What do we know about God?

[Jaiket]

Jaiket, are you waiting for evidence? I've done that, too.

Not really. I don't expect any, but, I do tend to feel that if the evidence is out there I'll come across it at some stage.

 

[Jaiket]

Thank you for your reply, Jaiket. It is a pleasure conversing with you.

Thank you. I appreciate that, especially now. At times I'm sure I've been much less a pleasure to talk with.

I guess I can see how atheism, at least a soft atheism, could be a default position in the absence of scientific evidence, if that is the only cirteria that will satisfy.

I guess that's where I am. I am quite comfortable with the statement "there is no such thing as gods", but not completely.

I'm pretty sure my father looks at things the same way as you do. It's cliche to say so, but science fails to answer the 'why' questions (why am I here? why do I love?).

It depends on your "why?" questions. Don't neuroscience and endocrinology reveal a great deal about 'why' we love. I have a tendency to blur the lines between 'how' and 'why' in fairness, you may well see it differently.

I figured that if there was a God He had more or less left me out of the loop. Obviously that has changed.
cheers,
lunamoth

I kinda feel like that myself. If there is a god (or several or several million and so on) I suppose he/she/it/they hasn't got round to me yet. That would certainly explain why other people are so convinced of particular deities, but it leaves me rather curious. Should I suppose that the god you know has ignored me thus far, as well as the gods worshipped in other places? With all the gods floating around you'd think one of them had some time for me.

 

[Jaiket]

Hi Bandit!

Question1)does this definition fit what you feel & think of when you try to turn unbelief into belief in God.

When I hypothesize floaty, immaterial, invisible, all powerful entities creating worlds and populating them I tend to think it daft. Likewise when I think of several-limbed Elephant gods, giants, crocodiles with the ability to speak English, abominable snowmen, leprechauns, and flying reindeer, I admit that such things are not impossible but still absurd according to my view of the world.

 

[lunamoth]

Should I suppose that the god you know has ignored me thus far,...

I assure you He has not.

I'm gone for about a week--have a good one!
lunamoth

 

[Silverbackman]

Jaiket, Do you believe in the infinite? Do you believe in a infinite universe (or multiverse) in both time and space?

 

[Bandit]

Hi Bandit!

When I hypothesize floaty, immaterial, invisible, all powerful entities creating worlds and populating them I tend to think it daft. Likewise when I think of several-limbed Elephant gods, giants, crocodiles with the ability to speak English, abominable snowmen, leprechauns, and flying reindeer, I admit that such things are not impossible but still absurd according to my view of the world.

ok. i see now. kind of like invisible caspar the friendly ghost just floating around (maybe going up & down like a yo yo) & making his rounds to all the people. i think i am starting to see what your view of God is (would be) like.

 

[Jaiket]

Jaiket, Do you believe in the infinite? Do you believe in a infinite universe (or multiverse) in both time and space?

I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it. Space and time perplex me, so I doubt I'll be forming many opinions on it until I've read up a little.

 

[soulatom]

I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it. Space and time perplex me, so I doubt I'll be forming many opinions on it until I've read up a little.

Originally Posted by Silverbackman
Jaiket, Do you believe in the infinite? Do you believe in a infinite universe (or multiverse) in both time and space?


Hi Silverbackman, I am new, but I would like to jump in here as this topic fascinates me. What do you believe in? Can you clarify multiverse for me? Thanks

 

[Silverbackman]

I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it. Space and time perplex me, so I doubt I'll be forming many opinions on it until I've read up a little.

Well my friend ask yourself this question: Can a universe come out of nothingness? No of course not! Something has to have been here for eternity. There is no way around it. We can't compromise with this ultimate reality. Now this something can be anything. It can be the universe or multiverse being in existence forever. Or it could be a deity. Most likelly the two are one in the same. In other words whatever entity lived before the big bang and afterwards is apart of a God that reveals Itself only throught the slightest of details. I will explain more later but, do you-----

Get it?

Hi Silverbackman, I am new, but I would like to jump in here as this topic fascinates me. What do you believe in? Can you clarify multiverse for me? Thanks

Multiverses are a hypothetical set of universes that theoretical physicists believe exist in the 11th dimension. Think of it as a set of galaxies but instead of galaxies these are universes.

As for my religious beliefs, I will explain more in a bit but here is a hint: It is almost exactly like Jaiket's belief but at the same time it is far different. My views tend to be mostly pantheist but there is more to pantheism that meets the eyes.

 

[Jaiket]

Well my friend ask yourself this question: Can a universe come out of nothingness? No of course not! Something has to have been here for eternity. There is no way around it. We can't compromise with this ultimate reality. Now this something can be anything. It can be the universe or multiverse being in existence forever. Or it could be a deity. Most likelly the two are one in the same. In other words whatever entity lived before the big bang and afterwards is apart of a God that reveals Itself only throught the slightest of details. I will explain more later but, do you-----

Get it?

On a very superficial level, yes.

Why is it either a universe, multiverse or deity? What is a deity? Some kind of proto-universe with a desire to populate planets as yet unmade? Why do you argue for the likelyhood of two being the same? How much 'living' did it do prior to the universe being here?

To be honest I don't accept any of this, I haven't read about it yet and have no real opinions.

 

[Jaiket]

i think i am starting to see what your view of God is (would be) like.

What is yours like?

