A Personal God?

[cyberpi]

Sure glad I'm not a Buddhist! Brian's right. Gautama was depressed and his religion shows it. Life sucks! Don't think, be nothing and get it over with..

Paganprophet, your name is so interesting and since you claim to be a prophet, I'd like to ask you a pagan question: When King Arthur removed the sword from the stone, which was more valuable... the sword, or the stone. Please explain the reasoning to your answer.

 

[Francis king]

ur own personal jesus,
someone to hear ur prayers, someone who cares
ur own personal jesus,
someone to hear ur prayers, someone who's there
reach out n touch faith...

lol..

why can't we each have a personal God? if God is omnipotent and omnipresent, if God is formless, if God is neither male or female, then God for me might be a great wind which holds up a small bird, while for you he might be the bird itself, or a worm in the beak of the bird... some ppl would say that God is all these things; the wind, the bird and the worm, all at once...

it all depends on what u believe, I suppose.. many ppl feel that they have a personal relationship with their God, some ppl feel that God is unknowable to man...

makes me think of krsna, how he is sometimes a small cowherd boy, sometimes a fierce warrior, sometimes a fantastic lover, or a protective father, all at the same time- when he is God, he can be all things to all men at the same time without it conflicting...

there is a passage in the bhagavad gita, and arjuna is speaking with krsna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, and krsna has his two handed form, and arjuna asks to see krsnas real form, and so krsna obliges, and arjuna's little human mind almost snaps in two- to see krsna as a million gods and demons all at once! wow! arjuna is terrified, and asks Krsna to change bk, which he does...

the moral to the tale, I think, was that God appears to u in the form which u find most agreeable- to me God might be a small child to nurture, to u he might be a demon slayer, to another he may be the giver of boons, but don't be too quick to decide thats all there is to god, as god, by his nature, is a lot more than that...

 

[Tao_Equus]

My experience has been of a "force". I don't see it as a person at all. I am neither an Atheist or Christian/Theist - I don't even like to call it spirituality in the New age sense - all these labels and history of religion has muddled what it it. Something is there underlying reality and science is grappling with it more than religion is these days ( I believe ) as discoveries are made that seem beyond our understanding of reality. Super strings/ Zero point field/quantum mechanics etc..

Hi Ardenz and welcome to CR !!

I have recently had my claim of being a spiritual person mocked because I come from the same overal angle of contemplation as you. So it is heartning to find someone new on these threads with such close veiws.

Oftentimes science is so caught up in the competition of assuring its next years funding that it causes there to be a disharmony both within and between the disciplines. This makes it appear almost like a religion with many sects and branches. Science to my mind does now grapple with the fundamental questions of the how and the why far more than religion, it is just a shame that there are so few truly independant interdisciplinary spokespersons for it. Thankfully we now have the internet so likeminded people can begin to draw together the totality into a coherant whole. The internet is still so new. Yet so awesomely powerful. I hope this power opens a new age in honest contemplation and understanding.

TE

 

[Sunny C.]

I can't define God, so I try not to use that word. I thought for a while that I could borrow the word to try to express the object of my thoughts, but I just wind up talking past people.

 

[Tao_Equus]

I can't define God, so I try not to use that word. I thought for a while that I could borrow the word to try to express the object of my thoughts, but I just wind up talking past people.

I know that feeling. A word captures something, an object ,an idea , a principle or whatever. The totality of what God really is is beyond our scope to capture, and certainly far greater than any belief system is able to encompas. If we are lucky we do get the odd glimpse of a facet of it tho.

 

[ardenz]

Hi Ardenz and welcome to CR !!

I have recently had my claim of being a spiritual person mocked because I come from the same overal angle of contemplation as you. So it is heartning to find someone new on these threads with such close veiws.

Oftentimes science is so caught up in the competition of assuring its next years funding that it causes there to be a disharmony both within and between the disciplines. This makes it appear almost like a religion with many sects and branches. Science to my mind does now grapple with the fundamental questions of the how and the why far more than religion, it is just a shame that there are so few truly independant interdisciplinary spokespersons for it. Thankfully we now have the internet so likeminded people can begin to draw together the totality into a coherant whole. The internet is still so new. Yet so awesomely powerful. I hope this power opens a new age in honest contemplation and understanding.

