|
 KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
 Survey on God? 
#4771071 - 10/07/05 11:47 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
What is God? I'm just curious, on a personal level. I'd like to hear a short concise an answer of less than three sentances.
Answer in a Zen koan
Answer with theology or...
Answer from a scientific viewpoint
I'm just curious...
Thanks guys 
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
 Silversoul
Holon
 
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 22,562
Loc: Mostly harmless
|
|
An excuse used by people too weak to take responsibility for their own life or too uncomfortable with uncertainty.
--------------------
|
Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 2,133
Last seen: 15 hours, 46 minutes
|
|
God is consciousness. God in its highest form is a state of pure awareness. God is the Self and all that exists. God is I AM.
Quote:
Paradigm said:
An excuse used by people too weak to take responsibility for their own life or too uncomfortable with uncertainty.
what does God have to do with responsibility and uncertainly? it's much easier to be irresponsible if you don't believe in God and since God is the greatest mystery of them all i don't see what it has to do with uncertainty. we're not talking about religion here. if you've never experienced God realization i guess it's not fair to expect you to believe but understand that if i could show you a certain state of consciousness i could show you God there are people who live in this awareness.
also: from a certain point of view God does not exist because since there is nothing in existance that is other than God, the concept of God is meaningless. it is merely a human concept.
|
hot48yearolds
Dharmakaya
Registered: 09/21/04
Posts: 705
Loc: lazy river road
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Deviate]
#4771308 - 10/08/05 12:59 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I basically believe the same way that Deviate believes. God is all. God is IT, not He. IT is the energy that flows through everything.
--------------------
"Truth is more in the process than in the result."
- J. Krishnamurti
"We ourselves are not an illusory part of Reality; rather are we Reality itself illusorily conceived." Wei Wu Wei
|
Silversoul
Holon
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 22,562
Loc: Mostly harmless
|
|
Quote:
hot48yearolds said:
I basically believe the same way that Deviate believes. God is all. God is IT, not He. IT is the energy that flows through everything.
No religion that I know of conceptualizes God in such a way. If that is how you define God then you are redefining it to mean something very different from its traditional meaning(and yes, this is true for eastern religions as well as western ones). This concept you refer to(which is also similar to my own beliefs) is closer to the idea of chi or the Tao than to any deity.
--------------------
|
Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 2,133
Last seen: 15 hours, 46 minutes
|
|
explain. i read the gospels after my experience of God conscioussness and was able to understand almost everything jesus said (while before my experiences religion made no sense to me and i was a complete athiest). post any quotes by jesus (although i'm most famaliar with the gospel of thomas) and i will try and interpret them for you within my framework of understanding. also explain how it doesn't fit with eastern religions. in buddhism nirvana is described as pure awareness, similarly in hinduism all is understood to be brahman.
|
crunchytoast
oppositional
Registered: 04/07/05
Posts: 1,133
Loc: aporia
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
|
|
the gospels say "god is love." only a catholic can argue that the catholic church has a monopoly on the interpretation of that.
and pantheism has an old history and is hardly a new definition, spinoza being the first example that occurs to me.
god is all around us, god is everything..
--------------------
"consensus on the nature of equilibrium is usually established by periodic conflict." -henry kissinger
|
Silversoul
Holon
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 22,562
Loc: Mostly harmless
|
|
Though I once considered myself a pantheist, it now strikes me as a rather empty concept. If God is the universe, then just call it the universe. Sure you can say that everything is holy, but that doesn't mean everything is a supreme being. All religious conceptualizations of God, including ideas like Brahman in Hinduism, have taught God to be sentient, having its own will or it's own consciousness. While some religions teach a sort of oneness with God, they all talk of God as a Being, not simply a force or energy.
