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phi1618
old hand
Registered: 02/14/04
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God?
#3388386 - 11/20/04 09:11 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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It seems to me that the word god is used in a number of different senses.
The most common today is that of a creator - a seperate and concious entity that set the world in motion, usually with full knowlege of the consequences of his action. This god has various attributes which vary; it can, for example, be either a personal or impersonal god.
An older notion was that of limited beings more powerful than humans, like Thor or Zeus.
Another view is that everything is essentially one thing, and that this thing is God. We percieve that things have beginings and ends, that there are opposites, and that things are seperate only because of our limited perspective. Our understanding, and our knowlege of god, is limited by our nature.
This third definition is the one that interests me.
In regard to the first definition of god, I'm pretty unconcerned. I do not particularly believe in the god of Abraham. I have no particular reason not to; but I don't see the necessity of a creator. Even the explanation that the creator made the universe leaves somthing to be desired: what made the creator?
It is also true that this can be an unimportant point. There is no reason that a person who believes in a creator cannot agree with me on every point of morality and science. Also, the denial of a creative god doesn't exclude the possiblity of religious or mystical experience. It is still possible to attempt to transcend our limited perspective, even if there is no creator to learn from as from a teacher.
So, what do you think? What is your view of god? Do you believe in a creative god? Do you think that the existence of a creative god is important?
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McKennaFan200
AmateurGairologist
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3388502 - 11/20/04 09:50 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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I believe in God, YHVH-His formal name (I Am What I Am, speaking to Moses when Moses asked what he will tell his people if they asked for God's name), is a very real force and the creator of all things. That is what I believe.
-------------------- "It seemed to me culture is a shabby lie. Or at least this culture is a shabby lie. If you work like a dog, you get 260 channels of bad television and a German automobile. What kind of perfection is that?"-McKenna
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bmarley3434
wildwalker
Registered: 08/16/04
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what about the fact that they are all right.. because it caters to your belief because its main concern is not being labeled.. but teacing you about your soul.. i could worship a giant hotdog image in my head and be communicating with that which the pope calls god.. its whatever you belive it is.. but the important fact is that IT IS
-------------------- www.returntonature.us - wild foods blog OM
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McKennaFan200
AmateurGairologist
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Yeah, If you want to believe that, sure.
Edited by McKennaFan200 (11/20/04 02:45 PM)
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3389559 - 11/20/04 02:50 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm not sure how exactly to decribe my beliefs. I lack the ability to put them into words, and thus it's hard to discuss them with others. I believe in some sort of higher power that could be referred to as God, but it definitely doesn't match up to the simple-minded attempts by organized religions to personify God. I'm probably closest to that third definition, but it doesn't quite do it justice as far as I'm concerned. There is some ultimate reality far beyond my ability to fully comprehend, let alone describe.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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dmtrypr
psychonauticalengineer
Registered: 07/15/04
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I tend to lean more towards the idea that we are truly all little gods and goddesses. If that is the case, we are really trying to find our "true" self when we yearn for an understanding of "god". It may be futile to look for god somewhere "out there" if "he" is really what you, me, and the rest of reality are. It would be akin to trying to "find" your body, an impossible task, because it requires you to have lost it.
-------------------- "There is no greater power in heaven and earth than the thought of the son of man. Though unseen by the eyes of the body,yet each thought has mighty strength, even such strength can shake the heavens." -Gospel of the Essenes
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McKennaFan200
AmateurGairologist
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Re: God? [Re: dmtrypr]
#3389582 - 11/20/04 02:58 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ok, here's the plan. We break up in groups. Everyone looks for God either in themselves, to the sky, in a soda can (worth a try), or uh..under your beds. As soon as you find God you say "Ollie Ollie oxen free!" and we all come running. Got it? Break!
-------------------- "It seemed to me culture is a shabby lie. Or at least this culture is a shabby lie. If you work like a dog, you get 260 channels of bad television and a German automobile. What kind of perfection is that?"-McKenna
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Fucknuckle
Dog Lover
Registered: 04/24/04
Posts: 6,762
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Re: God? [Re: dmtrypr]
#3389591 - 11/20/04 02:59 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yes that is correct GOD lives within you and there is where the truths will be found.
But the trick is to let go of " Self " and step into the unseen found within yourself
Confusing?
-------------------- What it is, is what it is my Brother. It is as it is, so suffer thru it.
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Quote:
McKennaFan200 said: Ok, here's the plan. We break up in groups. Everyone looks for God either in themselves, to the sky, in a soda can (worth a try), or uh..under your beds. As soon as you find God you say "Ollie Ollie oxen free!" and we all come running. Got it? Break!
