so, what is God anyway?

ArmsMerchantArmsMerchant Acolyte
edited July 2010 in Spurious Generalities
In a sense, we really can't, since God is by definition infinite, but we sort of have to try. Over the years, I have observed that people mean vastly different things when they speak of God. Here is my take.

God is not an entity, an invisible friend in the sky, an old man with a long beard, a sort of super Santa Claus who judges and rewards and punishes. God does not judge or punish--just loves, creates and sustains.

God is the Divine Ground that underlies visible reality, visible reality being the physical manifestation of God. God is Atman, Buddha, the Universe, the Source, Spirit (as distinct from discrete spirits, devas and such), the Force (as in Stuart Wilde, not Star Wars), the Void.

God--according to Eknath Easwaran-- is that spark of divinity that resides within our own hearts. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said that the kingdom of God is within you.

But finally and ultimately, God is Love.

Love is all there is. John Lennon got it right.

All that said, it should be remembered that anything we say about God is metaphorical, as Rami Shapiro pointed out in his excellent new book.

Comments

  • ObbeObbe Regular
    edited July 2010
    Good to see you switched over here too.

    I and I are God.
    I and I is a complex term, referring to the oneness of Jah (God) and every human. Rastafari scholar E. E. Cashmore: "I and I is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, the oneness of two persons. So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact.
  • Big baby jesusBig baby jesus Regular
    edited July 2010
    I and I refers to all life created by JAH/ Allah, imo. I believe, although 'I' don't have to believe the same, that I am created by Allah so that He can be more connected with the spiritual plane he inhabited before creation. Basically, I think He created the universe as it is but there are traces remaining of existence as it was before He decided to begin Creation. These traces are what I call Earth, God's Mother.
  • ObbeObbe Regular
    edited July 2010
    lol, is God really a creator? In the same way that a potter is someone who creates pottery out of clay?

    In other words, is God something that we are not? Did God cause us? God as the cause, we as the effect?

    I don't think so. I don't believe in causality like that. God is everything, in union, and is also spontaneous.
  • Big baby jesusBig baby jesus Regular
    edited July 2010
    It's like that old adage "If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound". Am I here to experience reality so that it may be perpetuated? I believe that no, I am not.
  • ObbeObbe Regular
    edited July 2010
    Am I here to experience reality so that it may be perpetuated?

    What made you ask that?

    There is no actual reason for you to be here. Any reason is for you decide.
  • edited July 2010
    question to OP: is it possible for God to give humans free will and also be all-knowing?
  • Oink The PigOink The Pig Acolyte
    edited July 2010
    pretty sure you said in your last thread you ARE god, so im gonna go ahead and answer greyfox
  • CaesarCaesar Regular
    edited July 2010
    I don't like the word "god" but I think God is conciousness. The act of worshipping conciousness directly tends to bring forth models of behaviour, and models once they become habit often cease to be concious. So if god is conciousness; it is also novelty and chaos. I think that conciousness is in the process of trying to become more aware of itself, and I am not sure if it is possible for it to complete its evolution; only get higher and more encompassing. Seeing as far as we can tell the human race is amongst the most evolved lenses for conciousness, I think that in many ways we are synonymous with god, at least so far as we remain aware and concious.
  • Big baby jesusBig baby jesus Regular
    edited July 2010
    Obbe wrote: »
    What made you ask that?

    There is no actual reason for you to be here. Any reason is for you decide.

    :rolleyes: If you think that God is one and all and just a consciousness then you think God wouldn't exist if I didn't.

    And no, it's not to be decided because I am already here and not choosing to be here for a purpose. The purpose is inherent.
  • ArmsMerchantArmsMerchant Acolyte
    edited July 2010
    question to OP: is it possible for God to give humans free will and also be all-knowing?

    This is one of the classic theological questions--but it is, I think, only relevant in the context of a Biblical sort of deity.

    But here is my best shot--if I were God, I would prefer NOT to be all-knowing, simply because it would get boring otherwise.
  • ObbeObbe Regular
    edited July 2010
    :rolleyes: If you think that God is one and all and just a consciousness then you think God wouldn't exist if I didn't.

    "You" is just an elaborate illusion. Only God exists.
    The purpose is inherent.

    No, purpose is imposed. If purpose was inherent, then people wouldn't ask what the purpose was.
  • edited July 2010
    I don't believe in God as a being or anything manifest, absolute or otherwise. I believe God is a concept meant to give us an approximation of the innumerable, the infinite, the unthinkable.
  • Big baby jesusBig baby jesus Regular
    edited July 2010
    Obbe wrote: »
    "You" is just an elaborate illusion. Only God exists.



    No, purpose is imposed. If purpose was inherent, then people wouldn't ask what the purpose was.

    I don't ask what the purpose is.

    And I'm not an elaborate illusion either. God is the origin point of life, if you need it put simply. The origin does not make up the whole, this should be made known.
  • ObbeObbe Regular
    edited July 2010
    You're not asking, because you've already made up your mind.

    And yes, you, your sense of individuality or separation from God is just an elaborate illusion. We are God, Baby. I am the alpha and I am the omega.

    Origin? What makes you think there was a beginning? There's only now, there's only ever been now, now is eternal.
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