--------------------
|
Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 2,133
Last seen: 15 hours, 46 minutes
|
|
God does have his own will, this is why jesus said "i of my own self can do nothing" and "i speaketh these things as my father taught me" meaning his ego or lower self could do nothing and he simply spoke the words God gave him or his higher self gave him. remember God is synonymous with the Self. the lack of awareness of this or the sense of seperateness from God is what leads people to "sin" or oppose their own higher will (God's will)
just calling it the universe represents an incomplete teaching because it doesn't shed any light on the different states of awareness available to humans. people have experiences of consciousness outside of what is considered the confines of the universe and yet these experience still make sense when it is understood that all is brahman. the point of belieiving in God is to take the focus off the lower self and the ego and focus on God (or the higher self) which eventually leads to you realizing your oneness with God and you cease identifying with the ego. because all that exists is brahman, brahman is a being and is the supreme being.
|
BlueCoyote
Beyond
Registered: 05/07/04
Posts: 5,447
Loc: Between
Last seen: 2 days, 9 hours
|
|
G*d still has so many paradox viewpoints for us humans. We have to go for them to find him. That's why Jews say:'don't make a picture of him' or 'if you will see him, you will go crazy for almost sure'.
The paradoxes fro me: inside and outside of oneself, visible and invisible, real and spiritual, everything and nothing, timeless, beautiful and horrible, conscious and insentient, forgiving and punishing, uncertain and explict, again real and fake 
For me, the many good aspects of g*d I can find and experience in nature. The bad aspects show for me, in the mind of the modern western civilized man...
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 14,966
|
|
all this
--------------------
~~~~~
|
crunchytoast
oppositional
Registered: 04/07/05
Posts: 1,133
Loc: aporia
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
|
|
Quote:
Though I once considered myself a pantheist, it now strikes me as a rather empty concept. If God is the universe, then just call it the universe. Sure you can say that everything is holy, but that doesn't mean everything is a supreme being.
a person would state that god is the universe if they thought the universe was holy, so it's not an empty concept. if everything is holy then it's not a big leap to conclude that the universe is the supreme being. i suppose if you believe in a bearded dude in the sky then it makes sense the attribute the holiness to the bearded dude instead of the universe. i don't believe in the bearded one, so it makes more sense to me to attribute the holiness to the universe itself.
secondly, you seem to be arguing that holiness as a concept derives from god (as a hindu, moslem, christian, jew, or buddhist). but isn't it through the holiness around us that we know god? it's by experiencing the holiness of the universe that people come to their understandings about god, not through an innate knowledge of god (whatever that would be) that people understand holiness.
Quote:
All religious conceptualizations of God, including ideas like Brahman in Hinduism, have taught God to be sentient, having its own will or it's own consciousness. While some religions teach a sort of oneness with God, they all talk of God as a Being, not simply a force or energy.
conventional religions don't have a monopoly on god. conventional religions don't encompass all religions. god is a real thing (the universe), regardless of any individual's or group of individuals' understanding of it.
anyway, all the beings in the universe contribute to the sentience of god. if god is the universe than awareness of the universe, of one part by another, is necessarily god's sentience. whenever a human says 'the universe exists' that's god saying 'cogito ergo sum.'
it's hardly a normal consciousness, but why would you expect that of the supreme being? god would be mad if its mind were ever judged by human standards.
Quote:
'if you will see him, you will go crazy for almost sure'.
--------------------
"consensus on the nature of equilibrium is usually established by periodic conflict." -henry kissinger
|
Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 2,133
Last seen: 15 hours, 46 minutes
|
|
good post crunchytoast except my main objection to the idea of God being the universe is that it makes it sound like God is just this physical universe. yes, God is the universe but it is also more than that. if i smoke a few bowls of 10x salvia extract i can travel to another universe inside my head. God is also that universe. if i have a transcendent experience outside the space time limitations of this universe, God is that also. God can be formless and God can take on form.
|
psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Deviate]
#4772544 - 10/08/05 12:52 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
God is beauty.
Behold, the sons of God.
--------------------
As the life of a candle,
my wick will burn out.
But, the fire of my mind
shall beam into infinite.
 
|
BlueCoyote
Beyond
Registered: 05/07/04
Posts: 5,447
Loc: Between
Last seen: 2 days, 9 hours
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: psyka]
#4772700 - 10/08/05 01:44 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I should dare to remind for the paradox, that god is everything, but there are places or realms or conditions, where god is not ... (or is it an 'almost' not ?!)
|
Az0th
quantum transfiguration
Registered: 02/13/00
Posts: 53,498
Loc: The Void 
|
|
God is light. God is All-That-Is.
