Friday, October 16, 2009

What is the "null god"?

The idea of the null god, was something that came to me thinking about my computer work.
If you are working from numbers and I say 1+1+a=2. Then you might say then a=0. That is the atheist premise.

The saying I often hear is that the main difference between a Theist is that they believe in one god. The Atheist has just gone one step further and they believe in 0 (zero) gods. There is a subtlety here that is just below the radar. The atheist believes in the finite number 0 gods.

They say their is no god, but that specifically translates to god count=0. They can say that god does not exist, their is no god, but to most people, it still translates to god count=0.

I am proposing to take this one step further. This has to be stated in the positive, not in the negative. The statement is that "I believe in the null god". It is still an atheist position, but actually very stronger then the position of the negative position that god does not exist.

Before I explain any further, we need to get a better understanding of what is "null".

Let's look at some definitions:
* Null is a special marker used in Structured Query Language (SQL) to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_(SQL))

* When a variable has no value, it considered to be null. Having a null value is different than having a value of 0, since 0 is an actual value. However, when used in a boolean test, both null and zero result in a FALSE value. Programmers often use boolean tests to determine whether a variable has been given a value or not. (techterms.net)

* A non-existent or empty value or set of values; Zero; nothing; the ASCII or Unicode character (␀), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator; the attribute of an entity that has no valid value; to nullify; Having no legal validity (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/null)

* A Java(TM) programming language keyword used to specify an undefined value for reference variables. (java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/information/glossary.html)

* A value indicating that a variable contains no valid data. Null is the result of: An explicit assignment of Null to a variable. (www.csidata.com/custserv/onlinehelp/vbsdocs/vbs0.htm)

So from the above definitions you can see that if I say some variable GOD=1, or GOD=0
then I am assigning a specific value to GOD. However, if I say GOD=null, then that really changes things. There I am saying that the value for god is undefined.

Now it is easy here to take that to be the agnostic position of not knowing. The agnostic position is not knowing where GOD=0 or GOD=1.

I like the term I came up with earlier. As a "nullist", that would be a positive statement that "I believe in the null god".

Where this gets interesting is for an atheist to be against this position. Because, if you come from a statement of "I do not believe in the null god", then it follows that you are stating that a) you believe that god is defined and b) that definition is the count is zero.

The nullist position is that god is specifically undefined, no value, valueless. It is a positive assertion of unknown, not a questioning position of unknown. Unknown is its specific value for now and always and is never changing, never thinks of changing, never wants to change. Its definition is exactly and specifically null.

more later ...

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