I assumed we were addressing the topic of God, Jehovah, Yahweh. If we are addressing the topic of the big, unnameable wazoo who takes no personal concern regarding our lives, something more akin to "The Force" - yes I do believe. I have had too many clairvoyant experiences not to believe. It is the God of the Bible I term a petulant demiurge by his own deeds. Agree ? Moi
Hi. This is God. My friend Bobov has loaned me the use of this post. I just wanted to say to Moi621, if I'm such a "petulant demiurge," why aren't you worried I'm gonna slap you around? You got some gaddam nerve, talkina me that way. In the old days, I'd smite you or at least turn you into a pillar of salt. Sheesh! The Deity don't get no respect. Just call me the Rodney Dangerfield God.
God is Jesus Christ. He is God in human form to show us who He is. He is in His servants also. But, we love our social ego and hate Him. That is why we love to kill Him in His servants. This has been the problem since Adam chose to serve his own ego rather than the Logic of all life, joy, and love.
some believe he is a jealous vengeful old man... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation 19:11-16&version=KJV 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. in reality - god is the life force in all of us, the interconnectedness, so really everything is part of god and everything that happens happens because of god, we create reality, we create the illusion of being separate from god
I agree that in ages past, humans seemed to portray their 'gods' as fickle, as well as all powerful. Zeus, Allah, & Yaweh had an unpredictable nature to them. They might smite you, if you displeased them, or they might pardon you. That is not so popular in modern pop theology, where god is depicted as wringing his hands, pacing around wishing everyone knew how loving & caring he is. Which view is more supported by reality? If we view life as a cosmic experiment of god, & he is in control, orchestrating events in life, then the former seems more likely. But if we view life as random events formed by natural causes, we can conclude god is either helpless or unwilling to intervene in our affairs, as life happens randomly, without any supernatural intervention. So it depends more on belief about god, or his nature, rather than events. We view life's events through that filter. Some people see the hand of god in every part of their life. Everything is a 'message from god' or a 'sign'. Others have a more material view. Everything is random, with no one in control. I think it was the philosopher forrest gump who theorized that it is 'a little of both'..
God is an imaginary supreme being made up solely from the mind of man for whatever purpose he desires. God didn't create man ,man created god. You don't have to believe in an imaginary supreme being to be a good descent moral person .
Ok, Don.. thanks for the assertive rant about your beliefs. But that has nothing to do with the OP, & you even quoted it!
What is God like? Well it is God's Love that created us, and it is God's Love that binds us, and it is God's Love that enters our hearts and comforts us. Without God's love this world would fall apart...as it's beginning to do in the Middle East.
Angels have up to 6 wings but they have to ride horses. That seems to defeat the purpose of having wings.
That's what "you" believe and nothing what "you" know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhfkmTEy6cU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VosFiY1SifA
Well, Jeannette, like i said to Don, earlier, this is a good assertive rant about your beliefs, but it does not address the OP. Beginning? In the mideast? That's been going on for centuries, & perhaps millennia!
That is correct FreshAir. Eve was deceived, Adam was not. And, if Adam was not deceived, then he is the real guilty party. Some folks figure that Adam was some sort of hero, sinning on purpose so that they could have kids and have some variety in life. Most Christians today are telling the world that the serpent was telling the truth, and that God is the liar according to the Garden of Eden story. How do they do this? When they say that evil people have eternal life in some sort of hell, they are agreeing with the serpent who said, "Ye surely shall not die." So, if we agree with the serpent, we are saying God is a liar, for He says, "The wages of sin are death."
If I wanted to get a quick and meaningful glimpse into a persons intellect, then I would get good results from the OPs question. None of it would get anyone any closer to resolving this ultimate question. Think about it. (But dont hurt yourself.)
maybe Bible God was just upset cause they were wearing cloths for the first time ever when he next saw them?
The point of the Adam & Eve story is to show that even if life consisted of just two rules not to do something, that you will be incapable of obeying them. Adam and Eve didn't have to do anything. They didn't have to work, pray, worship, engage in rituals, wear clothes, have faith, go on pilgrimages, do sacrifices, tithe or anything that assorted religions demand that believers have to do. All they had to do was to sit and their butts and not eat from two trees. But they had to do what they wanted to do. So if people in a perfect state can't observe 2 simple rules how can anyone follow hundreds of convoluted rules like Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Paul spouted?
I agree that philosophical questions can reveal something about those who tackle them. But it is a big assumption on your part to conclude all such 'searching' is pointless. Maybe it is. But maybe what jeremiah said a few thousand years ago is true: jer 29:12‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.' Maybe not.. but that is the point.. we cannot make dogmatic statements about spiritual reality.. or rather, we can make them, but no one else has to buy what you're selling. ..or confucius, or muhammad, or forrest gump, or the wyrd of gawd.. EVERYONE seems to have an opinion on what 'truth' is. ..or morality. But i like your point, & it does illustrate human nature. We are by nature rebellious, & do not like rules. A rule is made to be broken, it seems to us. So you think the story of adam & ever is only to illustrate that, not a literal event? I'm sure that is a common belief, even among bible scholars.