God is nature. God is love.
God is the people, unified.
Sleeping God, awaken.
--------------------
~Thought Creates Reality~
|
Buddha1
journeyman
Registered: 05/22/02
Posts: 73
Last seen: 7 years, 6 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Az0th]
#4772988 - 10/08/05 03:25 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
God is love. God is hate. God is light. God is dark. God is everything. God is nothing. God is infinite. God is finite. God is real. God is an illusion. God is nondual. God is duality.
God cannot be expressed in words.
|
Krishna
कृष्ण,LOL
Registered: 05/08/03
Posts: 23,278
Loc: oakland
|
|
that thou art
--------------------
|
dr0mni
My Own Messiah
Registered: 08/21/04
Posts: 2,921
Loc: USF Tampa, Fl
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Krishna]
#4773544 - 10/08/05 06:20 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
No religion that I know of conceptualizes God in such a way. If that is how you define God then you are redefining it to mean something very different from its traditional meaning(and yes, this is true for eastern religions as well as western ones). This concept you refer to(which is also similar to my own beliefs) is closer to the idea of chi or the Tao than to any deity.
Tao is just an ancient asian word for God. It's all the same thing, just different interpretations.
If God is the universe, and we are part of the universe, then we are Gods' sentience. No separation.
My answer to the original question... well I've got two:
1) GOD IS [the phenomenon of] ENERGY [being] ORGANIZED INTO FRACTALS.
2) What is God not?
|
crunchytoast
oppositional
Registered: 04/07/05
Posts: 1,133
Loc: aporia
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Deviate]
#4774931 - 10/09/05 12:48 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
yes, God is the universe but it is also more than that. if i smoke a few bowls of 10x salvia extract i can travel to another universe inside my head. God is also that universe. if i have a transcendent experience outside the space time limitations of this universe, God is that also. God can be formless and God can take on form.
you have a very good point, yes it does seem "the universe" is too limited a concept to encompass god 
--------------------
"consensus on the nature of equilibrium is usually established by periodic conflict." -henry kissinger
|
Az0th
quantum transfiguration
Registered: 02/13/00
Posts: 53,498
Loc: The Void
|
|
There are billions of universes inside the Absolutum. There are thought to be more Absolutums outside of our own, but that is unknown. God is the Absolutum. We are part of a universe in a Absolutum, we are God. 
--------------------
~Thought Creates Reality~
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Az0th]
#4776399 - 10/09/05 12:03 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
*KungFu_Shaman bows to all who have posted or read*
Thank you everybody...I hope the thread keeps going.
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
absolute zero
The Hero
Registered: 11/04/01
Posts: 796
Loc: 127.0.0.1
Last seen: 11 months, 21 days
|
|
Quote:
KungFu_Shaman said:
What is God? I'm just curious, on a personal level. I'd like to hear a short concise an answer of less than three sentances.
Answer in a Zen koan
Answer with theology or...
Answer from a scientific viewpoint
I'm just curious...
Thanks guys
"God" is a word with obvious religious connotations, therefore I choose not to use it in descriptions of my experiences, as I don't think it is possible to use the word in a sense that does not conjure religious imagery.
However, having some sense of what you are asking...
"God" can be seen in ego loss.
"God" is my consciousness when I can get away from the concept of self to see the functionings of the world in such a way that there is no mystery. The divine sense of understanding the universe.
"God" is the creative force that drives the world.
And to clarify:
"God" is NOT some irrational super-entity who created us and controls our lives.
"God" is NOT our saviour.
"God" is a state of consciousness or being.
--------------------
|
dr0mni
My Own Messiah
Registered: 08/21/04
Posts: 2,921
Loc: USF Tampa, Fl
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
|
|
Synonyms for God:
The Great Mystery
The Universe
The Source of All Being
Existance
Unity
Duality
Manna
Life Force
Tao
Buddha Nature
The Great Natural Perfection
Allah
Gnosis
Math
Consciousness
The Universal Consciousness
The Higher Self
The Realized Self
The Lack of Self
I Am
Self Aware Existance
Shall I go on? 
