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Define God

Jiddanand

Active Member
Not terribly. It's been around since at least Wittgenstein.
Glad to know. May I know more about Wittgenstein?
People put there views in various different ways. However the authorities are still seeking for a definition of Religion.
And defining the True Religion is a bla bla subject and work.[emoji4]
 

humanelk

New Member
Monotheistic beliefs emerged out of monocultural civilizations. Prior to sedentary monoculture, most humans were animists who believed that the world is made of a variety of personalities, all with their own distinct types of agency and experience. With monoculture, the "sameness" or "oneness" of repeated success becomes the goal, and anything that deviates from the normative is deemed threatening. God is therefore the abstract ideal that comes from our obsession with repeated success, a sameness which we try in vain to impose on the world, destroying the emergent complexity of nature in our attempts to manipulate it into the "ideal."

Or...

God is the complex web in which all earthly beings are immersed and connected to in our exchange of things such as air, water, sunlight energy. We comprise part of this god, and so this means that our cancerous attempts at monoculture are an insult to the emergent interactions that have created our vibrant and distinct experiences. God's health (and ours) requires us to stop seeing the abstract ideal as primary, and to acknowledge our embodiment in this reciprocal world.
 

Jiddanand

Active Member
Monotheistic beliefs emerged out of monocultural civilizations. Prior to sedentary monoculture, most humans were animists who believed that the world is made of a variety of personalities, all with their own distinct types of agency and experience. With monoculture, the "sameness" or "oneness" of repeated success becomes the goal, and anything that deviates from the normative is deemed threatening. God is therefore the abstract ideal that comes from our obsession with repeated success, a sameness which we try in vain to impose on the world, destroying the emergent complexity of nature in our attempts to manipulate it into the "ideal."

Or...

God is the complex web in which all earthly beings are immersed and connected to in our exchange of things such as air, water, sunlight energy. We comprise part of this god, and so this means that our cancerous attempts at monoculture are an insult to the emergent interactions that have created our vibrant and distinct experiences. God's health (and ours) requires us to stop seeing the abstract ideal as primary, and to acknowledge our embodiment in this reciprocal world.
Your viewpoint is very positive and I appreciate it.

God has been defined in many ways. All of them pass.
However coming to the final definition is something else.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
For me a thing is any material substance that is cognizable with the Senses of perception. Especially, what is measurable on Scales, a body.
Anything and nothing inclusive.
Then why bother to address everyone here in English if you're going use some personal definition and then not tell anybody?
 
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neologist

Member
God's name, represented thousands of times in the Hebrew scriptures as הוה, when transliterated means "he who causes to become".
That name is essentially a promise that the commission he gave Adam and Eve continues, despite their sin.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
God's name, represented thousands of times in the Hebrew scriptures as הוה, when transliterated means "he who causes to become".
That name is essentially a promise that the commission he gave Adam and Eve continues, despite their sin.
Got a source for this? Because everything I've read says it means nothing more than "to be" or "to become."
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
Do you think that my definition of "thing" is incorrect?
It is far too limited. It has many more meanings than "any material substance that is cognizable with the Senses of perception." To dismiss its many other meanings without telling your reader is to mislead them. When you said "God is not a thing" it implies he is not a thing in any sense of the word. It would have been far clearer to have said "God is not any material substance that is cognizable with the Senses of perception."
 

Jiddanand

Active Member
It is far too limited. It has many more meanings than "any material substance that is cognizable with the Senses of perception." To dismiss its many other meanings without telling your reader is to mislead them. When you said "God is not a thing" it implies he is not a thing in any sense of the word. It would have been far clearer to have said "God is not any material substance that is cognizable with the Senses of perception."
Thanks for the suggestion?

God is not apprehensible by the Senses of perception. Holds correct.
However it does not imply that God can't be known and experienced.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
How I define God reveals more about me than about God.
My definition of God is still evolving.
I don't claim to know all there is to know about God - nor do I believe I will understand much in my entire life - compared to all there is to know.
Currently, I define God as love based on truth - and as Paul Tillech defined God, as "one's ultimate concern."
I also define God as ultimate GOoD - which each of us strive for by trial and error - active faith.
Part of that GOoD, I consider to be a higher power - a means of tapping into "the kingdom of God within."
And I realize the common need to spiritually connect by personification of (God) spirituality (Jesus, gods, Saints, Mary, etc.).

How do you define God?

In a couple of ways.

First, a God is anything or anyone that's been deified. That is to say, when a person or group, with serious conviction, say that a thing or person is a God, or whatever word is conceptually equivalent in their given language (assuming one exists, of course), then that thing or person is a God for those people. In this sense, "God" is a title (akin to terms like "King" or "janitor"), and the status of Godhood is subjective, sourced in external application, and independent of any intrinsic qualities. Emperor Akihiko, for example, is a God by virtue of Shinto, but he has no superhuman/supernatural qualities. The same was true of the Pharaohs, and of Caesar.

Second, a God is a term that illustrates the relationship between worshiper and worshiped. For example, to me, Earth is a Goddess, but that does not necessarily mean that I believe She has a conscious mind or self-awareness (independent of us, that is), or even necessarily "life" in a scientific sense. When it comes to Earth's intrinsic qualities, I do not, and will never, go against what the scientific consensuses are about Her. But while She is not a Goddess for everyone, She is a Goddess for me, because that's how I relate to Her, regardless of whether She is scientifically "alive" or not.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
God's name, represented thousands of times in the Hebrew scriptures as הוה, when transliterated means "he who causes to become".
That name is essentially a promise that the commission he gave Adam and Eve continues, despite their sin.
promises aside.....
I like the translation
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
My definitions of God are entirely human-centered. My religious perspective does not value the concept.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
I don't believe God and heaven seek the human in us
God and heaven are seeking the spirit.

we are born to blood and death.
we don't have to end that way.
 

midopafo

Member
How I define God reveals more about me than about God.
My definition of God is still evolving.
I don't claim to know all there is to know about God - nor do I believe I will understand much in my entire life - compared to all there is to know.
Currently, I define God as love based on truth - and as Paul Tillech defined God, as "one's ultimate concern."
I also define God as ultimate GOoD - which each of us strive for by trial and error - active faith.
Part of that GOoD, I consider to be a higher power - a means of tapping into "the kingdom of God within."
And I realize the common need to spiritually connect by personification of (God) spirituality (Jesus, gods, Saints, Mary, etc.).

How do you define God?

How about defining your self first ? In your heart, with your conscience ? In private with God ?
 

NewChapter

GiveMeATicketToWork
How I define God reveals more about me than about God.
My definition of God is still evolving.
I don't claim to know all there is to know about God - nor do I believe I will understand much in my entire life - compared to all there is to know.
Currently, I define God as love based on truth - and as Paul Tillech defined God, as "one's ultimate concern."
I also define God as ultimate GOoD - which each of us strive for by trial and error - active faith.
Part of that GOoD, I consider to be a higher power - a means of tapping into "the kingdom of God within."
And I realize the common need to spiritually connect by personification of (God) spirituality (Jesus, gods, Saints, Mary, etc.).

How do you define God?

God is The LORD (meaning He by Whom all subsist.)
He is a Spirit (the Holy Spirit) which means He is an energy that operates within flesh & blood.
He is Love.
 
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