Question197

If you could know with absolute certainty the answer to one yes or no question, what would it be? Would you use your one answer to find out for shure if a god or gods exist or would you use it for something else?

• I would definately use it for something else. There are so many things that are more important to me than the existnce of a god. I don't think it would change my life in any way to be told yes or no to that question. If it were no, well I already believe that. If it were yes, then I would not worship this god, because I don't agree with anything this god has done that has been documented by any religion. There are a few things that come to mind. It would take some time to choose. I'd also want to make sure that I worded my question very carefully (ClaySkye #4)

• One question?

  Does God exist, and if not, how exactly did the big bang and abiogenesis occur, and how can we achieve world peace, eliminate poverty, bigotry and disease, and protect the environment while assuring properity, happiness and equal rights for all? (Chris Nelson)

• "Is there an afterlife?" To me that would be more important than whether there is a god. (Jeffrey L. Graham-a.a.#1946)

• Hmmm. Interesting question. I guess my response would depend on whether or not this absolutely certain answer was just for me or would be available to everyone else.

  If the answer is available to everyone else with the same certainty, then I would be seriously tempted to ask if "gods/god really existed as described by religion?". An absolutely certain answer to this question might have some interesting effects on people.

  However, since I personally see no reason to ask a question that I'm quite confident of the answer, I wouldn't waste my one question asking about gods. Especially if the answer was just for me and not everyone else. So, my question would be: "Did OJ really do it?

  Ok, just kidding.

  Still trying to think of that one special question that would offer special insight into life and I haven't quite come up with it yet. Is there a time limit to think of a good question. I really can't think of anything that keeps me up or makes me crazy and that I need an absolute answer to. I could ask if I'd live a long time, but I'm not sure I really want to know the answer to that. I could ask if life has some meaning, but even if I knew absolutely yes or no, I don't think that would change my life and it still wouldn't tell me what that meaning was. I could ask if I could change the world for the better, but even if I knew I could, I would still have to figure out how and when and what to do; and I expect that if I really want to, I know the answer to that question already. I could ask I would win the Lotto jackpot, but that seems rather trivial and selfish and it wouldn't make much difference, since I don't waste much money on gambling anyway. No, I haven't come up with a really good or clever question yet. Very few really good questions have "yes or no" answers, I'm afraid. (Woden)

• That's a good one. But it would have been interesting to know how the theists would have answered too.

  The devilish part is how restricted it is. Even if I wanted to use it on a god question, there's still the problem of choosing the question. I could ask if one particular god exists, but if the answer comes back no, that wouldn't rule out the existence of some other god. I could find out if at least one god exists, but if the answer came back yes, I wouldn't know which one exists.

  If I *had* to ask a god question, I would play the odds as I see them and ask if any gods (as I understand the term) exist. I'd expect a "no" response, but even if it came back "yes" that would settle the first most fundamental god question.

  But, my inclination is to ask something other than a god question. If there are gods, they clearly prefer to remain hidden, so it might not be smart to risk thwarting the wishes of gods. Which is fine because there's other stuff I'd rather know anyway. Like: "Is there sentient life in the universe beyond our solar system?" Stuff I don't expect I'll have the chance to find out for sure in my lifetime. Of course, the god question might come back and contaminate non-god questions. (eg. if the other "sentience" in the universe happens to be a god.) It would be irritating to have the oracle speak and still not have definitive knowledge of something.

  At the moment, my lead candidate is "Did the universe begin in a Big Bang?" But if I happen to think of a way I could make a vast fortune off my question, I might change my mind. (Kronk)

• There are many questions that I'd like an answer to, but they couldn't be answered with "yes or no".

  I think I'd ask something like, "Do you know if I will die in the next two years?" Notice that this isn't anything about me, but an attempt to discover the limits of the answerers knowledge. If it answered "yes", then I guess that would disprove free will, i.e. the future is fixed. If it answered "no", then I would assume that the future *isn't* fixed, that we can change how things develop. (Carl Funk-aa#1229) a.a atheist #1229

• Something else - something really important. Hmmm.
  Are there any *interesting* questions that have yes/no answers?

  I better not make *that* my one question so I will have to think... (whirr... whirr... grind...)
  Ah!
  I have it!
  "Will humanity survive the next 1000 years"

  There is so much contained in that one innocent looking question. Will we completely fuck up the earth and render it uninhabitable? Will we learn to live in peace and feed the world and control our poulation growth and not unleash nuclear/biological armagedon on ourselves?
  I am quite interested in seeing if we survive the next 100 years. I wish I could say I was optimistic - but our resources are finite and our capacity for stupidity and evil seemingly inexaustable. BR> Ironically IF we knew the answer to this question it would probably instantly change the outcome - if we thought everything was going to be tickerty boo we might just stop trying to make things better. Much better we don't know - fear can be a good motivator. (Mark Richardson)

• I certainly wouldn't use the question to ask about gods as I consider the answer trivial. The answers that I would consider to be significant, such as cures for genetic disorders and diseases or the formula that explains the GUT would be difficult to frame in a yes/no format.

  So, yes, I would use the question for something else, and given the limitations of a binary answer, I could only ask something mundane, like will Intel's stock be over $30/share by Jan 2, 2002. (Liz Huth #658)

• Ask about god(s)? Why waste a perfectly useful question?

  I'd be tempted to ask about wave/particle duality. Not that I think I am capable of framing a reasonable question about it, myself, but it might be possible, with the right question, to eliminate or confirm the 'many universes' hypothesis (which has piqued my interest, lately).

  Otherwise, I might ask if Oswald was the lone gunman. Or if a large, extraterrestrial object slamming into the earth was a critical factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs. (Pat Kiewicz aa#1154)

• Already knowing that God doesn't exist, I wouldn't ask that. I would probably ask, "Is there other intellegent life outside our solar system?" (D.M. aa#1863)

• Don't know what difference it would make but this is my question:

  "Will the Universe support life only for a finite period?" (John Hearsey-aa#1886)

• Nice! Thought-provoking! :-) Let's see...

  ...eh, I'm young and extraordinarily intelligent. I already know everything I need to know. ;-)

  I would use it for something else, of that I'm certain. The concept of a "god" is such an obviously human creation to me that it wouldn't make much sense to waste time with it. But what, *what* would I use it for... That's not so easy to figure out. I think I'd have to ask around for ideas. If put on the spot *right now*, however, where I simply HAD to come up with something... I suppose it would have to be, "Will we as a species survive long enough to evolve into something else?" (Avender aa#88)

• Unless I was being altruistic and asking for something to improve human development (scientific or social answers for example), I wouldn't see asking my questions as anything but laziness. For me, real value to answers comes through achievement and work and the things learned along the way. The effort is worth as much as the answers.

  Or as the saying goes, the chase is better than the catch. (BoB Dog aa#153)

• There's lots of things which I wonder about and would really like to know - most of these things I'll probably never know. However they can hardly be answered with a yes or no... I can think up a few questions which could be narrowed down to a yes/no question, which might ease research - or something. Like "Is material things the only things existing?" or "Is there such a thing as a soul?" or "Are there any absolute values?" - things like that. At least we'd then either know for sure that they were there, or we'd know they weren't and wouldn't have to wonder about that any more. Either way - those are things I'd never be able to figure out, in my lifetime and which I don't think we could ever find out at all - Unless there we found such a things as an omniscient oracle, which we won't. (Nikitta-aa#1759).

• Will my son be a grandfather some day? (Rev. Karl E. Taylor aa#1143)