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How Do You Define a "God"?

Amechania

Amechania

Daimona of the Helpless
adi2d said:
I get it. Today must be no joking day.

Ok. I've seen this topic in many threads. No one wants to define God because then they would have to defend their position. Its so much to defend a hazy concept of God
Click to expand...

Can you define love? You could throw out alot of definitions based on biology, sociology, or any other -ology you choose, but they would all fall short of the experience of love. It's different for everyone. Same with God. All definitions are personal. All understandings are unique. That is what makes god God.
 
CynthiaCypher

CynthiaCypher

Well-Known Member
adi2d said:
I get it. Today must be no joking day.

Ok. I've seen this topic in many threads. No one wants to define God because then they would have to defend their position. Its so much to defend a hazy concept of God
Click to expand...

So you want me to provide you with a description of God?
 
adi2d

adi2d

Active Member
Amechania said:
Can you define love? You could throw out alot of definitions based on biology, sociology, or any other -ology you choose, but they would all fall short of the experience of love. It's different for everyone. Same with God. All definitions are personal. All understandings are unique. That is what makes god God.
Click to expand...


Love is a feeling. It exists as a concept. Are you saying God is only a concept?
 
CynthiaCypher

CynthiaCypher

Well-Known Member
adi2d said:
Sure. That's one of the reasons I'm here at RF
Click to expand...

Well I cannot accurately describe God but I can give you a picture about how I feel about God.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So when I picture God, I picture this:

moby-dick.jpg


God is the white whale, the chaos monster that the heroes in our various mythologies and meta-narratives try to tame or conquer. God is Moby Dick and we are all aboard the Pequod in a futile hunt for that which cannot be tamed or conquered. And we are all doomed because it.

So how do you describe what is inevitably bearing down upon you? How do you describe the maws of the beast that is threatening to devour you? You simply don't. There is only one option left. No matter what you do or what you believe, you just cannot win. So what is there left for you to do?
 
adi2d

adi2d

Active Member
Amechania said:
Love is more than a concept. Haven't you ever been in love?
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Yes I have been in love (still am). I have never been love. I've never seen love.
I have been hungry,tired,wired,jumpy,anxious etc. They are all concepts that we use to describe feelings we have
 
adi2d

adi2d

Active Member
CynthiaCypher said:
Well I cannot accurately describe God but I can give you a picture about how I feel about God.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So when I picture God, I picture this:

moby-dick.jpg


God is the white whale, the chaos monster that the heroes in our various mythologies and meta-narratives try to tame or conquer. God is Moby Dick and we are all aboard the Pequod in a futile hunt for that which cannot be tamed or conquered. And we are all doomed because it.

So how do you describe what is inevitably bearing down upon you? How do you describe the maws of the beast that is threatening to devour you? You simply don't. There is only one option left. No matter what you do or what you believe, you just cannot win. So what is there left for you to do?
Click to expand...

You say you would describe God and this story is what you give me?
God is a whale. Really?
I get the metaphor but seems like once more. Promised description---get hazy instead
 
Windwalker

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
HexBomb said:
This is something I've struggled with for awhile. In my experience, I've come across so many different definitions of what makes a deity, that I'm just not sure if there is a single working definition that can be agreed on.
Click to expand...
Blind men and the Elephant:

"It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he:
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!"


​
 
Willamena

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
CynthiaCypher said:
God is the white whale, the chaos monster that the heroes in our various mythologies and meta-narratives try to tame or conquer. God is Moby Dick and we are all aboard the Pequod in a futile hunt for that which cannot be tamed or conquered. And we are all doomed because it.

So how do you describe what is inevitably bearing down upon you? How do you describe the maws of the beast that is threatening to devour you? You simply don't. There is only one option left. No matter what you do or what you believe, you just cannot win. So what is there left for you to do?
Click to expand...
But what is god to you?
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
To me, you don't define god, you experience it. That is, god is a certain kind of experience, radically different from all other kinds of experience, that sometimes happens to individuals. It seems to occur when the subject/object division of normal consciousness abruptly ends while some kind of experiencing continues. The effect of an abrupt end of normal, subject/object consciousness is the dissolution of all discreet things into oneness and the abolition of the psychological self.

It seems most likely to me that it's an effect of how the brain sometimes functions.
 
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