Presenting: Me!

Greetings! I'm Charlemagne, your co-host, and as my erudite companion, Constantine has said, we shall be discussing philosophy hereabouts. It shouldn't be hard to distinguish the two of us, as I tend to be infinitely more verbose and convoluted in my phrasing. Also we can sign our names. Since he gets a special typewriter font, I might as well pick one of my own; my choice: trebuchet! Because war machines are badass, and it fits with my name. 


Right-ho then. I don't do well with examples, they just don't occur to me so often, so let's start with a concept: existence. I like to start here because there is an exceedingly sophomoric debate that springs up far too often, at least with some of the less mature people I talk to. We exist. There, that's done with, now we can get on with life. If you really need proof, I think Descartes did a pretty good job with his "Je pense, donc je suis" (cogito, ergo sum; I think, therefore I am). I won't insult your intelligence by going on about why this makes sense; you can figure it out. 


To dive right in, let's tackle God. I'm not here to shove my beliefs down anybody's throat in this matter, except the belief that no one else should do any shoving either.
I am what you might call an atheist. I'm also what you might call a Jew. I call myself a pantheistic Jew. 
Here's how it goes: what proof have we of God's existence? Eh? When it comes right down to it, there's nothing we have that cannot be explained or prevaricated away that proves God's existence or presence. However, we do have ample evidence as to the existence of the universe. I mean, it's all around you; it's everywhere (by definition; we'll get into multiverses and how ludicrous they are later). So you want to believe in something more than yourself? That's easy: it's the universe. Clearly it's larger than you. Not only that, but it is also the sum of, if not greater than, everything accessibly extant. The universe is connected by grace of everything being within it. There are inescapable liaisons between all objects of matter (gravity, to name one). Why not call them, these "Laws of Physics" what they are? God. They rule everything. They created everything. Indeed, they are everything. It's about time we started to appreciate what is, and how fantastic that is, rather than trying to convince ourselves and others that there may be, somewhere in the universe some other being that made us. If this were the case, even then the universe would be greater than whatever creator you choose, and so would still be worth more of our attention than this hypothetical deity. 
There you have it: the universe is God. That is pantheism. You don't have to agree with me, but you really should recognize my thoughts. When it comes right down to it, all philosophy is is the exchange of thoughts so we may all begin to (or continue, or finish, as the case may be) build our own senses of self, of morality, of the world, and of life as a whole, among other questions. 


I apologize for the brevity, but I suck at time-management.
Cheers,
Charlemagne