No. No. The OPs question will give a quick and meaningful glimpse into the intellect of any person who answers. Period. Not what you wrote. I dont claim anything more or less than what I wrote. Conclude?; Pointless? What is the reason for single quotation marks for searching. The double quotation marks are used for words that need definition or clarification. This is the intent of your usage, I presume. The single quotation character does not convey the same meaning. I did not conclude anything about searching for anything. I hate to be the one to break it to you: there is no proof of any God of any kind; none has been found. I did not make any assertions about searching.
If a guy wants to know what God is like, he has to 1st decide which god. The one he sees in the mirror? If one wants to know what the Logic of all life, love and joy looks like in human terms, all you gotta do is look at Jesus Christ, Yahshua Messia. But, before you can fully see Him you gotta sacrifice your own reasoning mind and reprogram it with His Word and His Intent.
They were "innocent' until they died as spirits, became mortal and knew "good and evil," i.e. incurred the stain of materiality, felt the power of oppositely charged polarities (sexual attraction) and commenced to procreate. If God was really concerned about such a possible outcome, which He surely should have been capable of foreseeing, He should have issued birth control measures. He left that for us to figure out. That accomplished, now we're looking back and trying to rely on the face value of a fairy tale to figure out what God is like.
If people really believe that all of the biblical stories and dialogue is true they are insane. If you are a businessman and someone gave you a sales pitch similar to the Bible stories would you buy what he's selling? As I wrote before, the purpose of the stories is to examine how people are "saved" and therefore gain eternal life. The stories illustrate the various methods = entitlements, works, faith, rules. The story starts with two people who didn't have to do anything. All they had to do was to sit on their butts and not do two things. That didn't work out. Noah came along and did a major work that not only saved himself but his family and animals and resulted in the rebirth of the world. Abraham came along and got converted, which resulted in him passing along the entitlement process. Moses went all out for the rules methods, writing rules about everything. His idea was that if people followed those rules God would save them. His rules didn't save him because he never set foot in the Promised Land. Job placed his money on the faith theory. After losing everything he ended up with twice as much because he never lost faith. Jesus couldn't make up his mind and went for entitlement, works, faith, and rules. At the end Jesus' faith got shaky and nothing saved him. Even though he was the son of God, did a lot of works that he had boasted about, had faith, and followed the rules he couldn't save himself from his enemies. The sequel has him returning to life looking very shop-worn and eventually fading away. IMO, if you read the Bible with a critical eye and analyze the stories about how the main character is being portrayed you will see that. Remember, the whole point of the story is to tell you what you have to do to become a good zombie so that you can get into the gaudy bejeweled golden cube and live forever. It's not to tell you how to talk to snakes and donkeys or how to tread water for a year.
Adam & Eve weren't the only people living in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was the name given to the Assyrian/Babylonian empire and covered most of the Middle East. The king of Tyre lived there and Tyre is in southern Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast. It's all in the Bible. The king got whacked for ticking off the emperor so maybe the king was Adam.
I was thinking about this thread, recently.. and given the new philosophers that have entered the forum, i wondered what some of them thought, about this question? I know, i know, this is a zombie thread, but i think the question is timeless. What do you think? IF you presume the existence of a deity, What do you conclude about this deity, based on the visible universe? be nice.. this is just philosophizing for fun..
The closest thing to god you'll ever see is the man standing up at the pulpit trying to convince you to give at least 10% of your income to him.
I have no idea, and have seen no evidence that anyone else has an idea that is remotely convincing I have no anger towards god, or the idea of god. I just see no evidence It was a struggle to arrive at this view since I was raised in a very religious family No individual, or book, or group convinced me.... just what I think Yes Which leads me to doubt that god cares all that much about what we think or believe about him Right... imo no different than if there were no god Seems to me that we humans obsess about life and death in a unique way. What ever that might indicate Beauty seems a subjective construct Our understanding of the universe appears to be vastly incomplete... and yet that knowledge seems remarkable and exponentially expanding The universe has various laws, regardless whether we are aware of those laws I suppose that one could attribute those laws to god.... or not Imo. There is no need for god to exist... other than the peculiarities of the human mind which seems to constantly search for "meaning". As you may have pointed out previously in your post...god himself does not seem to care much what we think, or know about him. And that would also be my attitude if I were god. So for that reason, I consider these sorts of discussions to be entertaining,but not particularly signicant
