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If God is there, he can be discovered, measured and quantified. As can Bigfoot, aliens, ghosts, poltergeists, Nazi moon bases, the Holy Grail King Arthur and all the rest.

This is a fundamental category error. God is not a thing in the same sense that created things are things, or even in the sense that imaginary things are things.

Every created thing is most fundamentally composed of its essence (what it is) and its act of existence (the fact that it exists). For example, created things like animals come into and pass out of existence. The fact that they exist at one time is not a fundamental part of what they are. I can know what a particular dog is without knowing whether it exists.

The same holds true for imaginary things. For example, a unicorn has an essence (it is a horse with a horn) which is separable from its existence or lack thereof.

God is altogether different. God's essence and act of existence is one, and it is being. God is Being. All other things are compounds of being and essence.

Thus, God transcends all categories. All other things participate in existence. God is existence.

God is One, True, Good and Beautiful. These are called "convertible terms" because they are all simply aspects of Being as understood by our limited minds.

God is perfect (he cannot be decomposed), therefore he has no parts. Therefore, he is a simple spiritual substance.

If God is there, he can be discovered, measured and quantified. As can Bigfoot, aliens, ghosts, poltergeists, Nazi moon bases, the Holy Grail King Arthur and all the rest. . . . God is altogether different

Thanks, Aquinasfan. I knew the fact that I wasn't making the ontological arguments properly didn't mean that they don't "exist" :) . . . Your point does lay to rest the argument lexcorp raised using the "straw" creatures which clearly aren't in the same category as God. However, if I understand his "threads", [which I may not :) ] he does not seem to concede that anything exists other than the Universe, including the human discipline of metaphysics, accessible by reason, above/outside science . . . Not accepting the existence/being of God outside/independent of the Universe is one thing. However, not accepting the possibility of examining such using reason because what you are contemplating IS something outside the Universe seems to me to foreclose that line of discussion?

God is One, True, Good and Beautiful

and the manifestation of that in the created Universe is wonderous: there is beauty in truth, there is truth in beauty, there is goodness in truth, etc. We can apprehend these on an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level, but they lead to the same place (Person) . . .