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You need God / God needs you ?

All Gods and Goddesses are man-made concepts, not just the Hindu ones.
If I am a part of God then how does it matter? I remain a part of God in life, and merge with him after death. Nowhere any problem.

Of course, I am a Hindu and a strong atheist, since my belief is that all that exists in the universe is constituted by one entity, Brahman. And for me Brahman is not a God.

So long as there is Brahman, it doesn't matter if people understand the word God to mean some different thing or things than what Brahman is. Brahman is all that is relevant, and the word God or Gods can easily be put aside then.

The question one can ask though is:
Do you consider yourself as having an intelligence? Does Brahman have intelligence(s)? Can Brahman be interacted with through speech and thought and respond in ways that are not consciously controlled by you or expected or known by you?

My Brahman is one that is intelligent, encompassing all intelligences, and responsive, able to manipulate reality or itself in an apparent response intelligently, so that it can be said that it is not Deaf, it is not Dumb, it is not Blind, but it is Hearing all Sound, Knowing Instantly all Experience Including Thoughts it Generates Itself which includes everything, and Seeing all there is that is seen and to be seen (including what isn't seen, and what is only seen by itself alone).
 

PAUL MARKHAM

Well-Known Member
No you can't go ad infinitum, it only ends up ad infinitum if you're looking for more and more different physical things, eventually you'll have to come to the conclusion that the SYSTEM, whatever you consider as responsible for this moment, the next moment, the appearance of change between these moments, the movements, the progress, that this results in this, etc, that will lead you to whatever is actually "The Ultimate Power", which is not going to be some creature or physical thing or even a "set of laws that "just are"" but instead to a Chaos which has the Ability to Generate "a system of laws" and all this resulting stuff. There is no God except what is Actually Ultimately Responsible for Generating Your Experience, The System, that it moves, that it moves the way it moves and does what it does. It isn't a creature, it isn't a person, it isn't like your brain even or thoughts.
A coupleof 100 years ago you woukd be argung Man was created on the 6th day, after the world was created in 5. Now that been thoroughly disproven you retreat to "Who created the big bang?" I gave you sciences answer. You gave me what exactly?
 
A coupleof 100 years ago you woukd be argung Man was created on the 6th day, after the world was created in 5. Now that been thoroughly disproven you retreat to "Who created the big bang?" I gave you sciences answer. You gave me what exactly?
Philosophical answer, metaphysical answer, something to do with mathematics and science as well though, but I think its hard to really understand what I'm talking about, just know at least or trust I am not talking about Santa Klaus Bearded Old Zeus.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
RigVeda says Gods came up only after creation of the universe. Different Hindus believe different things. Hindus have this freedom of belief.
"The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?"
Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
What do they say is responsible for the generation of the Sun and Universe and Big Bang and everything and our experience of whatever we experience and that we experience at all? Whatever is doing all that and has done all that, that alone can be called the God, it isn't some bearded guy in a cloud. Man!
That is known as the "God of Gaps".
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
There is no proof a god created anything. All there have is a lack of knowledge that has been in retreat for 1,000s of years. It used to believed a god created Men and all around us. That's now known to be not true.

Depends on how you understand the gods. If your gods are literally the universe and everything in it, well... it's pretty hard for the gods not to have been around before men (and also women considering you can't have the one without the other). As I said, the human species is only a few million years old and the gods have been around considerably longer than that, based on scientific evidence. Though I guess some folks tell the story of everything being "created" at once. I find those stories weird. Interesting, but weird.


I don't know what your theology is. But if it means Humans created everything in the universe it's wrong. Humans are the result of evolution.

It was pretty clear you don't know much about Pagan theology from your earlier post... haha. Most humans don't these days. And no, it's not wrong. What's wrong is to know that in the context of other theologies, the gods are quite literally various forces of our universe and then say without qualifiers that humans predate the gods. Seriously, it is basically saying somehow humans predate the existence of planet earth. And the sun. And forces like evolution. That makes not a lick of sense, but if you can square that circle, more power to you. It'd make an interesting story if nothing else.
 

PAUL MARKHAM

Well-Known Member
RigVeda says Gods came up only after creation of the universe. Different Hindus believe different things. Hindus have this freedom of belief.
"The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?"
Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
It isn't even disputed Men created gods, religions, priests, temples, etc. The dispute is in who is right without being able to show any real evidence.

All around you is the proof
Big bang is the proof
It's written is the proof

And on and on.
 
RigVeda says Gods came up only after creation of the universe. Different Hindus believe different things. Hindus have this freedom of belief.
"The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?"
Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXIX. Creation.

I think what the Vedas is calling God or Gods is just a different word really than what others are calling God or Gods (and the same in some cases). Brahman is real, the first, the responsible, and so that would qualify for some as their intended meaning related to their use of the word "God" where others bring other things to their mind when they use the word "God" or "Gods", and all that is true which is in the Vedas. For example, they translate the word "god" and call Fire "god", but fire came into existence after Brahman who is before everything and first of all, so it is true, fire and all the various manifestations or forms all occurred and were generated after Brahman, and everything in creation was step by step made after Brahman was already present and underlying and responsible for all these motions and events and that they occur and the systems they relate to.
 