Edited by dr0mni (10/09/05 08:05 PM)
|
z@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
|
|
Quote:
KungFu_Shaman said:
What is God? I'm just curious, on a personal level. I'd like to hear a short concise an answer of less than three sentances.
Answer in a Zen koan
Answer with theology or...
Answer from a scientific viewpoint
I'm just curious...
Thanks guys
God is. He aswered the question himself. He is. That is the ultimate truth. God is.
--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
|
z@z.com
Libertarian
Registered: 10/13/02
Posts: 2,876
Loc: ATL
|
|
Quote:
Paradigm said:
An excuse used by people too weak to take responsibility for their own life or too uncomfortable with uncertainty.
So you think falling short of what God intended us to be is a way to shirk responsiblility?
--------------------
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
|
cb9fl
Senior ChildMolestationExpert
Registered: 06/12/03
Posts: 3,104
Loc: florida
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: psyka]
#4781633 - 10/10/05 11:55 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
" I do not understand where this "beauty" and "harmony" are supposed to be found. Throughout the animal kingdom, animals ruthlessly prey upon each other. Most of them are either cruelly killed by other animals or slowly die of hunger. For my part, I am unable to see any great beauty or harmony in the tapeworm. Let it not be said that this creature is sent as a punishment for our sins, for it is more prevalent among animals than among humans. I suppose the questioner is thinking of such things as the beauty of the starry heavens. But one should remember that stars every now and again explode and reduce everything in their neighborhood to a vague mist. Beauty, in any case, is subjective and exists only in the eye of the beholder. " - Bertrand Russell
Quote:
psyka said:
God is beauty.
Behold, the sons of God.
--------------------
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. -Andre Gide
"Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives."
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: cb9fl]
#4782649 - 10/10/05 03:32 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
cb9fl said:
"Beauty, in any case, is subjective and exists only in the eye of the beholder. " - Bertrand Russell
Quote:
psyka said:
God is beauty.
God is beauty.
But beauty is subjective, it exists only in the eye of the beholder.
God is beauty, but God only exists to the beholder.
Everyone has a concept of beauty (beauty = God)
Therefore everyone has a different concept of God.
Regardless, a concept of God (beauty) exists for everyone
Its circular, I know. But I just thought the connection between the Russell quote and what psyka said was interesting.
Please continue
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
Veritas
Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,088
|
|
To paraphrase the great philosopher Pogo:
"We have met the deity, and he is us."
|
dr0mni
My Own Messiah
Registered: 08/21/04
Posts: 2,921
Loc: USF Tampa, Fl
Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Veritas]
#4784949 - 10/10/05 11:20 PM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Bertrand Russell is a bit of a turd...
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: dr0mni]
#4785450 - 10/11/05 01:10 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Agreed. His contributions to formalizing logic were incredible though.
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
|
Is Agape...pure selfless love God?
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
Prosgeopax
Jaded, yethopeful?
Registered: 01/28/05
Posts: 1,258
Loc: Appearing at a mall near ...
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
|
|
God is a human attempt to give understandable characteristics to the unexplainable and the unknowable. Naturally, this leads to anthropomorphic qualities being assigned to the concept.
--------------------
Money doesn't grow on trees, but deficits do grow under Bushes.
You can accept, reject, or examine and test any new idea that comes to you. The wise man chooses the third way.
- Tom Willhite
Disclaimer: I reserve the right to change my opinions should I become aware of additional facts, the falsification of information or different perspectives. Articles written by others which I post may not necessarily reflect my opinions in part or in whole, my opinions may be in direct opposition, the topic may be one on which I have yet to formulate an opinion or have doubts about, an article may be posted solely with the intent to stimulate discussion or contemplation.
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
|
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
CaptainExtra
Captain Obvious'ev0l twin
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 159
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
|
Re: Survey on God? [Re: Deviate]
#4789720 - 10/12/05 12:04 AM (7 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
brahman
They named a noodle soup after God!!
|
KungFu_Shaman
naive and lovingit
Registered: 02/23/05
Posts: 191
Loc: noitacaol cihpargoeg
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
|
|
mmmmm....tastes divine...
--------------------
Feel the wrath of Skeletor's breakfast burrito!
|
|
Images only 
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Shop for: 
Edit 
Reply 
