What do we know about God?

[Neoplatonist]

I don’t “know” anything, but I “know” something! I like it that way because saturating myself within the mystery is more fun than I should be allowed. I’m not the type to read the book’s ending before its time and I never want to close my options by “knowing” more than I should. I choose what to believe because it is comforting and fascinating and fun and hopeful……while still holding on to the thrill of being most likely wrong!

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by soulatom

All major religions say that God is omnicient, His Prescene is everywhere. Via Science we have discovered the whole universe is atomic. Therefore God must be in the center of every atom.

that is what i have been thinking for a long time as well. i have had this obscure view lately of a chess board...
God is all the white squares & the people are the brown squares. the white squares are holding everything together.

just a little chess board image there.

now spirit(s) are different because that is of a different substance that cannot be calculated the same way as the material things. however mind (thoughts) can be observed in different ways.

so God is literally in -IN- everything that is material, yet somehow He is able to attach & disconnect (get close or distant) Himself to our spirit & a lot of that depends on us.

so, i am getting some semi-inverted perceptions for some reason & it feels pretty good.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

What is yours like?

hi Jaiket . the above post is one thought that i have been having lately. i dont know why.
one other image i have is like God is this big huge, floaty thing that stretches from the sun & goes past pluto then goes way out past the big dipper & past the stars farther than i can see. at the same time if i went to the moon, then this God would already be there when i get there & before i get there...the same if i took a sub to the bottom of the oceon.

i remember what my other question was for you now.

what if God, or this God, or whatever Caspar the Ghost, you think you might have (for lack of better wording) is like a stubborn girlfriend/boyfriend & waiting for you to make all the first moves?
then when you make the first move the stubborn girlfriend starts warming up to you & begins revealing her love & warmth?

you know how sometimes you can feel that someone is either mad or real happy & pleased with you but they never say anything.

that is probably not a real good analogy, but it is something i think about sometimes.
what do you think?

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by Awaiting_the_fifth

I would suggest, nothing.

I would suggest you are just not looking or bothering to...

All we need to ever know about God is right in front of our faces, it's called the Bible? God's word? You know.....

He want's us to draw close to Him, and He to us. How can you have a loving relationship with someone you know nothing about? Kind of like a saying I saw once, No jesus no peace, Know Jesus Know peace... Kind of like that but swap Jesus' name for Jehova's.

I could spit out many verses in the Bible that show what Jehovah God, is like, but... I am in one of my, 'ugh' moods... read the Bible! SEEK OUT THY QUESTIONS!!! AND ANSWERS WILL COME....TH! COMETH!!!! lol...

[brucegdc]

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

I would suggest you are just not looking or bothering to...

All we need to ever know about God is right in front of our faces, it's called the Bible? God's word? You know.....
<snip>

Hmm... rely on something to prove itself? Why do we *know* that it's God's word? Because it says so. Well, so does the Torah (not the rest of the Tanach - those are history and some darned good poetry), the Mishnah (at least by tradition), and the Koran. And they're not consistent between themselves. (I'm not even going into internal inconsistencies...there's enough threads on that elsewhere, with arguments about meanings of ancient aramaic and greek terms...)

Saying it's the word of God doesn't make it so...

To slightly paraphrase from one of my favorite books where a street preacher tries to preach at an angel inadvertently summoned to Earth (and stuck here):

Preacher: "You can get a meal and hear the Word of God"
Samuel (the angel): "Which word?"
Preacher: "What?"
Samuel: "Well, God's said a lot of words, you know, and a word like it or the wouldn't be worth hearing again, but it's always fun listening to Him try to say aluminum".

.... Bruce
(For those that are interested, it's The Second Summoning by Tanya Huff)

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Bandit

what if God, or this God, or whatever Caspar the Ghost, you think you might have (for lack of better wording) is like a stubborn girlfriend/boyfriend & waiting for you to make all the first moves?
then when you make the first move the stubborn girlfriend starts warming up to you & begins revealing her love & warmth?

