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What are God's atributes?

whirlingmerc

Well-Known Member
Some of God's attributes are reflected in the 10 commandments
God is holy
God is truthful
God provides and can be trusted

Some attributes we can grow in with His help
like holiness, purity and love

Some attributes are only for and infitnite God
omnipresence, omniscience, all powerful

Some characteristics like jealousy also can describe God
 

InChrist

Free4ever
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?
If God is the Creator of heaven and earth and all life, including us, then God is so far beyond human comprehension that I don't think we would have a clue unless God chose to provide information through revealing it to us about Himself, which I believe He has done through the biblical scriptures and coming to the earth in the Person of Jesus Christ.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?
if logic prevails.....He is...

bigger, faster, stronger, most intelligent and greatly experienced

He cannot be.....
pushed aside, circumvented, subdued, lied to or cheated

in a word (Word) .........Almighty
 

osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I have my own criteria for what a God must be to rule over all people and be a God. And i never encountered a supreme unconditional love being who has every defense against evil, and every proper mercy and punishment towards wrongdoers. Oh yeah!, and God must be a master creator of life and its providence.

And every new being should come with an owners manual for the body and soul, hand delivered by God, or through the u.s. postal service. Preferably nothing in olde english either.

Its a must that i dont have to give adoring worship to an incomprehensible being that i dont fully understand.

And God absolutely must be in the business of giving a hand up to all people as needed and whom justly deserve so.

Lastly God is into creating equals with God. The God job shouldnt have to be forever. Eternal dependency is unhealthy.

God must be into friendship not submissive dependency. Friends see eye to eye on equal ground, of equal justice.
 
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spyrichuwel

Member
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?

If someone said "you don't exist"

You would laugh at them

First of all they are referencing to a noun, which is a "you" thereby indicating a thing

Unless it is said "nothing, exists"

Nothing does not exist rather nothing is non-existence, non existence of anything

Or if someone said "you are short"

But you are infact tall, so you laugh

Tallness is relative, "I am tall, everyone has height, I am tall-er than everyone else"

How can you affirm anything without coming into contact with it?

Someone may posit the existence of a thing

Scientists speak of various phenomena and particles, you try to come to grips with it rationally by hearing about the descriptions of these things or through calculations even without studying them first hand through special equiptment

Some people posit ghosts and say that they have seeb them, if ghosts do not exist, why do people speak of ghosts as they speak of other discernably existent things like birds and animals?

These people may "believe" these things to be real because the perception of these things are seemingly so to them. Even when in reality these things do not exist.

An attribute of God is conveyed by someone who has access to God which you might not.

That is why you are asking this question.

Thereby your job is to attain the same thing.

You must seek to perceive God through prayer and meditation.

One may say "God exists" but God remains alien, mystery and inaccessible until descriptions are said about Him.

The attributes and names of God are means to attain perception of Him.

God Himself says "I am so and so" to familiarize Arjuna to Himself and inspire devotion towards Him.

1) if God Himself(who is an existence) declares His nature accordingly

2) a Sage who is close to God speaks about God

3) you yourself through personal experience

Of 1) and 2) becomes affirmed through 3)

Focusing upon God through contemplation of His attributes IS spirituality
 
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spyrichuwel

Member
If God is the Creator of heaven and earth and all life, including us, then God is so far beyond human comprehension that I don't think we would have a clue unless God chose to provide information through revealing it to us about Himself, which I believe He has done through the biblical scriptures and coming to the earth in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Do I say I don't know if God exists and I don't have access to Him because He is beyond comprehension? Of course not

So why the blur and confusion when it comes to His attributes?

This universe exists. This universe exists because God makes it to be aka He sustains it.

Therefore God is the Sustainer.
 

spyrichuwel

Member
I have my own criteria for what a God must be to rule over all people and be a God. And i never encountered a supreme unconditional love being who has every defense against evil, and every proper mercy and punishment towards wrongdoers. Oh yeah!, and God must be a master creator of life and its providence.

And every new being should come with an owners manual for the body and soul, hand delivered by God, or through the u.s. postal service. Preferably nothing in olde english either.

Its a must that i dont have to give adoring worship to an incomprehensible being that i dont fully understand.

And God absolutely must be in the business of giving a hand up to all people as needed and justly deserved.

Lastly God is into creating equals with God. The God job shouldnt have to be forever.Eternal dependency is unhealthy.

God must be into friendship not submissive dependency. Friends see eye to eye on equal ground, of equal justice.

A complete cannot Create Himself. If He did He would be incomplete.

There is a never ending expansion that is "absorption into the Boundless Infinite"
 

spyrichuwel

Member
Do you mean a creator God? Being? Universe God?

I mean, God can be so many things. Even atheists have their own version of the God(s) they dont believe in.

