How Do You Define a "God"?

[Thief]

It seems to me this almost begs us to go one step further and add a white beard, glowing robe and sandals to the definition.

Nay...not really.
More like a very large storm that can speak......maybe.

Or how about a disembodied Voice and a burning bush?!

How about a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day?

How about that feel you get when you post?

 

[Windwalker]

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

Or the brain is functioning the way it needs to in order for the person to have a needed spiritual experience. I hate imagining we are nothing but mere puppets of the body along for the ride as it hiccups and burps its way through life. There is tangible and important evolutionary value in these phenomena. They should be sought, and the brain will do what it needs to in order for us to experience these things at that level.

 

[zenzero]

Friend HexBomb,

How Do You Define a "God"?

Guess one needs to conceptualize what is God .
Yes, its a concept, a label used for an understanding.
The understanding that that there is nothing else but GOD in various forms or no-forms.
God is the same which is labelled as Consciousness, Brahman, Tao etc.

Love & rgds

 

[granpa]

God is a being of infinite love and infinite light.

God is the always existing one.

 

[Sir Doom]

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.

So, what traits, to you, are required for something to be a god or goddess? What criteria must be met? Please explain why, and what something would be if they met some but not all of those traits.

First, exceptionally powerful. Anything well outside human capability or comprehension is enough.

Second, must identify ITSELF as divine. I'm not worshiping anything that isn't looking for that sort of relationship. I'm a gentleman, after all.

Third, must have had some part in creating life on Earth. This is the real qualifier. If the being did not put life here for a reason then I can't see any reason to consider it any better to decide my fate than I am.

And finally, What does it ACTUALLY want. Naturally, this will have to come from the horse's lips.

 

[Breathe]

Second, must identify ITSELF as divine. I'm not worshiping anything that isn't looking for that sort of relationship. I'm a gentleman, after all.

So Rastafari is out?

 

[roger1440]

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.

So, what traits, to you, are required for something to be a god or goddess? What criteria must be met? Please explain why, and what something would be if they met some but not all of those traits.

God encompasses all.

 

[Agnimitra]

A mythical being springing from human fears and insufficiency that infracts all laws of logic with illusory attributes and effects,supposedly and especially localized in a fairy land called paradise and is maintained in discourse and deliberation by the ambivalence of the greater part of humanity as regards the agency of right knowledge, founded and nourished on a bunch of dogmas in scriptures as opposed to and incongruent with the a priori and empirical facts and measures deducted or inducted in science which incidentally is not obligated to disprove a goose egg.

Well, I just came up with that.....:drool:.The Atheist position,fair enough. Pretty tight , I'd say


Ofcourse, the most universal attribute we give god is that of the '"creator",notwithstanding that there are systems of thought in India where God is assumed without entailing the attribute of "creator" and the nullifier of nothingness, who summons everything out of pure void.Yoga Philosophy assumes God without any role in creation but who helps souls in truth realization.

Dualism assumes God as exclusive of conscious and non conscious phenomenon and factors in the universe(space, time, causation etc). All Abrahamic religions are Dualist. It is this idea that is least immune to the above definition I gave.


So, my observation is that the majority of humans would call God the creator, without addressing the position of the atheist/scientist satisfactorily.

Aside from creation, there is the possibility of "manifestation".Many Indian systems adhere to the 'Satkaryavada" ,the "principle of actual modification", whereby the effect is non different from the cause and that nothing was created but only transmuted and manifested from a pre existing causal state.

Would you be an atheist if you posit that God is not so much magic as metallurgy?

Maybe....

 

[zenzero]

Friend HexBomb,

How Do You Define a "God"?

God is that which cannot fit into ANY definition.
Meaning it is beyond the mind's power to grasp.
One can be a part of God and be IT in totality but can never be outside IT and try to describe IT.

Love & rgds

 

[illykitty]

To me, god(s) is (divine) energy and power. Forces such as nature and the universe too. Basically they're all awe inspiring and beyond me, so big and powerful compared to this tiny human speck. The advantage of this description is that it's based on real things so even if divinity didn't exist, it's worthy (imo) to worship.

On another note, trying to describe gods and so on makes you realise how inadequate language is. I rewrote this post so many times, trying to figure out the best way to word what I feel.

 

[Breathe]

On another note, trying to describe gods and so on makes you realise how inadequate language is. I rewrote this post so many times, trying to figure out the best way to word what I feel.

