The concept of God in Western thought

[angellous_evangellous]

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"Do it again!"

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[autonomous1one1]

I found some useful webpages that I would like to pass along...

Western Concepts of God [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] - ..

Teleological Arguments for God's Existence (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - t..

Greetings Angellous. Great references thank you. Refreshing memory on the highlights of the many concepts of God throughout history is very absorbing. Of course, many people teach one to read the original writings to understand a person fully, and this is very necessary with regard to these concepts about God. But the summaries are very useful as refreshers and introductions to different concepts.

For me, the most important consideration from many of these beings is not their thoughts and descriptions of concepts of God, but rather their experience of 'God.' It has been written, and I believe this to be true, that for many the a priori which directs the induction and the deduction is a type of mystical experience. As Tillich writes in his Systematic Theology, "Whether it is 'being-itself' (Scholastics) or the 'universal substance' (Spinoza), whether it is 'beyond subjectivity and objectivity' (James) or the 'identity of spirit and nature' (Schelling), whether it is 'universe' (Schleiermacher) or 'cosmic whole' (Hocking), whether it is 'value creating process' (Whitehead) or 'progressive integration' (Wieman), whether it is 'absolute spirit' (Hegel) or 'cosmic person' (Brightman) -- each of these concepts is based on an immediate experience of something ultimate in value and being of which one can become intuitively aware. .....the concepts are rooted in a 'mystical a priori,' an awareness of something that transcends the cleavage between subject and object." This a priori experience which I put into the category of awakening is the core from which the thoughts and systems flow; and this awakening is possible for us today.

Let me just choose Plotinus, one of the earliest written about, for example. The reference above indicates that the God of Plotinus is the source of the universe. To understand this statement, as well as those of the others, one must go to writings of Plotinus. This is particularly true if one wishes to understand the knowing and the experience of God. One can read of the experience in his Sixth Ennead IX on the last page. He writes, "....The man is changed, no longer himself nor self-belonging; he is merged with the Supreme, sunken into it, one with it: centre coincides with centre, for on this higher plane things that touch at all are one; only in separation is there duality; ....This is why the vision baffles telling; we cannot detach the Supreme to state it; if we have seen something thus detached we have failed of the Supreme which is to be known only as one with ourselves.....it was not a vision compassed but a unity apprehended."

 

[Lazarus]

Some think within themselves that this "god" can be defined- if he could then what manner of "God" would he be-
And as for those who doubt- whendid any inanimate object manifest a conscious thing- no Consciousnesss can only be manifested by consciousness- therefore every conscious thing was made by a conscious thing- this is the basis of christain faith

 

[ghostseraph]

Some think within themselves that this "god" can be defined- if he could then what manner of "God" would he be-
And as for those who doubt- whendid any inanimate object manifest a conscious thing- no Consciousnesss can only be manifested by consciousness- therefore every conscious thing was made by a conscious thing- this is the basis of christain faith

This is the trueexpression of christianity

 

[imaginaryme]

Sorry, angellous... I failed miserably.

Mind reads, design... intelligent design... kill! That Dumbski. I'm too much into the math and the science to "forget" what I have learned... causality is a straight nest of snakes, just the concept of infinity drives men insane, and these IDiots... "information" is going to smash their house...

But what is design? And what does it mean to be undesigned? Never mind the whopper - does time even exist? The picture on my desktop was taken when I lived in the bushes. There's a digital clock in the picture, has a few bells and whistles. For instance, it reads, Saturday, July 17th, 2004. 4:38 in the afternoon, 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. As this image is posted online, and as the modern technologies predict their own potential - this little moment in time may stand preserved for the duration of humanity's existence - and beyond - as digital information. Is it just patterns of contrasting pixels? is it just ones and zeroes? Or is it something of me, eternal; and unchanging?

Time - duration - causation; is it all just illusion? This is where we stand as philosophers in the modern age. We cannot truly understand ourselves. One octillionth of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible... the heck is an octillion? Sorry. Some feedback from astronomy clouds the mind... is it me, or is it god? God is truly beyond understanding... as a mathematician, I must further contend; truly irrelevant. But the last thing I do - four words that need mean nothing to another - I trust in god.