PAUL MARKHAM

Well-Known Member
Depends on how you understand the gods. If your gods are literally the universe and everything in it, well... it's pretty hard for the gods not to have been around before men (and also women considering you can't have the one without the other). As I said, the human species is only a few million years old and the gods have been around considerably longer than that, based on scientific evidence. Though I guess some folks tell the story of everything being "created" at once. I find those stories weird. Interesting, but weird.
Where is your proof? I can prove evolution created everything on Earth.


It was pretty clear you don't know much about Pagan theology from your earlier post... haha. Most humans don't these days. And no, it's not wrong. What's wrong is to know that in the context of other theologies, the gods are quite literally various forces of our universe and then say without qualifiers that humans predate the gods. Seriously, it is basically saying somehow humans predate the existence of planet earth. And the sun. And forces like evolution. That makes not a lick of sense, but if you can square that circle, more power to you. It'd make an interesting story if nothing else.
Where is your proof? I can prove evolution created everything on Earth.
 
It isn't even disputed Men created gods, religions, priests, temples, etc. The dispute is in who is right without being able to show any real evidence.

All around you is the proof
Big bang is the proof
It's written is the proof

And on and on.

Men used to refer to things which are now called "gods" which were apparent to them, such as "Sun", "Moon", "Water", and none of them were stupid enough even then to think they created those things. Simply translate the names of the things called "gods" and see what they were referring to, and you will see that they were referring to things which were natural and apparent to them and which they did not believe they had created (and they were right, they didn't create the Sun or the Moon or Water, Air, Fire, Earth, Metal).
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Does Brahman have intelligence(s)? Can Brahman be interacted with through speech and thought and respond in ways that are not consciously controlled by you or expected or known by you?

- My Brahman is one that is intelligent, encompassing all intelligences, and responsive, able to manipulate reality or itself in an apparent response intelligently, so that it can be said that it is not Deaf, it is not Dumb, it is not Blind, but it is Hearing all Sound, Knowing Instantly all Experience Including Thoughts it Generates Itself which includes everything, and Seeing all there is that is seen and to be seen (including what isn't seen, and what is only seen by itself alone).
No. Brahman is what constitutes us. Brahman does not have intelligence. It does not have a brain. It does have properties. No, Brahman cannot be interacted with through speech and thought. It is the base material, physical energy; and it responds to light, heat, mass, etc.

- My Brahman is not the kind of Brahman that you have described.
It isn't even disputed Men created gods, religions, priests, temples, etc. The dispute is in who is right without being able to show any real evidence.
I will tell you who created God. Shamans created God for power, money and sex. Even today people do that and claim various things.
 
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Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Where is your proof? I can prove evolution created everything on Earth.

You're not reading (or comprehending) what I'm writing, no offense. I'm going to quote this here:

Depends on how you understand the gods. If your gods are literally the universe and everything in it, well...

Do you understand this and process what this means? It means that proving evolution isn't at all opposed to the gods. Evolution is one of the gods. If you want me to prove evolution to you... I'm... really not in the mood? Especially when you claim you can prove evolution created everything on Earth. For the love of the gods, please don't be one of those people conflating evolution with cosmology. Evolution only addresses the diversity of life, not the origins of life, and certainly not the creation of various abiotic aspects of our planet.
 
No. Brahman is what constitutes us. Brahman does not have intelligence. It does not have a brain. It does have properties. No, Brahman cannot be interacted with through speech and thought. It is the base material, physical energy; and it responds to light, heat, mass, etc.

- My Brahman is not the kind of Brahman that you have described.

Yes, and there are even other Brahman versions people have and think of, which differ from mine and yours.
 

chinu

chinu
Chinu ji, I have kinda thought a similar question some time back.

One day during prayer it dawned on me that deep meditation on the divine, makes the divine feel connected with his innermost self. Which means, we are helping the divine connect to himself during our prayers. It might serve the purpose to say many believe the divine is not outside but inside, each one of us.

That means, we help the divine in ourselves realize himself/herself when we pray. Thus it serves as a means to strengthen that divine in us when we seek out to him.

Because god then feels empowered this way, he needs us.

*Just a food for thought.
If God get empowered this way, then God would have never separated you/us -- in the first place.
 

PAUL MARKHAM

Well-Known Member
You're not reading (or comprehending) what I'm writing, no offense. I'm going to quote this here:



Do you understand this and process what this means? It means that proving evolution isn't at all opposed to the gods. Evolution is one of the gods. If you want me to prove evolution to you... I'm... really not in the mood? Especially when you claim you can prove evolution created everything on Earth. For the love of the gods, please don't be one of those people conflating evolution with cosmology. Evolution only addresses the diversity of life, not the origins of life, and certainly not the creation of various abiotic aspects of our planet.
But I disagree with you on the part I high lighted.

So show us how life started on Earth.
 

syo

Well-Known Member
Can you explain or elaborate upon this idea more?
In what way do immortals use mortals and what is this "recycling" and its necessity?
Immortals don't change. Without mortals, the universe would be useless.

Imagine there is only an immortal god and there aren't any mortals. This god would be unchangeable, static, motionless forever and ever, and pointless.
 
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