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Anonymous
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Droz]
#1521293 - 05/05/03 05:25 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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It all happened one day not so long ago that a dog spelled his name backwards and well there you have it. A bunch of humans jumped on it to lead them out of things they could not understand. They followed this dog cause he knew exactly the way of the universe.. the dog died sooner or later...and everyone just kept spelling his name backwards and followed everything they could make up to accomodate all the things they could not or ever understand in their poor little white human minds. then...they all figured out how to attack and kill all those who did not believe in dog...oh I mean god...because they could not understand anything but what their dead-lying-negative minds could invent...and oh how man can invent... real and not. Man is the only bad animal...cause he thinks he is not.
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gnrm23
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1521327 - 05/05/03 06:41 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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alan watts sez: the which than which there is none whicher...
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
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gnrm23
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1521332 - 05/05/03 06:47 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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and then there's james thurber's fable for modern man: www.mac-2001.com/muse/thur-owl.htm heh...
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
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MAIA
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1521782 - 05/05/03 12:16 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
I'm saying if someone says "God doesn't exist," what does the word God represent? God is a word, a subjective idea. God represents something different to different people. If you don't believe in God, what does the word God represent to you? That is what I am asking.
I would try to see the word according to the one who's asking or arguing, as i don't have, or anyone else has (putting faith aside) a singular true definition for the word. When talking to believers of judaic/cristian religions, i often see and use the word god as an animistic representation of a higher being, a patriarchal entity that knows what's right and wrong, holding the key to salvation, although my beliefs are much different.
MAIA
-------------------- Spiritual being, living a human experience ... The Shroomery Mandala Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. Voltaire
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spud
I'm so fly.
Registered: 10/07/02
Posts: 44,410
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1521816 - 05/05/03 12:30 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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god is the source of all religions
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Deiymiyan
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" I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." ?Stephen Roberts ----------------
That is a very interesting take on the subject!
Nice!
-------------------- Dei Gratia de integro, Veni Vidi Vici: In Nomine Domini..
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Anonymous
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Deiymiyan]
#1522979 - 05/05/03 07:25 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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Thank you all who answered my question. It was not a difficult question to grasp by any means, and certainly is a legitimate one to pose.
Let me illustrate why I am asking this by telling a short story. Me and two friends were tripping on a low dose one time, and the subject of God arose. One of my friends was saying "God doesn't exist, there is no God", etc. It took me some deal of time to even get across to him that the idea he had in his head of God that he was saying didn't exist, was not necessarily the same idea of God that I had in my head and was claming did exist. After a great deal more of pondering this problem, I found that his concept of God played right into the typical Judeo-Christian theology. With a great deal of difficulty I managed to explain to him that there are many, many people in the world who have a concept of God that has absolutely nothing to do with what he thought God was. This was insanely hard to get him to understand, that when a lot of people say "God" they aren't talking about the Judeo-Christian God!
My point is, when you deny the existance of God, you are only denying the existance of the concept the word God evokes in your own mind. This of course, is perfectly alright. I myself deny the existance of the God that the majority of people in the world believe in.
To those who couldn't answer the question, such as Strumpling. Think a little bit harder. The question is in no way unanswerable whether you believe in God or not. If you think it is, let me give you an example.
Say your statement is "I don't believe in little green spacemen from Mars with three dicks."
So what are you really saying? Can you not translate "little green spacemen from Mats with three dicks" into other words? Like "small green martians who have more penises than we do." There is no reason why the word God cannot be replaced with other words to articulate what exactly it is you are denying exists.
What doesn't exist? An omnipotent being? A guy who looks over your life and decides if you go to heaven or hell? The sum total of everything?
Do you see the question now?
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Murex
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1523534 - 05/05/03 11:50 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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The word God is very unspecific imo.
'God' to me is every living soul in this universe and every dimension. God is contiousness. We are god. The 'larger' God I have seen while tripping- It is a massive ball of contiousness, or soul (living light) composed of many others. Other souls were traveling into it and some out of it. While I was inside it, my contiousnesss melded with it and it felt like pure bliss (ego-death). I then knew without a doubt what 'God' is.
-------------------- What if everything around you Isn't quite as it seems? What if all the world you think you know, Is an elaborate dream? And if you look at your reflection, Is it all you want it to be?
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Strumpling
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1523749 - 05/06/03 02:30 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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"To those who couldn't answer the question, such as Strumpling. Think a little bit harder. The question is in no way unanswerable whether you believe in God or not." God is all sorts of definitions that I don't accept..... GENERALLY, when I hear somebody talking about God, and at least get a rough idea of what their definition of God is, I don't believe in the words they tell me, which is why I generally say I don't believe in God.. Are you asking us which definitions of "God" we find most displeasing? Because there are some definitions that I've heard/read for the word "God" that I find kind of acceptable, although I think they stick the label "God" on it so they can be part of the larger crowd - Most major religions have an abusive father-figure kind of image for God, and when people don't fall into one of those major religions, when their theories are in a more "god is existence" type of direction, I feel they shouldn't be labeling "the Everything" or "existence" as "God."
-------------------- Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me. In addition: SHPONGLE
Edited by Strumpling (05/06/03 02:35 AM)
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Adamist
ℚṲℰϟ✞ЇѺℵ ℛ∃Åʟḯ†У
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Strumpling]
#1523791 - 05/06/03 03:20 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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Yeah I usually stay away from the word God. It's a dangerous word.
