This thread is prompted somewhat by this exchange in the thread God:

Quote Originally Posted by thegnome54
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xaqaria
The answer to this question <is there a god> is yes. It should be obvious, since you can ask the question.

Hold on... WHAT?
It may not be precisely what Xaq is getting at, but I often have difficulty communicating my position that deities, religions, belief systems, and approaches to life and reality in general are not false, but neither are any of them exclusively true or correct.

Expressed compactly, gods exist as much as you or me: somewhat, but not particularly. The same could be said of atoms, comic book heroes and the Sears Tower. All rely on human observation and conceptualization to maintain their existence as gods, self, atoms, characters or buildings. All have some kind of existence, but none inherently possess the identity we ascribe to them, not our gods, not ourselves, not our categories of matter, not our fictions and not our physical artifacts.

Privileging the material, the mechanical, and the measurable as real and confining all else to the ghetto of make-believe is not the most logical or intelligent position. It is an exaggerated view. MRI machines are as imaginary as dragons, and as real. Both, in the absence of all observation and conceptualization, effectively cease to exist.