Define God?!...........

gearheaded1

Never stop questioning
Oct 21, 2006
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Keepers of the Faith

In a modern context, I would suggest:

God is Faith. Faith in one's self, faith in society and the greater good. Belief in a greater power and energy beyond this physical world. Answers to the unexplainable.

If we all cannot be proponents of a god, we all should be at least be keepers of the Faith and keepers of our brothers and sisters.
 

The Project Man

Liquer'd Up & Lash'n Out!
Aug 22, 2006
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gods are the placeholders man has used to fill in the great gaps in his understanding. Along the way, it became a useful tool to unite and control populations as well.


In the same functioning, as a double edged sword, it has divided far more people than it has united. I understand it was a very useful tool in politics.
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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Simple. A god is a being imagined by humans and given any or all of a long list of possible supernatural or paranormal powers, most commonly omniscience and omnipotence, at least for starters, and infinite measures of human virtues, like kindness, mercy, wisdom, etc.


I concur doctor. It is with the shallow imagination he has been created. By those same imaginations he was given the non virtuous traits of a blood thirsty and manipulative deity.
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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Excellent, except that I would suggest "A god is a CONCEPT imagined by humans"

The whole concept of a god or God or whatever is simply a way for people to explain why things happen and why things are.



Does this stem from a people's fear of reality, knowing they can not truely have control of anything in the world? Is this a comfort zone set aside for safety?
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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God is a mass delusion.

Please read Richard Dawkin's ---"The God delusion"---its all there.

Reading this book finally gave me the impetus to move from agnostic to athiest--and it feels great.

To think that I feel I can with confidence know the answer to one of life's greatest mysteries.



Reading it now. The only reason I would have the hope that something exists is for judgement. The poor people that actually follow the good aspect of a religion may they have piece in the end. the wicked may they get a piece in the end.

This will not happen because of non-existance of a god, just wishful thinking.
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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The strange thing is that I can say the same phrase, practically word for word, only meaning that the existence of Gods is a certainty :)
Actually, after seeing and experiencing certain things the existence of God(s) is no longer a matter of faith. It is a matter of knowing.


Please, this is a cliff hanger statement, elaborate if you can.
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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In a modern context, I would suggest:

God is Faith. Faith in one's self, faith in society and the greater good. Belief in a greater power and energy beyond this physical world. Answers to the unexplainable.

If we all cannot be proponents of a god, we all should be at least be keepers of the Faith and keepers of our brothers and sisters.


Faith in what though? I am my brother's keeper, but if my brother has faith then I am of no consequence in his well being.
 

Vereya

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Apr 20, 2006
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Is this framework tangable or mythological in nature. Is god the 'framework' or the 'framer'?
Well, since we live in a tangible world, and not in a myhtological one, I'd say that the framework in which we function is very much tangible, too. And as for the framer... You know, my idea of God and Gods is that Gods are the off-spring of the great creative power that has created the whole universe. They are not Creators themselves. And that power is even greater than the Gods. What that power is, I don't know yet. Most likely, I never will.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vereya
Actually, after seeing and experiencing certain things the existence of God(s) is no longer a matter of faith. It is a matter of knowing.



Please, this is a cliff hanger statement, elaborate if you can.
It is hard to explain this statement, in fact. How do you explain a mystical experience to people, who didn't share it with you? Let's just say that I had certain training with a Shaman, that included several altered consciousness experiences. The nature of these experiences is such, that its reality and validity are undisputable. And for me right now the existence of Gods is a matter of knowing that they do exist.
 

The Project Man

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Aug 22, 2006
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Very Curious

Well, since we live in a tangible world, and not in a myhtological one, I'd say that the framework in which we function is very much tangible, too. And as for the framer... You know, my idea of God and Gods is that Gods are the off-spring of the great creative power that has created the whole universe. They are not Creators themselves. And that power is even greater than the Gods. What that power is, I don't know yet. Most likely, I never will.


It is hard to explain this statement, in fact. How do you explain a mystical experience to people, who didn't share it with you? Let's just say that I had certain training with a Shaman, that included several altered consciousness experiences. The nature of these experiences is such, that its reality and validity are undisputable. And for me right now the existence of Gods is a matter of knowing that they do exist.

I have had experiences myself. Opiates and teachers. I have had quite vivid dreams were as to talk to the subject aloud while sleeping. I would have my friend withold the information until I brought it up. She made several revelations to me over many breakfasts. Do you feel you were in the presence of such a being. The way it made you feel. Just a simple uderstanding of it, once the experience was over?
If to personal then tell me.
 

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
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Your posts are all interesting and enlightening, but I dare say they inevitably tell more about yourselves than about God. I'm not trying to be a smart alec, but I have read that the mystics (those who reportedly have experienced a union with God) all basically say the God is ineffable. One of them, Meister Eckhart, said "God is nothingness". What all this ineffable business means is that nothing can be predicated about God, i.e., that any sentence of the "God is x" type must necessarily be false. I personally find it impossible to satisfactorily define God, I have never had a mystical experience of the sort Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart described, and find that the concept of God boggles the mind. Before attempting a definition perhaps we should heed the advice given by Austrian philsopher Wittgenstein: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent". What do you think? Can humans really define (that is, put limits on) God?
 

Vereya

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Apr 20, 2006
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I have had experiences myself. Opiates and teachers. I have had quite vivid dreams were as to talk to the subject aloud while sleeping. I would have my friend withold the information until I brought it up. She made several revelations to me over many breakfasts. Do you feel you were in the presence of such a being. The way it made you feel. Just a simple uderstanding of it, once the experience was over?
If to personal then tell me.

Well, it was psychedelics in my case. Several trips in a shamanic setting with a very good sitter. Psychedelics are a great power, nothing really equals them in expanding your consciousness. You get so much information, you get to see so many new things while you are tripping, and after the trip you inevitably change, and your life changes, and the situations that you encounter in your life. One of my trips was very significant and very intense - I had my first out-of-body experience, and I learned to change reality, and some other things that I'd rather not mention right now. It is the most incredible feeling, when you talk to the matter the reality is made of, and it listens to you and replies to you. It is absolutely undescribable, any other impression fades in the comparison. The last trip that I had was on the 3rd of November.
After what you see in trips, you know some things for sure. You know it, because you saw it, and you know that it is that way. Before I had my first trip, I used to wonder, when reading Castaneda, how could he take seriously what he saw in his trips, and how could he build a whole doctrine on what I then believed to be a drug-induced hallucination. Now that I know the indisputable reality of what you see and experience, I wonder no longer.
And things change a lot after the experience. It takes a lot of thinking and analyzing and a lot of work to incorporate what you took from the trip into your life. But what psychedelics do is give your a much broader outlook and a totally new perspective. It is like rediscovering yourself over and over again. After several good trips you achieve a greater awareness of things. You can understand people in a better way, and you see your everyday life clearer, which makes it much easier for you anticipate the development of a certain situation.
I really can talk endlessly on this topic :)
 

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
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Yes, Sanctus, humans can do it. When they are not the slaves of the Lord, but sons and daughters of their Gods.


Is one actually a slave of God if one cannot define Him? It rather seems to me that any defintion of God we can create will not serve the purpose. The very act of defining God may be beyond our abilities, and perhaps even beyond our understanding?