When you say the word "God", what do you mean by it?

The word means something, but there has never been universal agreement on what that is. I'm interested in the ideas of God held by the participants in this forum.

I, for example, have been pondering this idea that "God" means the ultimate realization of human potential for good. In other words, it is an ideal that exists in the mind, not an independent being that has a separate existence anywhere in the universe.

What meaning do you give to the idea of "God"?

nt

;-)

Big Omnipotent Being

even the categories of being and non-being..."

per Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKR90Y_hjpc

I sometimes tend to agree with Moderchai Kaplan's theology which says that "God is the sum of all natural processes that allow humans to become self-fulfilled".

If obviously an imprecise word that has lost all meaning. You can't have a coherent discussion about a word, if the word literally changes every time somebody uses it.

:shrug:

and individuals. Imprecise, yes, since people have differing abilities and frameworks to conceive of god. But a variance in conception does not imply a loss of meaning.

It is the one substance of which there are infinite attributes. Not dissimilar to Hindu thought.
Einstein stated,"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists,
not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."

If god is everything, it is nothing. When god becomes synonymous with the universe, just drop the word god and call it universe.

It becomes a game of synonyms where god is only kept in play because the user likes the spiritual/emotional/traditional component of the concept - not seeing that it has become irrelevant by their definition.

lol.

This was part of a former post I made on the "fluid nature" of god (with some editing), in an argument with a christian. Note that you can replace Christian with any other religion.

"Talking about god with a christian is like having a sword-fight. The christian starts of from a starting position of believing in Jesus, and God being a loving being who helps us out. Then the atheist comes out with a few half-hearted swings. All of a sudden, the christian drops back to a deist fighting position, into a "Quantum Physics and Unknowable God" stance. The atheist stops gaining ground...after all, he does't know 100% that god doesn't exist, but keeps chipping off more armour, bit by bit, as the theist keeps sliding around avoiding straight questions, and answering in absurdly vague forms.

The atheist then says, out of breath and feeling pity for his opponent,..."fine, I will let you go. "....and the Christian goes RUNNING top speed to his original position and claims victory."

I'm familiar with that dance. Somewhere in the DU archives there is a thread in which I went about 8 rounds or so with Trotsky doing that very shuffle. I wish I could find it, so I could point to it for the benefit of anyone who comes in here acting like they are being treated unfairly when they get criticized. I would tell them: "I used to identify the way you do, and so criticism of religion became attacks on my identity. I solved the problem by detaching religion from my identity. I suggest you do the same. It's very relaxing."

I wish you lived in Los Angeles, so I could buy you a drink and talk. Your evolution has been a joy to follow.

mostly with folks who aren't into the "God" concept too much.

To me, God is the source of life energy, a spirit, and incomprehensible to our finite minds.

If god is incomprehensible to our finite minds, why even bother thinking about it?

On edit: If god is the universe, and is not personal, then there is no reason to pray. Do you pray?

through yoga, meditation, taiji, etc. The idea of a mathematically calculable cosmic order was first noted in ancient civilizations, through the cycles of the day and the rise and fall of the sun, the monthly lunar cycle, the coming and going of the seasons in the year, and the procession of the equinox, or great year (eon). The source of this order and energy is not necessarily to be understood, but rather to be aligned with so we, too, are in harmony with the universal order. Knowledge in this view is more a sense of being than comprehending.

Here let me try:

Being part of the universal order involves aligning yourself with the vibrations of the cosmic clock, and using the minds innate comprehension of quantum states to achieve the universal cosmic vibration frequency. The Great Elders knew that the natural being of decay can only be delayed by joining the river of cosmic energy, and surrendering mind and spirit to its tides. The collective energy of the minds eye of the human consciousness directs us, but we can only use the one true sight if we elevate ourselves through meditation and understanding of the Ocular Vein paradigm, that can come when humankind achieves an Aquarian polyeiessence.

On edit: is the word polyeiessence real, or did I just make up a new word?! SWEEET!

sounds like poetry. Interesting. Could that be what "God" means? A more poetic existence?

Maybe god hates poetry.

I could maybe see where you're coming from. Maybe you're too hung up on other people's definitions to find an idea of god to embrace, rather than thinking in terms of accepting and rejecting.

I don't find any idea of god to embrace, including the universal superversal interversal god of energy and mana, sensible nor rational, lol. I'm not hung up on other peoples definition...why do I care what each of you makes up out of thin air? I just think words should have meaning...and clearly, god is becoming even less useful as a word after the New Agers got their incense-smelling hands on it.

Nothing.

I tried Zebedeo's description of god. Still nothing.

Even the word "god" appears to lack evidence of existence outside of ideas which stand on their own. Or else you would have to resort to the pop culture ideas of "god". The old bearded man in the sky, and so on.

You might have a point.

Then I have not seen it.

If it's God, then (for me) I'm speaking of the Christian trinitarian god.

If I'm saying "god", then it could be any of a huge variety of gods/goddesses or even used in a social or theological sense, as in "We've made a god out of money" or "David Gilmour is the god of guitar!"

But saying that I don't expect all to understand. I am sure it sounds like gibberish to some.
But I like the mathematical model (i used it in another thread , or tried to) The numbers represent the material world because everything in the material world is numbered. God is both 0 and infinity the two things in the universe (and in math system ) that is do not exist in the physical world but hold it together and define it, just as it defines Math and it's numbers.

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

God is the Creator of the Universe, the merciful Redeemer of mankind, the teacher that gave the Sermon on the Mount, the Spirit that came to me and brought me to faith in Jesus, the Living Water, the Alpha and the Omega, the Great "I AM" who has always been and will always be.

And you. Only what I can see and touch and feel. Nothing more, but nothing less. It doesn't NEED to be anything more.

Humans always try to fit the unexplained into some meaningful context. God fits that bill nicely for a lot of people.

My working definition (for times when I use God in phrases that don't involve profanity), is that God is the rules, the physical rules that explain why things happen the way they do, and at the same time something way deep in the back of our brains. But this could be wrong.