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Is God Observable?

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.
 
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Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
What if your gods don't lack form? I guess the question becomes very rhetorical...
 

Rational Agnostic

Well-Known Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

Depends on the god. If you want to worship a flagpole as your god, it will most definitely be observable.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

I would just call it energy. Yes, we can observe energy without form. We can't live without energy. I like form because it's an expression and connection with energy, if one likes. Though it can be observed either way. It depends on how people view energy without form; while others feel if you have form, it's no longer energy/god.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

I'd suppose most believers feel then actions of God can be observed. Like the wind, you can't see it but can observe it's effects.

If you believe God created the world, then wallah! Here we be observing the effects of God. If you believe in natural laws, then wallah! etc...

However even thoughts effect the mind. So if God only exists as a thought and a thought is considered an actual thing, then wallah! God exists.

images
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
Is God Observable?

God/Brahman to me is the One consciousness that pervades everything. Consciousness can not be observed through our physical senses of course. God can not be observed but only experienced.
 
I feel like God is too vague considering modern interpretation.
It's simple to say that we are all God; the fact you can stretch your mind through all you've experienced to try and fathom what God would be, and continually realize you will find out over and over again it's not what you thought.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I'd suppose most believers feel then actions of God can be observed. Like the wind, you can't see it but can observe it's effects.

If you believe God created the world, then wallah! Here we be observing the effects of God. If you believe in natural laws, then wallah! etc...

However even thoughts effect the mind. So if God only exists as a thought and a thought is considered an actual thing, then wallah! God exists.

images


if god is love, then the action of loving is observable?
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
if god is love, then the action of loving is observable?

If you want to define God as love. It's all up to you IMO. I define love as love. It's something I do. I'm responsible for it's creation.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

There is no God to even produce any effect.
 

Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?



IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

Well, theists usually are careful to define their god in a way that makes direct observation impossible. Otherwise, they would have to explain why he is absent from realty.

That is why "outside of space amd time" is always a convenient place to put him. They seem to forget that time is a requirement for existence. Something cannot exist at no time and be said to exist at all.
If the deity does not exist for a time, then saying he is eternal is nonsensical. If he has existed for an eternity, then they are expressing his existence with time as an element of that existence.

Of couse, if the supernatural has any effect on the natural, then those effects should be measurable, such as suspending the known laws of physics to perform a miracle, or prayer causing healing, for instance. So far, all attempts have shown there is no effect. In the case of healing, there may be a small placebo effect, but nothing outside of that range.
 

Akivah

Well-Known Member
If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy?

IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things. Like the wind upon the leaves of a tree, or a vane. Or like a mind upon the course of someone's actions towards another.

G-d is not physically observable to us humans because G-d has no form and can't take a form.
 

Kartari

Active Member
Hi Fool,

If God is an actual thing, then can thing be observed given the lack of a form but not it's energy? IMO yes because actions can be observed by their effects upon other things...

The problem with thinking God is perceptible through God's presumed effects on other things is that every example of this that I've seen is more simply and soundly explainable as a natural phenomenon. The analogies of presumably formless causes and effects given by a few posters in this thread were: the effects of love, of consciousness, of wind upon trees, and the mind upon one's actions. Every single one of these is explainable as a natural phenomenon, however: love, consciousness, and the mind all are naturally caused by neural activity, while wind is a natural phenomenon.

If someone can think of a single example of an effect that must necessarily be attributable to a deity such as God, then perhaps we can begin to reasonably entertain the idea. Until then, we're just arbitrarily attributing imagined causes to phenomena as far as we can factually discern.
 
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Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
if god is love, then the action of loving is observable?

Sorry, you cannot simply assert god is the equivalent of a human emotion and then say be measuring that you are measuring god. You still would have to prove that the thing you are measuring is god, which you haven't. You may as well measure a tree and rhen call it a god.
 
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