Other god beliefs besides the common one

[Madhuri]

I would be interested in your answers to these question too, Madhuri

My answers? Or the answers?

 

[Onkara]

Your personal answers, if you feel you have some. Just curious

 

[Madhuri]

Your personal answers, if you feel you have some. Just curious

Sure
I neither believe nor disbelieve in the gods. But even if it turns out they are real, I would not dedicate myself to any specific one of them. The Supreme is my deity. Even the gods worship Him.

As for the qualities of God- no, I do not consider God to be sadistic. That would mean that He intentionally created us for the purpose of suffering and torment.

 

[Onkara]

Thanks Madhuri
Considering your answer above, is is possible to worship and is worship necessary? If not, what should we do, if yes, then how?

 

[Madhuri]

Thanks Madhuri
Considering your answer above, is is possible to worship and is worship necessary? If not, what should we do, if yes, then how?

It is possible to worship but I do not think it is necessary. Devotion is but one path. Personally I think it is the greatest path- because I consider god to be Love. How amazing is it to worship Love itself! So devoting one's self to Love is something I consider very great.

 

[Onkara]

OK, no more questions for now, you have the job
I think seeing devotion to love as worship is wonderful idea, thanks for sharing.

 

[chinu]

Does anyone here have a really unusual view about the divine? I mean one besides the Christian view, which in the US is the mainstream one. I will start. I believe in gods and goddesses, but not in creators or omni (insert attribute here) deities. They are beings on a higher level of existence and are bound by actions, emotions, etc. I think there may be a cosmic force/energy that is behind everything, but am not really sure it's a god. I don't think it's personal. I don't mind calling it Brahman, or simply "the Force" will do.

I look forward to some interesting insights

You are right.

_/\_Chinu.

 

[blackout]

Everything is gOd, or nothing is.
(I go with the first)

Humans have the potential to realize their gOdhood,
or not.

This would be true for any Self Realized Sentient Life form.

 

[Rakhel]

How can you devote yourself to a God that you feel is sadistic? I mean, I consider sadism to be the greatest form of 'evil'. You believe that God is evil? Do you ever resent God? Do you feel like you are trapped, as a slave to some tyrant being? That you will have to be subservient to for eternity?

It sounds like hell

Actually sadism, in and of itself, is not evil. At least I don't see it as such. A sadist can love and be merciful and be just.(They are also slightly narcisitic) But only when they choose. Not when I choose. G-d is not all loving or all merciful. He just is G-d.

Bad things happen to good and bad people. It just happens. There is no devil to do it to you. It is all G-d. His justice, his will. Sure I resent it sometimes and wonder, when bad things continue to happen, when it will end. And trust me, this last year has been hell for me and my family. But I do not feel trapped. Nor do I blame him, entirely for my downfalls. Most of it falls on my sholders. He could just be telling me, "this is the consequence of you actions. You need to change"

I have come to terms with the being I call G-d. I understand it is his will to modivate me to be stronger. And I have never asked, "Why me?" I had always said, "Why not me?"

 

[LuisDantas]

Gods are human-created concepts to focus symbolic meanings of various kinds, as well as hope and blame. They're not untrue, but neither do they exist in the literal sense.

 

[sandandfoam]

I think there may be a cosmic force/energy that is behind everything, but am not really sure it's a god.

God is the respectful name I put on that great intelligence that stands behind what I am.
The conscious me that types these words is a little intelliegence, the product of my brains forever chasing a moment that has just passed.
God is a good story and it works on many levels for the little me.
Look outside and I see infinity, look inside and I see infinity. There's a deep well in my mind. I draw from it but when I go deep the contents of the bucket get displaced before I can bring them to the surface and examine them in the light. I believe that's where God is - in the depths. He is also apparent in the face of newborns. There's something about stormy seas and high mountains that brings to my mind a half forgotten awareness of what resides in the depths.
God is beside, behind, above, below and inside. If only the little me would stop getting in my way.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I like your explanation of what a god is to you. But still, why worship? You said because this god showed himself to be real to you. But did he demand worship? Why worship? Do gods require it of us? And just to add to my own understanding, what exactly does worship entail to you?

No my gods never demanded worship from me. That was always my choice. I just one day asked the Egyptian gods, addressing them in general: "If you're real, show me you are." That's what they did. As for what worship entails. Worship is very personal, but my personal definition is prayer, meditation, chanting mantras, doing good deeds, and the like.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

God is the respectful name I put on that great intelligence that stands behind what I am.
The conscious me that types these words is a little intelliegence, the product of my brains forever chasing a moment that has just passed.
God is a good story and it works on many levels for the little me.
Look outside and I see infinity, look inside and I see infinity. There's a deep well in my mind. I draw from it but when I go deep the contents of the bucket get displaced before I can bring them to the surface and examine them in the light. I believe that's where God is - in the depths. He is also apparent in the face of newborns. There's something about stormy seas and high mountains that brings to my mind a half forgotten awareness of what resides in the depths.
God is beside, behind, above, below and inside. If only the little me would stop getting in my way.

If this is what you call god, then what do you make of any others, meaning the more limited god-beings like I described?

 

[sandandfoam]

If this is what you call god, then what do you make of any others, meaning the more limited god-beings like I described?

Symbols and layers of meaning all pointing in the same direction is what I think I make of them.

 

[Madhuri]

Gods are human-created concepts to focus symbolic meanings of various kinds, as well as hope and blame. They're not untrue, but neither do they exist in the literal sense.

If they do not exist, in what sense are they not untrue?

 

[Madhuri]

No my gods never demanded worship from me. That was always my choice. I just one day asked the Egyptian gods, addressing them in general: "If you're real, show me you are." That's what they did. As for what worship entails. Worship is very personal, but my personal definition is prayer, meditation, chanting mantras, doing good deeds, and the like.

Cool, although you still haven't answered why, exactly. What does that worship do for you and for your deity? Does it mean that this god will look after you? Will he help you attain a higher consciousness or some such thing? Is that the motivation?

 

[no-body]

I believe that my own belief is slightly uncommon but it's catching up there as the new age movement spreads... a mish-mash of advaita vedanta, pantheism and the toa. God is just a word. You can try to be precise but you can't really ever get it exactly. It is a sort of universal life force, an energy that permeates everything and is everything as ONE. But even that still isn't it. You can only experience it in the here, now.

The number one uncommon now more common belief in my opinion, of God, is a sort of Christian Deism. People don't want the stigma of saying their Deist so they just call themselves Christians and say they worship the Christian God even though their beliefs are really deist in nature.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Cool, although you still haven't answered why, exactly. What does that worship do for you and for your deity? Does it mean that this god will look after you? Will he help you attain a higher consciousness or some such thing? Is that the motivation?

That worship makes me feel uplifted I suppose. I'm not sure it does anything for my deities, though it might. If it does, they haven't said what, and I don't really need to know. I know that they look after me and I trust that they are guiding me toward liberation from this plane. It is my personal perspective that the gods help us toward liberation, but they will not do it for us.

 

[Madhuri]

That worship makes me feel uplifted I suppose. I'm not sure it does anything for my deities, though it might. If it does, they haven't said what, and I don't really need to know. I know that they look after me and I trust that they are guiding me toward liberation from this plane. It is my personal perspective that the gods help us toward liberation, but they will not do it for us.

Thank you

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Thank you

Is that the hope of those in Hinduism devoted to the devas? That the devas are guiding them toward betterment and liberation?