious contact, per step 11 -- is that a contact with an external God, or just an artifact of my neurology?

These theological questions, and their answers, do not form part of my definition of “God." I do not feel compelled to adopt the definitions of self appointed experts. I do not see how the terms “exist" or “don’t exist" relate to my definition as formulated.

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I put this on my AT&T website in 2001, but that website was taken down

A MATHEMATICAL DEFINITION OF GOD

11/11/01

This definition will require the reader to understand: What is a variable?  What is a mathematical definition?  What is a set?  Also, I will use the symbol “≡”  to mean “is defined as.”  If you did not do much math, particularly no college math, you probably won’t understand the following discussion.

For each person there is a list of questions, unanswerable questions, God-defining questions.  For each person, this list will be different.  Some examples of these questions follow. 

X­₁≡ Why are we here?

X₂≡ Why is there gravity?

X₃≡ Why is it wrong to kill another person in cold blood?

•

•

•

•

and so forth.  In this list, each question is assigned a variable which represents the answer to the question.

I then define God as follows:

GOD ≡ {X₁, X₂, X₃, …}

I believe that under this definition no one can say that GOD does not exist, nor that GOD is more than one thing.

There may be other questions, e.g.

©      Does GOD have consciousness?  

©      Is GOD a being?  (To which one might reply, “What is a being[1]?”) 

©      Does GOD care about us? 

©      Does GOD have gender? 

©      Does it make sense to define subsets of GOD relating to particular sub-characteristics, e.g. Shiva, Venus, etc.? 

These are interesting questions, which merit much discussion; however, I do not propose any answers to those questions.  I only put forth this basic definition, so that we may stop arguing about whether GOD exists and rather discuss what we think GOD is like, which I find much more interesting.

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[1] It is interesting that in one Supreme Court case, the Court defined religion as belief in a Supreme Being, but that really begs the question.  What does one mean by a “being?”