By Mike Dishnow, August 24, 2011

Who or what is the creator of “the creator”? The “first cause argument” is without merit. One can always seek a reduction of one more step.

As Dean Stroud wrote in a column in Sunday’s Tribune, simplicity has its virtues. The concept of a creator God sounds complex to me — omniscient, omnipotent and Omnipresent are not simple ideas.

For this man, it is reasonable to believe it more likely that “man created God in his own image” than that “God created man in his own image” — incredibly more logical and more simple.

A simple review of the various religious and philosophical views, theist and non-theist, through historical and contemporary time suggests this is true.

Stroud is not wrong, nor is he right. There is a God. There is not a God. He cannot prove his thesis, nor can I prove mine.

Belief does not equal goodness or evil.

Disbelief does not equal goodness or evil.

What counts is how one lives this life; standards of conduct, ethics and values reign supreme.