It really does feel like a case of 'that which cannot be explained, but which can be experienced' sometimes.

 

[HexBomb]

Third, must have had some part in creating life on Earth. This is the real qualifier. If the being did not put life here for a reason then I can't see any reason to consider it any better to decide my fate than I am.

Why would creation make it better to decide your fate? I'm honestly curious, why would something be worth worshiping because of creation, or know better because they created you? Isn't that a bit like going into the career your parents choose for you because they are your parents, rather than what you would be good and happy at?

 

[Aupmanyav]

Is there any creation for real?

 

[Thief]

A mythical being springing from human fears and insufficiency that infracts all laws of logic with illusory attributes and effects,supposedly and especially localized in a fairy land called paradise and is maintained in discourse and deliberation by the ambivalence of the greater part of humanity as regards the agency of right knowledge, founded and nourished on a bunch of dogmas in scriptures as opposed to and incongruent with the a priori and empirical facts and measures deducted or inducted in science which incidentally is not obligated to disprove a goose egg.

Well, I just came up with that.....:drool:.The Atheist position,fair enough. Pretty tight , I'd say


Ofcourse, the most universal attribute we give god is that of the '"creator",notwithstanding that there are systems of thought in India where God is assumed without entailing the attribute of "creator" and the nullifier of nothingness, who summons everything out of pure void.Yoga Philosophy assumes God without any role in creation but who helps souls in truth realization.

Dualism assumes God as exclusive of conscious and non conscious phenomenon and factors in the universe(space, time, causation etc). All Abrahamic religions are Dualist. It is this idea that is least immune to the above definition I gave.


So, my observation is that the majority of humans would call God the creator, without addressing the position of the atheist/scientist satisfactorily.

Aside from creation, there is the possibility of "manifestation".Many Indian systems adhere to the 'Satkaryavada" ,the "principle of actual modification", whereby the effect is non different from the cause and that nothing was created but only transmuted and manifested from a pre existing causal state.

Would you be an atheist if you posit that God is not so much magic as metallurgy?

Maybe....

And you dare mention cause and effect without giving credit where credit is due.

The universe is the effect.....God is the Cause.
Spirit first.

 

[Thief]

Is there any creation for real?

You are not your own handiwork.
Bang that head on the wall til it bleeds.....then ask if it's real.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Thief,

Bang that head on the wall til it bleeds.....then ask if it's real.

Agree, Its both real as well as illusion depending from where you see it and both views are true.

Mountains are mountains. [before realization]
Mountains are not mountains.[on realization]
Mountains are mountains. [after realization]

Love & rgds

 

[Thief]

Friend Thief,


Agree, Its both real as well as illusion depending from where you see it and both views are true.

Mountains are mountains. [before realization]
Mountains are not mountains.[on realization]
Mountains are mountains. [after realization]

Love & rgds

More accurately....under the guidance of Bruce Lee....

When you begin your training....a kick is a kick.
As you train....a kick is not a kick.
After your training...a kick is a kick.

Mountains are what they are.
They don't us for the declaration.

Now...GOD....might have something to say about THAT!

 

[zenzero]

Friend Thief,

Now...GOD....might have something to say about THAT!

Oh NO! though you knew by now.
THAT guy is the biggest manager of the universe. He just get things done by all things including humans.
Mum is the word; somebody on his behalf always speaks up; last I heard it was Jesus who stood up and said he is not only appointed but is a blood relative you know.

Personally too figuring out how can mange to get his attention and then get no lay offs!

Love & rgds

 

[Sir Doom]

Why would creation make it better to decide your fate? I'm honestly curious, why would something be worth worshiping because of creation, or know better because they created you? Isn't that a bit like going into the career your parents choose for you because they are your parents, rather than what you would be good and happy at?

The point of the statement is really to weed out beings that satisfy the previous requirements and yet had nothing to do with life's existence. A being that purposefully created life on Earth carries the responsibility of its existence, and by extension an authority that another similar being would not carry.

It isn't that I would necessarily worship such a being, as they have to pass all four requirements, but a being lacking such responsibility seems like nothing more than opportunism.

I like the comparison to parents that you use, but I think its more like continuing to love and respect one's parents regardless of their plans for you or your relative adherence to those plans. Parents carry the responsibility of the creation of the child. This responsibility (typically) carries the same type of authority that God must have.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Sir Doom,

Parents carry the responsibility of the creation of the child.

Children are created by parents??

could you help me understand the word 'creation'?

Love & rgds