Do you believe in personal God?

[haribol]

I believe in God or in consciousness. Or to put it a little differently I believe that there is something universality about all of us. We all are directly related to each other and there is something that ties up us,k that invisible thread. Enlightenment or Nirvana is something the realization of the fact that we all are related. I do not believe in Personal God. I do not believe in incarnation.

All of us are one entity, whether Krishna or the Buddha or Jesus. All these prophets and ourselves share something common and that commonness is our connection. We are not less than any of them.

Everything, every creature or every planet and galaxy forms part of us and we all submerge finally.

In fact having personal God divides us along religious lines and in fact if believe in the universality of God or believe in God that is impersonal and is something different than our scriptural description then we will go closer and closer to God or to something universal consciousness.

I just invite your argument on this

 

[Bob Dixon]

A Personal God? As in, a concious God, one who communicated with us, etc? Sure.
A Human-like God? Nope!

 

[Me Myself]

I beleive in personal gods and also in the impersonal concience you speak of.

While almost all religions with personal gods have been lead through centuries in a way that makes each unaceptable for the other (religions) I beleive it doesn´t necesarily have to be that way.

I beleive having personal Gods in mind don´t need to separate us all, now if we beleiv this personal/s god/s want it to be separate then it is a completely different playground (though it is actually the actual and most common one... but from a theorical point of view, it just doesn´t have to be that way and is not always that way)

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I believe we all come out of the universe, but create it with consciousness. In that way, we are co-creating in a relationship with God--as the conscious universe.

So it is intricately personal.

 

[Splarnst]

No, I don't believe in anything supernatural.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

No, I don't believe in anything supernatural.

Need God be supernatural?

 

[PolyHedral]

Need God be supernatural?

Yes? Otherwise, why call it God?

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Yes? Otherwise, why call it God?

Because God is a name for a particular kind of experience. For instance, many associate the word with "someone you pray to." One can pray to a symbolic God understanding perfectly there is no supernatural being out there.

Or, we could characterize the universe with its myriad laws and wonders as "God" without making it a supernatural entity. The name simply reflects the experience.

 

[Willamena]

I just invite your argument on this

Sorry, can't argue with that.

 

[Yeshe Dawa]

I believe in God or in consciousness. Or to put it a little differently I believe that there is something universality about all of us. We all are directly related to each other and there is something that ties up us,k that invisible thread. Enlightenment or Nirvana is something the realization of the fact that we all are related. I do not believe in Personal God. I do not believe in incarnation.

All of us are one entity, whether Krishna or the Buddha or Jesus. All these prophets and ourselves share something common and that commonness is our connection. We are not less than any of them.

Everything, every creature or every planet and galaxy forms part of us and we all submerge finally.

In fact having personal God divides us along religious lines and in fact if believe in the universality of God or believe in God that is impersonal and is something different than our scriptural description then we will go closer and closer to God or to something universal consciousness.

I just invite your argument on this

Hi Haribol!

I think gods are part of the path for some people on the way to enlightenment. They do not have any inherent existence, but then neither do we.

Peace and blessings,
Yeshe
:flower2:

 

[Erebus]

I absolutely believe in personal gods, though I don't claim to know whether they exist beyond the mind of the practitioner.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

You are right. All gods are personal and they are invented by humans at different stages of their evolution. From tribal communities to modern sophisticated human societies we have so many Gods and all of them are spun out of our imagination only

Imagination only?! This suggests they are poetic, and poetry is art. Art is the essence of spirituality. Imagination is something infinitely wondrous about humans, and through it we have reproduced the world in supernormal stimuli that has brought us into space and back.

 

[Splarnst]

Because God is a name for a particular kind of experience.

God can be a name for a particular kind of experience. But that's certainly not the only definition, and it's not even close to being the most common.

One can pray to a symbolic God understanding perfectly there is no supernatural being out there.

One can, sure, but I have absolutely no interest in doing. I have no interest in talking to imaginary friends.

Or, we could characterize the universe with its myriad laws and wonders as "God" without making it a supernatural entity. The name simply reflects the experience.

Yeah, we could, but I think it's confusing and a waste of time. And even if I did that, it still means I don't believe in a personal god, which was the original question.

 

[waitasec]

I absolutely believe in personal gods, though I don't claim to know whether they exist beyond the mind of the practitioner.

well said...

 

[idav]

Yes? Otherwise, why call it God?

Super natural just means more than what we are used to seeing of nature. I'm very sure there is more possible than we have experienced thus far and we are learning more exponentially.

 

[Splarnst]

Super natural just means more than what we are used to seeing of nature. I'm very sure there is more possible than we have experienced thus far and we are learning more exponentially.

I don't think that's what most people mean by supernatural. Under this definition, lightning used to be supernatural, but now it's not. The term becomes completely synonymous with "unexplained." The best definition of supernatural I've seen, one that is both clear and captures what people usually mean, is that it's mental things not caused by non-mental things.

 

[idav]

I don't think that's what most people mean by supernatural. Under this definition, lightning used to be supernatural, but now it's not. The term becomes completely synonymous with "unexplained." The best definition of supernatural I've seen, one that is both clear and captures what people usually mean, is that it's mental things not caused by non-mental things.

Quite an interesting article (I saved it). One thing I'm not following is the "non-mental". It reminds me of when someone describes material vs. non-material which doesn't say much to me. It is equivelent to saying there is something that can transcend our reality from a separate reality but in which case would still be natural but beyond our testability without wormholes or what not. This seems to be what he is saying when he says "being able to act on your own" IOW outside of nature and transcending it so to speak. I don't believe in this aspect of reality and will stick with everything being within nature but there is the possibility of shortcuts mistaken for transcendence. I couldn't know for sure until we actually encounter something metaphysical or supernatural since things are being explained away as you pointed out with your lightning example.

 

[Matthew78]

I don't believe that there is any personal deity in the sense of a god that loves each and every one of us. This is the biggest reason that I am not a born-again Christian; nothing can ever possibly convince me that I am personally loved by any kind of god. Not after the extreme mental anguish that I suffered in the six years that I suffered from clinical depression. That permanently murdered my belief that there is any such thing as a god who loves me personally.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

I find it impossible to believe that a conscious entity created the universe, let alone a person. The universe is big enough for all this complexity to happen by accident. I just think if there were a conscious God there would not be so many dead planets for a start.

 

[ckww]

I speak to a personal God. And this God speaks personally to me. Its a personal relationship with a real entity who is really there and who you can really trust.