 

[Bandit]

What is yours like?

give me a couple of days to try & explain my perception & make it short, sweet & simple. it has actually changed a little bit over the years.

i will tell you this much right now- when i was young, i also had the caspar the ghost perception. at age seven, someone stoled my first bike. so i shook my fist up to the sky & told God go to hell for not watching my bike. then i proceeded to curse & tell him to die if he does not get me new bike

it gets better, Jaiket... just need a couple of days to try & put any of it into my own words. thanks for asking.

i have another question for you as well, but cant remember it right off hand.

 

[didymus]

Jaiket, I find it interesting that you are on a comparitive religion site contemplating whether there is or isn't a God. It seems that your curiosity has gotten the better of you. I think once you strip away the layers of logic and rationale you have built up through life you will find God.
I have found God to within me. He is in my conscious and has been there my whole life. Be as honest as possible with your self about these matters and you will be enlightened. How can we explain the spirit within us? How about the life force? The same force that makes a flower grow or a bird fly is pulsing in our veins. We are life. But yet we are more, because we posess some strange form of higher spiritual intellegence that can't be completely understood. We have emotions.
Maybe our physical form can be explained by atoms and molecules but I don't think that our spirit can. It seems to be seperate. j We're just inhabiting this body for a while. Until we move on to the next place, wherever that may be.

 

[soulatom]

All major religions say that God is omnicient, His Prescene is everywhere. Via Science we have discovered the whole universe is atomic. Therefore God must be in the center of every atom.

 

[soulatom]

Multiverses are a hypothetical set of universes that theoretical physicists believe exist in the 11th dimension. Think of it as a set of galaxies but instead of galaxies these are universes.

As for my religious beliefs, I will explain more in a bit but here is a hint: It is almost exactly like Jaiket's belief but at the same time it is far different. My views tend to be mostly pantheist but there is more to pantheism that meets the eyes.

Hi again. While I am anxiously waiting for you to elaborate on your hint, here’s one about mine there is only one God. All other gods are simply expressions of Him. According to Stephen Hawkins He reincarnated in this “uni”verse via a singularity. QED

 

[Neoplatonist]

I don’t “know” anything, but I “know” something! I like it that way because saturating myself within the mystery is more fun than I should be allowed. I’m not the type to read the book’s ending before its time and I never want to close my options by “knowing” more than I should. I choose what to believe because it is comforting and fascinating and fun and hopeful……while still holding on to the thrill of being most likely wrong!

 

[Bandit]

All major religions say that God is omnicient, His Prescene is everywhere. Via Science we have discovered the whole universe is atomic. Therefore God must be in the center of every atom.

that is what i have been thinking for a long time as well. i have had this obscure view lately of a chess board...
God is all the white squares & the people are the brown squares. the white squares are holding everything together.

just a little chess board image there.

now spirit(s) are different because that is of a different substance that cannot be calculated the same way as the material things. however mind (thoughts) can be observed in different ways.

so God is literally in -IN- everything that is material, yet somehow He is able to attach & disconnect (get close or distant) Himself to our spirit & a lot of that depends on us.

so, i am getting some semi-inverted perceptions for some reason & it feels pretty good.

 

[Bandit]

What is yours like?

hi Jaiket . the above post is one thought that i have been having lately. i dont know why.
one other image i have is like God is this big huge, floaty thing that stretches from the sun & goes past pluto then goes way out past the big dipper & past the stars farther than i can see. at the same time if i went to the moon, then this God would already be there when i get there & before i get there...the same if i took a sub to the bottom of the oceon.

i remember what my other question was for you now.

what if God, or this God, or whatever Caspar the Ghost, you think you might have (for lack of better wording) is like a stubborn girlfriend/boyfriend & waiting for you to make all the first moves?
then when you make the first move the stubborn girlfriend starts warming up to you & begins revealing her love & warmth?

you know how sometimes you can feel that someone is either mad or real happy & pleased with you but they never say anything.

that is probably not a real good analogy, but it is something i think about sometimes.
what do you think?

 

[17th Angel]

I would suggest, nothing.

I would suggest you are just not looking or bothering to...

All we need to ever know about God is right in front of our faces, it's called the Bible? God's word? You know.....

He want's us to draw close to Him, and He to us. How can you have a loving relationship with someone you know nothing about? Kind of like a saying I saw once, No jesus no peace, Know Jesus Know peace... Kind of like that but swap Jesus' name for Jehova's.

I could spit out many verses in the Bible that show what Jehovah God, is like, but... I am in one of my, 'ugh' moods... read the Bible! SEEK OUT THY QUESTIONS!!! AND ANSWERS WILL COME....TH! COMETH!!!! lol...

 

[bruceg]

I would suggest you are just not looking or bothering to...

All we need to ever know about God is right in front of our faces, it's called the Bible? God's word? You know.....
<snip>

Hmm... rely on something to prove itself? Why do we *know* that it's God's word? Because it says so. Well, so does the Torah (not the rest of the Tanach - those are history and some darned good poetry), the Mishnah (at least by tradition), and the Koran. And they're not consistent between themselves. (I'm not even going into internal inconsistencies...there's enough threads on that elsewhere, with arguments about meanings of ancient aramaic and greek terms...)

Saying it's the word of God doesn't make it so...

To slightly paraphrase from one of my favorite books where a street preacher tries to preach at an angel inadvertently summoned to Earth (and stuck here):

Preacher: "You can get a meal and hear the Word of God"
Samuel (the angel): "Which word?"
Preacher: "What?"
Samuel: "Well, God's said a lot of words, you know, and a word like it or the wouldn't be worth hearing again, but it's always fun listening to Him try to say aluminum".

.... Bruce
(For those that are interested, it's The Second Summoning by Tanya Huff)