As the title says.
Include qualities, accomplishments, responsibilities, attributes, etc. if any of these apply.
Include qualities, accomplishments, responsibilities, attributes, etc. if any of these apply.
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Define God
- Thread starter SalixIncendium
- Start date
stvdv
Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
God is beyond anything, we only attribute stuff to God to make ourselves happy or for other mundane reasons. But it's a good start to attribute things to God, because it means your intellect is trying to figure things out, that is the way to get to understand God better. But the final step will always be to drop whatever we learned about God, many Saints and Sages have declared.
So, I'll give it a go
For me God means Consciousness, the substratum of everything. The white screen on which the movie called "life" is projected. Everything is consciousness, only consciousness is real (as in never changing). All the forms are not real, constantly changing. So, we are not the body, and not at all our mind (changes very fast, usually). Nor are we our emotions. We are the observer, the Witness of our body, hence we say "my body", meaning I am not the body
Consciousness can create anything. Although our mind is not who we are, still by a focused mind we can create a lot of this so called Maya (illusion, ever changing non-reality). The more we create the easier we lose track of who we really are.
that which is considered divine, a supreme being, known by an action, can take forms but overall is formless.
Whatever created the universe from nothing, if such creation was necessary for the universe to exist.
If this creation of the universe was not necessary, then neither was God.
Heyo
Veteran Member
Again?
We must have dozens of threads with the same theme, all with the same result: there is no definition even a significant majority of theists can agree to.
My view is every definition will be different from all others because god is of the mind and all minds are unique.
MonkeyFire
Well-Known Member
A universal metabolism, and consciousness.
First and foremost, Creator of all that is seen and unseen.
Love manifest
Judge of all
Healer
Pastor
Provider
Father
Peace
Victor
among other.
Responsibility, to bring to pass all that He said He would bring to pass, but ultimately to bring all things into Himself - finding fulfillment and purpose in Him through redemption.
Actually, I don't think I am giving the topic justice.
This can not be done, God cannot be defined.
God is known by the Attributes to which Love is the apex and all other virtues eminate from.
The only thing we know about God is via God's Messengers and as such, their Person, their Lives and their Messages, are the 'Self of God' amongst us (emination of the Holy Spirit), they are all we can know of God and thus they define the Attributes, but the Attributes do not define God.
Regards Tony
Jacob Samuelson
Active Member
Disagreement is not wrong. Perhaps the idea is to supply as many ideas to the picture of God in order to create a better picture. A High def TV screen has hundreds of thousands of pixels with varying colors to create a picture. No one can determine a whole picture from a red dotted pixel.
Heyo
Veteran Member
Depends on if your definitions are disparate (describing different aspects (like the blind men with the elephant)) or if they are contradictory (describing the same aspect of the same god at the same time in contradictory terms).
I bet there are theists who will disagree.
This can be said about anything. Every person understands reality through their own personal lens, even if they use a common language system, be that theology or science. Everyone's mind is unique.
Jacob Samuelson
Active Member
God embodies every creation that has existed, is existing, and will exist. He is the universal structure of the beginning to the end. We as existent beings are God as we take space in this structure. God is the essence of perfection as humans and creations will eventually attain perfection. Since time has no end theoretically, the loop of what will happen can be applied to the present moment. Therefore since it appears humans are not perfect now, yet they can eventually be perfect in the near to distant future, God can still be perfect today and still include the creation of human. Gods purpose is to 'bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of mankind.' Humans endowed with reason and thought that separate us from most other creations, are the chosen species to take godhood. It is important to note that there are key administrators to God. (if you think of God as a corporation). Elohim (Father God) is the Founder and Chief Advisor, Jesus Christ or Jehova is the CEO, And the Holy Ghost, is the HR and Head of Accounting. Each are a crucial part to God's mission statement. Because everyone has still different personalities, God shares a culture of infinitely diverse attributes. No one is the same, therefore God has many different traits.
Jacob Samuelson
Active Member
I was thinking of the blind men with the elephant when I wrote that comment. We are all just looking at the same thing but have different assumptions of what it is. Each opinion is important to understand and it takes a good listener to create a reality from many sources. Without disagreement we might never get to a concise conclusion.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
God could be the fundamental reality and source existence of life, but not necessarily the creator of the universe. God would be the programmer who must work with the universe and cannot be separate from it. Perhaps there is more then one such reality. God would have to be purely natural, nothing magical. Anything supernatural cannot violate the laws of nature. So if there is supernatural phenomenon, it operates in accordance with the natural.
All I can really say is there must be an intelligent source of life that has natural limitations. The rest is speculation.
All I can really say is there must be an intelligent source of life that has natural limitations. The rest is speculation.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
God is the creator of the universe, the source that underlies all that is. since he created space/time, it follows that he is not bound by space/time.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
If I used the term I'd say "god" is life itself. I found some common themes whether it be practice, experience, or dogma.
It provides the definition and connection to reality or life. Whether it be a source/creator or not the mind (and heart) is the interpreter if "god" but all people I came across didn't have a definition.
If they do it's to me a lot of spiritual poetic jargon but all in all each person defines life and reality different and some find their purpose in understanding reality/life or God and others approach life differently.
I think to have the whole definition, one should read the whole Bible, but these are a good start:
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:24
He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:8
We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
1 John 4:16
A different answer for me this time:
I've never found a better definition than Meher Baba's Master's Prayer:
It embodies dualism and non-dualism and every sort of paradox. It defines God as both immanent and transcendent, manifest and unmanifest and with infinite attributes.
And it includes names that embody the "blind men's" view of the "elephant"
You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High;
You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;
You are the Beyond-God and the Beyond-Beyond-God also;
You are Parabrahma, Allah, Elahi, Yezdan, Ahuramazda, and God the Beloved.
I've never found a better definition than Meher Baba's Master's Prayer:
It embodies dualism and non-dualism and every sort of paradox. It defines God as both immanent and transcendent, manifest and unmanifest and with infinite attributes.
And it includes names that embody the "blind men's" view of the "elephant"
You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High;
You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;
You are the Beyond-God and the Beyond-Beyond-God also;
You are Parabrahma, Allah, Elahi, Yezdan, Ahuramazda, and God the Beloved.