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What Makes A God?

Storm

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
fantôme profane;1180152 said:
My question to you would be when you use this shorthand term “God” does it serve your purpose? Does it convey your intended meaning to whoever you are communicating with, or does it confuse the issue? I suspect in your case the results are mixed, but if you find the term communicates more often than it confuses then that is the word you should use.
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It serves well enough for most conversations. If someone wants to discuss my beliefs in depth, I switch to my own terminology. I still use God, though, more out of habit than precision.

I would say that the concept you describe does fall into the “God” concept. For me the term denotes a wide variety of concepts, but that also makes it as less effective, or at least a less precise term.

My personal view of the universe has some factors in common with what you describe, I view it as a single unified entity that inspires awe and reverence (but not worship). But for me it is not sapient and so I would not call what I believe in “God”. If I were to do so (and I have in the past) it would tend to confuse more than communicate. So although I don’t want to oversimplify, I would say this is seems to be a good place to draw the line.
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Sapience seems like a reasonable line to draw to me.
 
EtuMalku

EtuMalku

Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
The Kheprian transformation from being a creation to becoming a creator.
This is what makes a God.
 
Storm

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
EtuMalku said:
The Kheprian transformation from being a creation to becoming a creator.
This is what makes a God.
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1) Can you elaborate on what the Kheprian transformation is? I don't think I've ever heard that one.

2) I am not asking how a God is created, but what qualities an enity must have for you to acknowledge it as a God.
 
Storm

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
If I wanted a dictionary definition, logician, I have several access to several.
 
tomspug

tomspug

Absorbant
A "god" seems to be attributed with either

a) greater understanding
b) influence over circumstances
c) determinant of justice (or appeasement, if not a moral god)
d) a center of personal obsession/devotion

To give an extreme example of a 'god' that can still fit this criteria, "Hollywood" fits criteria 'd' and possibly 'c'. A political party (or figure) could fit all four criteria. Even a religion itself can be treated like a god (although it doesn't fit criteria 'a' since it has no consciousness).
 
Storm

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
tomspug said:
A "god" seems to be attributed with either

a) greater understanding
b) influence over circumstances
c) determinant of justice (or appeasement, if not a moral god)
d) a center of personal obsession/devotion

To give an extreme example of a 'god' that can still fit this criteria, "Hollywood" fits criteria 'd' and possibly 'c'. A political party (or figure) could fit all four criteria. Even a religion itself can be treated like a god (although it doesn't fit criteria 'a' since it has no consciousness).
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But what are your criteria? Not popular attributes, your personal standards.
 
fire

fire

Member
doppelgänger;1180064 said:
Worship defines a "god." It could be ideas purportedly extracted from the Bible, a golden statue, a crystal phallus or a trash can lid. Worshiping it makes it a god.
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Oh God of the trash can lid, please make my garbage go away.
 
tomspug

tomspug

Absorbant
Storm said:
But what are your criteria? Not popular attributes, your personal standards.
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Since I believe there is only One and has ever been One, I don't really see a need for 'criteria', unless I'd rather that the One God were a specific, preferred way, which would be silly and tepid anyways.
 
YmirGF

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
You could say that there is no god (or gods) but there are god concepts. It is my view that human animals are fixated on their own symbolism. The love one feels from their god concept is the love they project, returning to them. The odd thing about "god" is that you have to move beyond preconceptions to appreciate the reality behind the idea.

Short version: "God" is what you make it.
 
cardero

cardero

Citizen Mod
Storm said:
Frequently, when explaining non-theistic God-concepts, I have encountered the opinion that "that's not really a God."

So, what are your standards for Godhood?
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An entity that does not have the nature of a human.
 
lilithu

lilithu

The Devil's Advocate
tomspug said:
Since I believe there is only One and has ever been One, I don't really see a need for 'criteria',
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The question is, what is it about the One God that makes you know that He is God? Those would be "criteria."
 
Magic Man

Magic Man

Reaper of Conversation
As others have said, "God" can be anything you want it to be, but...

For my purposes, God is generally sentient. With that said, I can see things like Tao being called God (whether or not it should be). I think when I run into problems is when some we already have a word for is called "God", for instance "nature". I don't see any reason to call nature "God", since it doesn't really change the definition. If you add something to nature's definition that requires a different name, then fine, but just equating one with the other seems pointless to me.

Now, on the other hand, if you say "Nature is my God", that's different. That has a different connotation to me. I think it's the fact that you're not saying that nature is God for everyone, just for you. That way, it's just giving a clear definition of what your concept of God is, and not implying that that's what the term should mean for everyone. I think that makes a huge difference.

I guess that's the main thing, too. If you're not trying to redefine the term "God" for everyone, then I don't really care what you define it as.
 
EtuMalku

EtuMalku

Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
Storm said:
1) Can you elaborate on what the Kheprian transformation is? I don't think I've ever heard that one.

2) I am not asking how a God is created, but what qualities an enity must have for you to acknowledge it as a God.
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To answer your second question, first: the quality that defines a God is someone that has spiritually died (a creation) and is reborn a Creator.

The Kheprian transformation is a little more complex.
Through the study of the Left Hand Path the Ajna chakra and it's three hidden chakras are activated and the adept is faced with two choices: to become one with God in the Sahasrara or to attempt the next step through Sunya to become a God.
 
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