-------------------- { { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }
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gnrm23
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Adamist]
#1523929 - 05/06/03 07:00 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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michael valentine smith noted that with earth people's words, the long words are easily defined; it is the short words that are slippery... ~ and after a series of educational adventures on this 3rd planet from the sun, an angry mob of humans killed this "phoney messiah" for telling them that they were god, just as much as he was, and as was every grokking thing... and his friends gather the remains of their beloved friend, made soup and shared it between them... and michael finished up his last bit of business on the earth, and went to the human part of the afterlife place to start straightening things out up there...
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
Edited by gnrm23 (05/10/03 01:28 PM)
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Anonymous
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Strumpling]
#1524065 - 05/06/03 08:47 AM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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fair enough
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: infidelGOD]
#1525155 - 05/06/03 04:42 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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Good point. And that need to define, to fix in concept or imagination, is the plight of the 'Sensate [S] Type' in Jungian personality theory. The MBTI research suggests that it is the 'N' type or 'Intuitive' that has far less difficulty with a word like GOD, because the intuitive function is the one by which apprehension of Transcendental Reality is made, and the 'N' function stands opposite from the 'S' function. Just like S types can range from house painter to a Van Gogh, for example, an N type can range from 'woman's intuition' to great mystics.
An S type believer has a tendency to grasp firmly onto doctrines and dogmas, which 'define' the Undefinable, with the serious drawbacks that accompany dogmatic faith: exclusivity and the further tendency to identify an intellectual concept ABOUT GOD with the very Reality GOD. Consequently, one hears proclamations of faith such as 'Jesus is GOD,' instead of the theologically more correct, 'GOD was in Christ.' The first sounds far more static and concrete, the latter indicates some kind of relationship, dynamic or Presence.
An N type can more easily interpolate that 'Christ' means 'one annointed,' (as in chrism, oil) by GOD, and that Annointing is a metaphor for something special that happened to the man Jesus. Furthermore, such understanding, by extension, indicates that GOD operates independendly of Jesus - both before His birth and after. And not only that, but that GOD acts in all people at all times - in the entire universe. Many S type Christians, for example, cannot 'get' GOD apart from the immediate identification with 1st century bearded, Jewish carpenter-rabbi.
To suggest that the whole drama of salvation has probably been taking place on numberless planets, for billions of years, with green-skinned humanoid Messiahs, and perhaps non-humanoid Messiahs, is met with utter HORROR and cries of BLASPHEMY! As if, infinitesimal Earth, alone among billions of stars in our galaxy, which is one of billions of galaxies, is the ONLY point in all of Creation where GOD'S salvation is occuring. Of course, this is all a leap of imagination, but it is also iNtuitive thinking, as S types rarely enjoy fiction or imaginative flights into possibility. Sorry for the ramble :P
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Shroomism
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1525440 - 05/06/03 06:40 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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"God" is consciousness, everything living thing..creators and created..combined. This constantly evolves.
--------------------
Edited by Shroomism (05/06/03 06:40 PM)
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OctopusDr
Octi Doci
Registered: 02/03/03
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1525521 - 05/06/03 07:13 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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everyone is dodging the question.
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ChiefThunderbong
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: ]
#1525567 - 05/06/03 07:30 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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I believe man made god out of ignorance and fear. If god made man, then why the hell would he put us here? As for a definition, God is what seperates man from animal. Human's have a need to feel there is something waiting for them when they die, that there is some purpose in life other than to reproduce and propogate the species like all other living things. So ever since we learned to talk, we have been dreaming up all sorts of God's to explain the unexplained and make ourselves feel better about death.
-------------------- Yeah spinnin' around again yea caught in a tailspin
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Anonymous
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great answer, agree completely.
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Deiymiyan
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"If god made man, then why the hell would he put us here?" ---------------
Everyone uses the word God/god. It's quite the label that most have come to dislike.
I am of the opinion, that we wouldn't be able to pronounce the real name.
So for this reply, I will use the name "_____________" instead of the "g/G" words.
So if ___________ made man........ who the hell says that HE PUT US HERE AGAINST OUR OWN FREE WILL !!! Maybe YOU came here cause you WANTED to.
Oh... and kind of off topic.... well kind of on, but....
Who says that the "Garden of Eden" is a place here on this planet? The HOLY BIBLE sure dosen't say that.
What it does do, is demonstrate an example of creation... I am not of the impression that it means the creation of here !
I believe that our planet is near 3 billion years old +/- .... That sure isn't supported by Eden.
I think, relating Earth and Eden is like comparing apples and oranges. Both "fruits" as in creation... But two different flavours !!!
-------------------- Dei Gratia de integro, Veni Vidi Vici: In Nomine Domini..
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ChiefThunderbong
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Re: Define God - For Nonbelievers [Re: Deiymiyan]
#1525821 - 05/06/03 08:55 PM (20 years, 11 months ago) |
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I really did not follow most of what you said. Quote:
So if ___________ made man........ who the hell says that HE PUT US HERE AGAINST OUR OWN FREE WILL !!! Maybe YOU came here cause you WANTED to.
God did not put me here, my mother and father did. I did not choose to be born, and I most certainly did not "come here because I wanted to".
-------------------- Yeah spinnin' around again yea caught in a tailspin
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OctopusDr
Octi Doci
Registered: 02/03/03
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Quote:
I really did not follow most of what you said.
Obviously. Thats why you said this. Quote:
God did not put me here, my mother and father did. I did not choose to be born, and I most certainly did not "come here because I wanted to".
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