It seems to me inescapable logic that there is nothing other than God, because God cannot create something that isn't God. If anyone has a way out of this 'logical inescapableness', I would like to hear it.
I don't have a way out. I only have another way in: If "God" is defined as the utmost, the maximum, the highest, deepest, most infinite, etc . . . then God must also encompass all of existence, and not just encompass it, because that is not enough, God is it. To say God is separate from anything is to say God is removed from something which is to say there is a division, a separation, a sort of inferiority, which is impossible given what "God" must be. If "God" is not everything then he is some sort of demiurge or otherwise magical but limited being.
You are right. I'm God. There is no logical way out. Still, at this point in my life, I don't want to be God. I'm probably not alone in seeing The Truth, but not being able to face it. I suppose I will just find some way to not be God. People have to live. Someone wrote me this: "Alan Watts brilliantly solves the problem you are facing. Essentially you are stuck in a dualistic view of God, in which the Infinite stands in opposition to the finite - hence you find it logically problematic for God to create something other than him - the finite. A non-dual view of God solves this problem. A non-dual view of God says that the Infinite does not stand in opposition to the finite. "Opposition" is a property that limits something; opposition can only apply to things that are finite, or dualistic in this case... Opposition does not apply to the Infinite, the Infinite can not oppose anything, for it is the Infinite! It is everything! Again, how can the Infinite be in opposition to anything if it is by definition everything? Solution: A non-dual view of God states that the Infinite does not oppose the finite(creation), rather it wholly embraces the finite within it. Take a step back and think about this logically for a moment.. Would not the infinite, by definition, include everything within it? Would not the Infinite, by definition, contain finite expressions within it? Would not the infinite by definition contain within it infinite variety, infinite forms and expressions... i.e creation itself? In this sense the Infinite does not annihilate the concept of finite, but rather it wholly embraces it. The Infinite, being infinite, contains the finite within itself. People have a hard time accepting this because they think such a non-dual view of God annhilates meaningingful relationship with God, or just meaning in general; but this is a huge misconception. Watts goes at great length to explain away these misconceptions/worries - and brilliantly shows how a non-dual view of God and reality, is in my mind, the most meaningful and logically accurate view of reality." __________________
Another way to think of it is if you rewind time and the universe begins to contract eventually it disappears and only God remains.