Hey Bandit.

Normally in those situations I'm quite convinced the other party exists. I guess I'll be missing out in this case.

I get the impression though, Bandit, that an all-powerful being might be a little more sensible than myself.

[didymus]

It is an insult to God to say that He is limited to one book. And even worse a book that has been reedited and translated over 2000 years. The Bible is spiritual. It is the legacy of the Jewish people and Christianity being an offshoot of Judaism. The Bible is full of spiritual truths and also full of human logic and psychology(Old Testament) Jesus was fully Jewish and practiced Jewish law. But he was able to look further than the law. He expanded on it and made it richer and better, open to anyone. To follow Jesus' acts and ways is to be one with God, but it isn't the only way. There are many. If you research the enlightenment and spiritual awakenings of others from different faiths and backgrounds you'll notice that the language and experiences of these people is very similar to what Jesus preached and what everybody senses when one with God. Therefore enlightenment is universal, all inclusive, never exclusive.

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by didymus

It is an insult to God to say that He is limited to one book. And even worse a book that has been reedited and translated over 2000 years. The Bible is spiritual. It is the legacy of the Jewish people and Christianity being an offshoot of Judaism. The Bible is full of spiritual truths and also full of human logic and psychology(Old Testament) Jesus was fully Jewish and practiced Jewish law. But he was able to look further than the law. He expanded on it and made it richer and better, open to anyone. To follow Jesus' acts and ways is to be one with God, but it isn't the only way. There are many. If you research the enlightenment and spiritual awakenings of others from different faiths and backgrounds you'll notice that the language and experiences of these people is very similar to what Jesus preached and what everybody senses when one with God. Therefore enlightenment is universal, all inclusive, never exclusive.

Let's see, the Jews state their path is the true one (one side says there is an afterlife and another says there is not, both however say that we live on through our children). However there is contradiction for what happens to the individual at the end of his/her life.

Muslims think that the "logic" of their faith is the perfect one. Yet for a "logical people" their emotions seem to get the best of them everytime, hence they defy their own scripture's requirements, and then justify it in the name of their prophet, not their god.

The Hindu has many gods, yet they believe salvation is going back to nothingness.

Buddhists have their own ancestral beliefs (mayhap closer to naturalism than anything else).

And what of the concepts of Pluralism? Can we say that is in line with the others as far as leading to the same Creator?

Christians state that Christ Jesus is the way, however others have the right to not believe or follow (in the purest sense of the faith). And Christian faith seems to say, no one is excluded, and none shall dis-appear or perish. All are welcome to choose or not choose.

Now, I will present in issue for consideration, and not meant to offend anyone...it is just an observation.

Which faiths, sends out "missionaries" world wide to spread their versions of the good news (e.g. man is saved)? Which faiths go out on a limb for the "unconverted", to the point of suffering death to themselves (the missionaries)?

Who is willing to die for their 'God' for the sake of others who are "strangers", inorder for the strangers to live and to see that "God" is supreme, and bigger than all of us? (not to mention much more personal to the individual)

Who includes all openly?

Look hard at your history of the world, and the various dominant religious beliefs that have taken hold in those areas. I think you'll find a surprising answer in this relatively modern times.

There is an exception to the rule with where I am going at, and that would be Turkey (generally). But Turkey is an exception, not the norm.

I submit that there is only one faith that covers all bets here. And the countries that tend to be dominated by this faith, tend also to be most inclusive and tolerant of other faiths, that differ from the main faith...

What do you think?

v/r

Q

[Silverbackman]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

On a very superficial level, yes.

Why is it either a universe, multiverse or deity? What is a deity? Some kind of proto-universe with a desire to populate planets as yet unmade? Why do you argue for the likelyhood of two being the same? How much 'living' did it do prior to the universe being here?

To be honest I don't accept any of this, I haven't read about it yet and have no real opinions.