If "God can be so many things" then different individuals maybe perceiving Him differently, or He is revealing Himself differently to different people.

The differences of perception may be false in some. They may conflict with others.
 

dfnj

Well-Known Member
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?

God is just a word. Nobody denies the existence of the word God. What the word means is defined by every sentence using the word God. But how God differs from the Flying Spaghetti Monster is this: God is also a representation of an alpha-omega idea. God is a container word representing every possible thought and experience that can possibly occur. Based on this alpha-omega idea God is omnipotent. An alpha-omega type omnipotent God is both pantheistic and Abrahamic at the same time. An alpha-omega type omnipotent God is all things to all perceptions at the same time. How each of us experiences an alpha-omega type omnipotent God is subjective for each person. If you accept the many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, then the purpose of God is the realization of every possible quantum state. God's purpose is the realization of God's omnipotence over the entirety of time. If you accept the idea our Big Bang was the result of a star collapsing to black hole in another pre-existing space-time dimension then this is a much bigger view of time than anyone could possibly comprehend. Existence and non-existence merge into one realization at the highest possible dimension of the multiverse. God is the source of our thoughts and the mirror of our minds. God circumvents Godelean thought by being its creator. God is the alpha-omega of our minds. No other word comes close to God's completeness and perfection. God's glory has no limits.

The path to knowing God is in answering the question what is our brain doing between thoughts? Is our brain a machine with material parts generating thoughts. Or is our brain like a TV set receiving thoughts from God. Each of us chooses between seeing ourselves as robot or human being. Each of us is sacred. Each of us is divine even if we refuse to accept it.
 
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Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
If "God can be so many things" then different individuals maybe perceiving Him differently, or He is revealing Himself differently to different people.

Basically. And him being a "him" is one perspective that makes no sense fo me but we still have an idea of "god."

The differences of perception may be false in some. They may conflict with others.

They do. Thats why there are so many attributes and culturql terms to desribe something (after years) is easy to understand. We wont find one god in common but I think we're fussing over the same "idea" of god. Since we are all humans, we have some identical purposes in our god(s) but only external.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
@DavidMcCann already hit the nail on the head with pointing out that human knowledge of anything relies on our personal experiences (or listening to the stories of others' experiences), but there's a bit I'd like to add to that as it pertains to my own tradition.

My favorite source of knowledge about the gods are the sciences. If you want to understand the attributes of Storm, for example, study meteorology. Transforming knowledge from the sciences into rich mythos to know the gods is one of the centerpieces of my tradition. I like mentioning it because it's a bit unorthodox, apparently, even within Pagan circles. But it is a thing that can be done when your gods are quite literally all aspects of reality.

I hear that some Abrahamics take a similar approach, only they understand these studies as knowing their god through "God's creation." On a fairly regular basis I meet a student studying science in college because they are inspired to understand their god through that discipline. There are probably more of them than I'm aware of, because it's a taboo thing to mention, unfortunately.
 

Samantha Rinne

Resident Genderfluid Writer/Artist
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?

You're trying to define God like a program. "If I do this, God will do this." If God is like a person, trying to put him into neat little boxes as to how he behaves doesn't work. God says it himself "I Am who I Am." As in, I'm not omnipotent, all-good, omniscient, or any of those other colorful labels you want to tack onto me. I'm just me. Stop trying to do this stuff:
"If God is totally good, he would not allow evil, so he must not exist" (who said God is totally good? Isaiah 45:7)
or
"If God is all-powerful why doesn't he solve this problem for me?" (yeah, get over yourself, the best way to help you is to teach you to deal with it yourself)
or
"If God is all-seeing he'd know my future, and then I wouldn't have free will." (I've noticed despite throwing around this paradox, few atheists actually believe in free will, but just to clear things up, you assume here that there is one set future; this far from addressing omniscience and free will, puts both into a tiny box. You'd be better off imagining life as a dating sim, with several preset endings, but the ability both to choose from among several girls, and the ability to royally screw up at any point)

All of these are nicely summed up by the issue with the last (omniscience). You're railroading God. Defining attributes for his behavior that aren't biblical, that aren't true, and that aren't helpful.

Just picking the last poster before me, suppose I decided Quintessence is always trustworthy, always totally sexy, and always right about algebra problems. Quintessence is a person, and one I know literally nothing about. How fair to him/her are these attributes?
 

whirlingmerc

Well-Known Member
And how do you discern this information?

What do we really know about God?

The most emphasized attribute of God is 'Holy' which is the only attribute triple repeated which in Hebrew is a high emphasis 'Holy Holy Holy' by the angels In Isaiah 6 the throne room of God scene

John Piper says God;s Glory is God's holiness gone public
 
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