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Does Everyone Know God

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Because when people say things like "the universe is God," they act like they're trying to express something meaningful... i.e. that calling the universe "God" expresses something about the universe that wasn't captured in the term "universe."

If they thought the terms were equivalent - i.e. not only referred to the same thing but expressed exactly the same idea - then they would act as if the phrase "the universe is God" is a useless tautology.

Also, pantheists don't exist in a vacuum. You know full well that the term "God" is usually used to refer to things that aren't the universe. Calling the universe "God" is an attempt to apply aspects of god from the larger spectrum of theism to the universe.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Even if you think that the universe is God, if someone said to you "the universe is not God," you would understand the terms well enough to explain why you disagree.

OTOH, if the terms are equivalent, then a statement like that would be nonsensical. Take this statement: "a mare is not a female horse." It's nonsensical; it's not clear at all what it's even trying to say.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I try, believe me I try, but it gets all comprehensed and I don't seem to be able to separate the meaning from the words.
So if someone said to you that they believe that the universe is not God, you wouldn't even be able to make enough sense of this to disagree?
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
So if everyone knows love, and if god is love do they worship it? And if one knows the Spirit of God do they know themselves as loves?

Hebrews 8:11
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.


You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.


He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

I think 'everyone knows love' is a stretch. Conflating God and love also appears a stretch. Love can also take diffferent forms, so so there is that.
On balance, I see no reason to believe I 'know' God.
 

Firemorphic

Activist Membrane
So if everyone knows love, and if god is love do they worship it? And if one knows the Spirit of God do they know themselves as loves?

I'm not a Christian (obviously) but don't you know what symbolism is? it's kind of obvious.....
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I think 'everyone knows love' is a stretch. Conflating God and love also appears a stretch. Love can also take diffferent forms, so so there is that.
On balance, I see no reason to believe I 'know' God.

the term god isn't exclusive to the abrahamic idea. it can be associated with a higher power/force; in this case love is the whole of the law.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I'm not a Christian (obviously) but don't you know what symbolism is? it's kind of obvious.....

i'm very much aware of what sybolism is. you and i have agreed to use symbols to convey ideas through this thread. an idea can be conveyed in infinite ways; so long as one simple thing happens. your mind and my mind agree on the symbol representing the idea.


friendship is two bodies being yoked together as one mind - the way of the cross


i saw a man plowing/cultivating with twelve oxen/disciples
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I suggest you re read your op.

Yes i made it personal, love is personal, do you think otherwise?

Speak for yourself. Oh you do which perhaps explains your ignorance of other people.

What? Back on straw men? How sad.

And you are a prime example, thanks for mentioning Voltair
the mind is only limited to what it conditions limits to be. it makes the rules and it breaks them.


Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt


personalities will arise and fall, ideas will be labeled infinitely different from culture to culture and throughout time, but the ideas themselves will always remain.


 
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