It's not a deity. It doesn't have to be one either. My point is that the universe/multiverse/omniverse can be considered God but not in a deity sense. The term "God" has many meanings. It doesn't have to be the primitive deity that is limited to a body like in the many mythologies of the world.

Think about it, the universe/multiverse fits all the descriptions of a God aside from the personifications. The multiverse is likely infinite. God is infinite. The infinite multiverse is omnipresent. God is ominpresent. Conscious awareness comes somewhere from the infinite multiverse. This multiversal conscious is the sum total of the consciousness in the whole multiverse. But of course this would mean that consciousness is infinite, seen throughout all life in the multiverse (you can call these individual consciousness "souls", because they are in many ways like the "soul".

Whenever a natural disaster happen, many people claimed God caused it. We consider this superstition, but is it really? The world is perfectly fine with people saying "Nature caused that flood", ect. But if we were to take the word God out of "God caused that flood" and replace God with Nature it works. Therefore Nature in a sense is God or a major aspect of God.

Doing this we see that the God does exist without making supernatural entities up. It is that simple.

[Quahom1]

Then you ignore what Einstein said about God. Hence your own signature quote is something you do not adhere to.

Einstein believed in God, just not a personal one. The way he put it, he was too small for God to even consider him.

v/r

Q

[Silverbackman]

Originally Posted by soulatom

Hi again. While I am anxiously waiting for you to elaborate on your hint, here’s one about mine :-) there is only one God. All other gods are simply expressions of Him. According to Stephen Hawkins He reincarnated in this “uni”verse via a singularity. QED

I said a lot of my religious beliefs in my last post, I believe the omniverse (infinite universe/multiverse) is God. You can't get any higher of a existence than being "everything" there is (the sum total of all existence). I believe my conscious awareness is our soul, and that it doesn't just die away when we died (unless it left its source when we were born but returns to it when we die). I do think our conscious awareness (soul) goes through an eternal cycle of changing hosts. Nothing last forever. The only ultimate reality we know for sure that lasts forever is that something has to have existed for eternity (because it is no possible to come from nothingness).

BTW, I suggest you use the word "It" to describe God than "Him". God is genderless because gender is a quality only seen in life on Earth (and possibly with life outside our universe). It really doesn't matter if you use "Him" or "Her" but to me it looks more sophisticated if we use "It" with a capital i.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by didymus

It is an insult to God to say that He is limited to one book.


Therefore enlightenment is universal, all inclusive, never exclusive.

i would say, God is not the author of confusion. all these 'books' all over the place sure do make a lot of confusion & as someone else said, they do not all agree with each other. i see a lot of books, writings & comics that are insulting & often intended that way.

people choose what to include & exclude in their lives. people choose what to be included in & excluded in. i choose & so does everyone else. unless of course you live in a country where you are not allowed to choose & that country runs the show with force & with their religion & that is sad.

[Silverbackman]

Originally Posted by Quahom1

Then you ignore what Einstein said about God. Hence your own signature quote is something you do not adhere to.

Einstein believed in God, just not a personal one. The way he put it, he was too small for God to even consider him.

v/r

Q

I don't agree with Einstein on everything, although my religious beliefs are very similar to Einstein (many documents suggest he was pantheist). I do agree with Einstein with the quote in my sig. because I do think religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame .

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by Silverbackman

I don't agree with Einstein on everything, although my religious beliefs are very similar to Einstein (many documents suggest he was pantheist). I do agree with Einstein with the quote in my sig. because I do think religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame .

Oh? So you are bigger than God? Or God is "Nolocontendre"...not something you consider. Or you argue no contest?

Questions questions questions, and no one to stand up and answer their mind.

Then why are you here? That is a valid question, I should think...

[Silverbackman]

Originally Posted by Quahom1

Oh? So you are bigger than God? Or God is "Nolocontendre"...not something you consider. Or you argue no contest?

Questions questions questions, and no one to stand up and answer their mind.

Then why are you here? That is a valid question, I should think...

Huh? Your not making much sense.