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Do you Think God has a Self or is God Selfless?
- Thread starter wizanda
- Start date
Both
Too funny.
Which god?
I believe there is only One universal consciousness behind all these many forms. One Self.
If god could send me a selfie, I think I could probably answer this...
As I have not yet seen a selfie from God, I'm thinking God either doesn't have a self and so can't, or does and is keeping his selfies to himself.
If God is the absolute sort of deity that normally gets talked about in western cultures and here on RF, even if it is a self, I don't think I'd be able to perceive or comprehend it in its selfness.
It might be a really selfless act if God were to send us all selfies of himself, so we'd know he/she/it/them really exists, and what she/he/it/them looks like...but then, we're probably pretty selfish in thinking that God cares about us, anyway....
Edit: I voted Not Sure, because I'm agnostic about a universal-type deity. All the spirits (deities if you want to call them that, but I don't) I've experienced are persons, selfs.
As I have not yet seen a selfie from God, I'm thinking God either doesn't have a self and so can't, or does and is keeping his selfies to himself.
If God is the absolute sort of deity that normally gets talked about in western cultures and here on RF, even if it is a self, I don't think I'd be able to perceive or comprehend it in its selfness.
It might be a really selfless act if God were to send us all selfies of himself, so we'd know he/she/it/them really exists, and what she/he/it/them looks like...but then, we're probably pretty selfish in thinking that God cares about us, anyway....
Edit: I voted Not Sure, because I'm agnostic about a universal-type deity. All the spirits (deities if you want to call them that, but I don't) I've experienced are persons, selfs.
Skwim
Veteran Member
vaguelyhumanoid
Active Member
As independent beings, the gods have selves... maybe? man, I'm a human, I don't know these things.
In contrast to selfless.
arthra
Baha'i
Well consider for us humans the development of "self" over our lives from childhood to adulthood and beyond... We're pretty much developed over time from experiences...
God is.. was.. will be beyond our comprehension. In the Baha'i Writings the essence of God is unknowable. There is no way to categorize or conceive the essence of God.
"All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite. Surely the infinite is greater than the finite, for imagination is accidental while the mind is essential; surely the essential is greater than the accidental.
"Therefore consider: All the sects and peoples worship their own thought; they create a god in their own minds and acknowledge him to be the creator of all things, when that form is a superstition -- thus people adore and worship imagination.
"That Essence of the Divine Entity and the Unseen of the unseen is holy above imagination and is beyond thought. Consciousness doth not reach It. Within the capacity of comprehension of a produced reality that Ancient Reality cannot be contained. It is a different world; from it there is no information; arrival thereat is impossible; attainment thereto is prohibited and inaccessible. This much is known: It exists and Its existence is certain and proven -- but the condition is unknown."
~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith , p. 381
God is.. was.. will be beyond our comprehension. In the Baha'i Writings the essence of God is unknowable. There is no way to categorize or conceive the essence of God.
"All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite. Surely the infinite is greater than the finite, for imagination is accidental while the mind is essential; surely the essential is greater than the accidental.
"Therefore consider: All the sects and peoples worship their own thought; they create a god in their own minds and acknowledge him to be the creator of all things, when that form is a superstition -- thus people adore and worship imagination.
"That Essence of the Divine Entity and the Unseen of the unseen is holy above imagination and is beyond thought. Consciousness doth not reach It. Within the capacity of comprehension of a produced reality that Ancient Reality cannot be contained. It is a different world; from it there is no information; arrival thereat is impossible; attainment thereto is prohibited and inaccessible. This much is known: It exists and Its existence is certain and proven -- but the condition is unknown."
~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith , p. 381
I can't vote, but my answer would be something like 'God knows...', said in a slightly exasperated tone.
I tried to answer the poll but I don't feel satisfied with the question or answers.
I wouldn't want to use the term "god" as I hate to usually use it... I might more say "Shiva" to which the answer is neither, technically, since both are dualities.
So in a way it's kind of both in a sense, in that it contains an infinite amount of selfs but itself is selfless as a whole. It isn't a single self, but it also isn't truly selfless because those selfs are real and all equally Shiva at the same time.
I didn't select both as like I said, it isn't one self and the better answer is more like "neither" I think fits better.
I wouldn't want to use the term "god" as I hate to usually use it... I might more say "Shiva" to which the answer is neither, technically, since both are dualities.
So in a way it's kind of both in a sense, in that it contains an infinite amount of selfs but itself is selfless as a whole. It isn't a single self, but it also isn't truly selfless because those selfs are real and all equally Shiva at the same time.
I didn't select both as like I said, it isn't one self and the better answer is more like "neither" I think fits better.
Skwim
Veteran Member
Yeah, why should we expect that you know what you're talking about? Thanks for confirming that we shouldn't.In contrast to selfless.
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Yeah, why should we expect that you know what you're talking about? Thanks for confirming that we shouldn't.
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I don't know why you are acting like you don't know what a self is, I've seen you do it in two posts now responding to them.
Perhaps "personhood" is another term that might translate better to you. It isn't a complicated concept.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/self
Skwim
Veteran Member
Oh, I have a very good idea of what self is, as I suspect most people do, so when someone post a question as wizanda has, "Do you Think God has a Self or is God Selfless," which seems pretty naive, I have to wonder just what he thinks the word "self" means. Hence my question to clarify: "How are you defining "self"? And as we've found out by his response, he actually doesn't know. Odd to be sure, but there you go.
.
Oh, I have a very good idea of what self is, as I suspect most people do, so when someone post a question as wizanda has, "Do you Think God has a Self or is God Selfless," which seems pretty naive, I have to wonder just what he thinks the word "self" means. Hence my question to clarify: "How are you defining "self"? And as we've found out by his response, he actually doesn't know. Odd to be sure, but there you go.
.
You do realize that many religions do not subscribe a self to their concept of God, right? How is that question naive, since not all religions agree on it?