TE

hi Equus,

I have just finished reading Richard Dawkins " the God Delusion". I liked his scientific questioning of religion, but ultimately found him closed minded - absolutely NO god or any organising intelligence whatsover. I was accused of being a wishy washy agnostic or fence sitter and getting it from both sides on an Athiest vs Christianity forum.

It is so refreshing to see this forum here where different perspectives are accomodated.

 

[Snoopy]

Intolerance is always unwelcome, whoever is brandishing it; atheist or otherwise.

If you're being hit equally by both sides, then this can help to maintain your balance!

s.

 

[Tao_Equus]

Intolerance is always unwelcome, whoever is brandishing it; atheist or otherwise.

If you're being hit equally by both sides, then this can help to maintain your balance!

s.

You cannot be wrong if you dont declare

 

[Snoopy]

Indecision is the key to flexibility

 

[Nick the Pilot]

~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~

Ardenz,

I am like you, neither a monotheist nor an atheist. Welcome to the club!

 

[path_of_one]

Interesting...

I would say I personally experience God- in that I have experiences of God in a manner that is indicative of relationship.

However, I would not say God is this or that. I can't really understand God. I only get glimpses, and I've gotten enough different glimpses to make me aware that nothing quite encapsulates that Big-Whatever-It-Is accurately. Sometimes it's personal and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it is imminent- the bit of something I see in myself, others, the earth that is Divine. I would never say God is a person-like Being, but rather that God might be experienced as a person-like Being in order to meet me where I'm at right then. It's almost certain that I experience God within my limitations rather than me really grasping what God is like.

The great thing is that I don't have to understand God to feel the love emanating from It/Her/Him, and to give love in return. I don't fully understand the earth and its inner workings either, but I can feel its abundance and be thankful and return love to it.

I prefer to be open to experience of Divinity rather than defining God- meshes better with my life.

 

[lunamoth]

Interesting...

I would say I personally experience God- in that I have experiences of God in a manner that is indicative of relationship.

However, I would not say God is this or that. I can't really understand God. I only get glimpses, and I've gotten enough different glimpses to make me aware that nothing quite encapsulates that Big-Whatever-It-Is accurately. Sometimes it's personal and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it is imminent- the bit of something I see in myself, others, the earth that is Divine. I would never say God is a person-like Being, but rather that God might be experienced as a person-like Being in order to meet me where I'm at right then. It's almost certain that I experience God within my limitations rather than me really grasping what God is like.

The great thing is that I don't have to understand God to feel the love emanating from It/Her/Him, and to give love in return. I don't fully understand the earth and its inner workings either, but I can feel its abundance and be thankful and return love to it.

I prefer to be open to experience of Divinity rather than defining God- meshes better with my life.

Been missing your beautiful posts Path of One. Great to see you around!

 

[Saltmeister]

I can't define God, so I try not to use that word. I thought for a while that I could borrow the word to try to express the object of my thoughts, but I just wind up talking past people.

As Francis King suggests, each of us could have a personal God that means whatever He means.

Here's how I see it might work . . .

For me, there's no need to define God at all. All I have to do is consider what He (or It) means for me. Everyone in the world could do the same. That's what makes God personal. We're not all the same so we don't all have the same relationship with God. God Himself doesn't have to be the same for everyone.

He can interact differently with each of us, but still be the same God. He'd have the same identity, regardless of who was connecting to Him.

We talk past each other because what we share with God is between us and God. It's sacred. Private and personal. We devote and dedicate ourselves to God and God devotes and dedicates Himself to us within the boundaries of our relationship.

Though I may use metaphors, God is neither a bird nor a plane. Whatever physical, tangible objects are used are simply symbolic of God's role as some kind of "Divine Provider" that provides whatever the physical/tangible object was meant to provide.

 

[path_of_one]

Been missing your beautiful posts Path of One. Great to see you around!

Thanks! My dissertation is FINALLY done! Yay! I have a life again!