What do you know about God?

[loverofhumanity]

Many people believe in God but what do they know about Him? How did you come to know what you know about God? How did you verify what you know about God or discovered? Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition? How do you know what you believe about God is true? Atheists feel free to comment but this is not a ‘prove God exists‘ thread.

 

[Link]

Salam

I will keep my experiences to myself. But I will talk about somethings generally.

In ethics, morality, and human rights, you have to accept certain moral truths in a properly basic way. That is without reduction. Seeing a straight line is the shortest distance between two points can be seen in a properly basic intuitive way that is 100% certain knowledge. Now you can prove that through math too and proofs, but there is no need.

However, the more specific things get, the more detailed and layered, then reasoning comes to play. You have to analyze the situation and what you are applying the properly basic moral to.

I believe God's descriptions work similar. Just, compassionate, forgiving, these are said in an intuitive way. However, where they apply and to what extent requires a detailed explanation that is not simple.

Other titles are far more complex on the onset, for example, that security giver (Al-Momin), and in what context a title is said.

What I'm saying is that spiritual detection of God's light and simplified descriptions are a fundamental starting point, but there are many long descriptions and things that require a lot of reasoning and analysis.

All animals glorify God and know God knows the unseen and brings it out, but they can't analyze the details like humans and Jinn can.

The link to Imam Mahdi (a) also has telepathic component on his part and then our part to realize the connection. The Imam (a) can't just pass his knowledge in one go to every human.

But the starting point is to be guided by God's light, and turn to God through the light of his face that has given light to all things. The Imam (a) is that face of God and greatest tiding and sign.

The design of skies and earth is so beautiful and how things are made subservient for our usage is a good way to reflect over God as well.

The Quran to me helps me reflect over a lot of things. At the end, words can't make you see God. However, it has pointed the signs of God and talks about the connecting sign and tunnel to the lowest earth and ladder to the highest sky and talked about the lanterns in the higher realms, the horizons, and the spiritual sky. Ahlulbayt (a) are the sky family that are visited by Angels (a) and believers are supposed to try to look at them and see them and be guided by their light and use them as weapons and missiles against the devils and their sorcery.

A long with that is words that the Guide Imam Mahdi (a), can impart to a human physical meeting him that can awaken to much of Quran which otherwise the person was totally heedless to.

And God is known through his grand name which is Quran and Ahlulbayt (a) together, and is the leader of our time. The Quran says "successful is he who purifies himself. And remembers the name of his Lord so connects/prays."

 

[Balthazzar]

Not much, aside from what I experience day to day. If the universe isn't God and God exists within the universe, then I would suggest I know much less about God than what I know about the universe.

 

[LuisDantas]

I know enough about god (implied here to be some variation of the Abrahamic conceptions of same) to realize that the idea is seriously abused as a matter of course.

Using those conceptions of Abraham's god without a lot of clarification ill serves the Abrahamic devotees - or anyone else.

 

[Vinayaka]

"The English word 'god' first came into use through a German term applied in the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, gudan ("to call" or "to invoke" a power). In Western traditions, 'God' is the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."

I know nothing at all about this.

"Siva" on the other hand ... (very different paradigms)

 

[RestlessSoul]

"The English word 'god' first came into use through a German term applied in the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, gudan ("to call" or "to invoke" a power). In Western traditions, 'God' is the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam."

I know nothing at all about this.

"Siva" on the other hand ... (very different paradigms)

So what do you know about Siva?

 

[Vinayaka]

So what do you know about Siva?

Depends what you mean by 'know'. Do you mean it as in an intellectual knowing, like that London is the capital of England? Do you mean it as the knowledge derived from experience, as in knowing what peanut butter tastes like, or what the texture of a birch tree feels like? Do you mean it as a deep mystical inner knowing beyond both intellect and experience?

 

[RestlessSoul]

Depends what you mean by 'know'. Do you mean it as in an intellectual knowing, like that London is the capital of England? Do you mean it as the knowledge derived from experience, as in knowing what peanut butter tastes like, or what the texture of a birch tree feels like? Do you mean it as a deep mystical inner knowing beyond both intellect and experience?

Feel free to define knowledge any way you like.

 

[Nakosis]

Many people believe in God but what do they know about Him? How did you come to know what you know about God? How did you verify what you know about God or discovered? Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition? How do you know what you believe about God is true? Atheists feel free to comment but this is not a ‘prove God exists‘ thread.

I know that if you create a concept of God or are fed a concept of God, your subconscious mind can take that information and create for you an experience of God which fulfills the expectations of the concept you harbor.

IOW, spiritual experiences can be created for you by the subconscious mind whether a God exists or not.

Not to say definitively that no God exists but that it is possible for your own subconscious mind to play the role of God in your spiritual experiences and that you would be unable to tell the difference between a real God and a pseudo God created by your own mind that you wouldn't be consciously aware of doing.

 

[sun rise]

With the intellect, I can no nothing about God since God is beyond the ability of the intellect. With my heart I know that God is love.

"The human heart can see what's hidden to the eyes, and the heart knows things that the mind does not begin to understand."

 

[Quintessence]

Please note that for the purposes of these responses, I am not talking about God (the Abrahamic god) but the gods that are actually part of my religious traditions and lifeways. The questions have been changed to note this distinction.

How did you come to know what you know about gods?

Through everyday life and living. All life experience conveys knowledge. When the gods are the universe and everything in it, all experiences more or less convey knowledge of the gods.

How did you verify what you know about gods or discovered?

No need, the vast majority of the time. Who seeks constant verification or validation of their day-to-day life experiences? That's a bit weird. Use common sense and your own powers of discernment and reason. It's only as complicated as one makes it for oneself.

Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition?

All life experience. There are a few major venues I tend to contemplate on the regular though: (1) sciences - knowledge about the gods derived from methodological naturalism and peer review, (2) arts - knowledge about the gods through song and story and pictures, (3) direct - knowledge about the gods from personal interactions, relationships, and experiences. So, for example, if I want to understand Moon Spirit I would study astronomy and what it has to say about Moon, I would study poems and stories and mythologies about Moon, and most importantly I would just be present with Moon and soak in whatever Moon has to teach directly.

How do you know what you believe about gods is true?

Because I have no interest in indulging skeptical absurdities like "is this air I'm breathing really here" and "did I really feel that particular emotion just now." I experience what I experience, I think what I think, I am what I am. I am more than capable of practicing discernment and deciding what things mean for myself. It's not like I actually have any choice in that matter anyway, as one cannot escape from being oneself.

 

[Trailblazer]

Many people believe in God but what do they know about Him? How did you come to know what you know about God? How did you verify what you know about God or discovered? Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition? How do you know what you believe about God is true? Atheists feel free to comment but this is not a ‘prove God exists‘ thread.

I believe that I know some of the attributes of God, but I do not know the essence of God, meaning I do not know the intrinsic nature of God.

 

[CG Didymus]

I know that if you create a concept of God or are fed a concept of God, your subconscious mind can take that information and create for you an experience of God which fulfills the expectations of the concept you harbor.

Yes, religions tell people what their God is like. The believers will probably experience their God by what they expect. An interesting example is the Christian concept of Satan. Satan is very real to those Christians that believe he exists. But is Satan real? Baha'is say no.

Why not the same with God? The believers experience their concept of God. But those that don't believe in that God and have a different concept of God won't. But how easily can it be all in the imagination of what the person is taught to believe and expect from their God?

 

[Madsaac]

I know everything about god, he is what I think it to be, nothing. There is nothing to know

However, I do know, its a good discussion topic

 

[Hockeycowboy]

What Ive come to know & understand about God, which I believe is accurate, comes from the book called the Bible, the one that is most used: the 66-book canonical tome.

 

[danieldemol]

I wouldn't say I "know" about God, but based on the way a chemical injection completely changed the way my mind thinks to prevent paranoid delusions from occurring, I feel pretty sure that free-will doesn't exist and the brain is simply an electrochemical machine. What I infer from this is that if a just God created me any faults I have are design flaws and that a just God would not punish me for flaws whose ultimate responsibility would lie with God alone.

I also infer from the scientific studies which have established that prayer doesn't have physical effect in healing people that God is disinterested in the material realm, and doubt that God ever had an interest in it.

 

[Heyo]

Many people believe in God but what do they know about Him? How did you come to know what you know about God? How did you verify what you know about God or discovered? Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition? How do you know what you believe about God is true? Atheists feel free to comment but this is not a ‘prove God exists‘ thread.

I know nothing about god(s) - and neither does anybody else.

 

[chinu]

Many people believe in God but what do they know about Him? How did you come to know what you know about God? How did you verify what you know about God or discovered? Was it through a dream? A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition? How do you know what you believe about God is true? Atheists feel free to comment but this is not a ‘prove God exists‘ thread.

What do you know about Him/God?
"Rest in peace" is the term/verse which is very oftenly used when someone meets a death on this earth and in-general people believe that there's no any rebirth after this death. Contrary to this - death of the body isn't a complete death which I have experienced through a meditation practice and came onto the conclusion that a new body is acquired over and again each time until one "Rest in peace", or "Merge into God"

In true terms "Rest in peace" is equal to "Rest in God" like a drop merging into the sea, which is the final death.

IN A NUT SHELL: A certain experience through a meditation-practice is the foundation if someone truly wants to know about God. Or, in some rare cases people acquires the same experience which is the result of near-death-experience happened due to some serious-illness, or an accident in life which becomes a blessing thereafter.

How did you come to know what you know about God?
Through meditation practice.

How did you verify what you know about God or discovered?
Through meditation practice

A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition?
Through meditation practice

How do you know what you believe about God is true?
Through meditation practice

 

[loverofhumanity]

Yes, religions tell people what their God is like. The believers will probably experience their God by what they expect. An interesting example is the Christian concept of Satan. Satan is very real to those Christians that believe he exists. But is Satan real? Baha'is say no.

Why not the same with God? The believers experience their concept of God. But those that don't believe in that God and have a different concept of God won't. But how easily can it be all in the imagination of what the person is taught to believe and expect from their God?

Very true. But I think that’s why God sends Manifestations and Prophets to help us distinguish truth from pure imagination and superstition.

 

[loverofhumanity]

What do you know about Him/God?
"Rest in peace" is the term/verse which is very oftenly used when someone meets a death on this earth and in-general people believe that there's no any rebirth after this death. Contrary to this - death of the body isn't a complete death which I have experienced through a meditation practice and came onto the conclusion that a new body is acquired over and again each time until one "Rest in peace", or "Merge into God"

In true terms "Rest in peace" is equal to "Rest in God" like a drop merging into the sea, which is the final death.

IN A NUT SHELL: A certain experience through a meditation-practice is the foundation if someone truly wants to know about God. Or, in some rare cases people acquires the same experience which is the result of near-death-experience happened due to some serious-illness, or an accident in life which becomes a blessing thereafter.

How did you come to know what you know about God?
Through meditation practice.

How did you verify what you know about God or discovered?
Through meditation practice

A Book or a personal experience or just from following tradition?
Through meditation practice

How do you know what you believe about God is true?
Through meditation practice

I agree that through meditation truths unknown to us can be revealed.