Ollie Ollie oxen free! God is everywhere and everything, including Satan if he exists.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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Great Scott
Trigger Lover
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God has a grey beard And sometimes he gets grumpy and smites people
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Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!
Registered: 09/11/04
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"god the dog" -unkonwm :P
-------------------- -------------------- Disclaimer!?
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psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3390310 - 11/20/04 06:30 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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"God" aka the Universe is a field of constantly interacting fields of vibrations. These vibrations act as nodes and each node fits into each other in a self-organizing pattern and these patterns correspond greatly with fractals.
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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slaphappy
Its just me
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Re: God? [Re: psyka]
#3390335 - 11/20/04 06:36 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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At this exact moment, I think god doesn't exist - therefor he doesn't.
I don't think the universe is god either, or 'love' or any shit like that, because I just don't feel like it now. I want to go to sleep. So the world is slowly dying, and will soon disappear, and there will be no more. Until tomorrow.
'He' might exist tomorrow, though - it'll be exiting to see.
-------------------- The argent messenger of truth beyond truth, the antithesis of life, cruel and bleak as interstellar space, pulseless and frozen as absolute zero, dazzling with the frost of irrefragable logic and unforgettable fact.
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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I've learned to refer to use the word Being instead of GOD, because the word God has truly become empty in meaning over thousands of years of misuse. This misuse gives rise to absurd egoic beliefs; "My god is more real than your god", "God will punish you for eating meat on friday" etc.
Being is more of an open-concept and isn't a word that almost automatically gives someone the impression of a male someone or something outside of you like the word GOD often does to others, as it seems. Being, as I use the term, is the One-life within and beyond all myriad form of life subject to birth and death - from the blade of grass to the butterfly, from the human being to the entire galaxy. This is the definition in the panthiestic sense of the word God that I follow. In other words, I don't externalize God, as many Christians do, and I would fit No. 3 the closest in your post.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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JacquesCousteau
Being.
Registered: 06/10/03
Posts: 7,825
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Quote:
SkorpivoMusterion said: the One-life within and beyond all myriad form of life subject to birth and death - from the blade of grass to the butterfly, from the human being to the entire galaxy. This is the definition in the panthiestic sense of the word God that I follow. In other words, I don't externalize God, as many Christians do, and I would fit No. 3 the closest in your post.
Ditto.
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3390925 - 11/20/04 09:28 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Or the fourth possibility, that life is a dream, and God is the unconscious brain doing the dreaming. God himself is a figment of his imagination, along with everything and everybody else
There are probably also an infinite more possibilities if you have the imagination for them
As for myself and this "God", I just call it the Tao, as the Tao is implied to be pure unity, the Way without an ego, like the wind blowing through the trees.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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phi1618
old hand
Registered: 02/14/04
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Re: God? [Re: Ravus]
#3390929 - 11/20/04 09:30 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Or the fourth possibility, that life is a dream, and God is the unconscious brain doing the dreaming. God himself is a figment of his imagination, along with everything and everybody else
I think this reduces to the third: that there is just one thing, and that is god; all else is illusion.
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JacquesCousteau
Being.
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Re: God? [Re: Ravus]
#3390993 - 11/20/04 09:45 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ravus said: As for myself and this "God", I just call it the Tao, as the Tao is implied to be pure unity, the Way without an ego, like the wind blowing through the trees.
Indeed.. Taoism (and maybe a little psilocybin) was my key to understanding how I could be a spiritual person without having to submit my logical brain to the idea of buying into something without seeing the evidence of it.
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JacquesCousteau
Being.
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Posts: 7,825
Loc: Everywhere, Everytime.
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3391001 - 11/20/04 09:48 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
phi1618 said: I think this reduces to the third: that there is just one thing, and that is god; all else is illusion.
I agree, it is basically the third... but I hope you realize your choice of wording makes it seem like you're contradicting yourself.
("..There's just one thing" ... "all else..")
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darkstar122982
A machination ofthe Gods
Registered: 09/28/04
Posts: 115
Loc: The womb of chaos.
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Re: God? [Re: phi1618]
#3391258 - 11/20/04 10:40 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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"God" a word used to name that which is name-less. A force that inhabits all things of a physical nature. Divine energy, in limitless forms. Therefore eternal, and in itself, undying. In the end no way is the wrong way and no way is neccessarily the right way as well. Death is just a cycle, a part of how things must be. There is no reason, it must be this way. Or at least that's what we've been made to believe, a belief that has been a part of the mass-consciousness for quite some time. What happens happens, without reason, Yet through thought is made reason and sought reason. Through the conscious is brought forth ideas, and meaning. I don't know though of course. Just some random thoughts. All I know is that whenever I try sharing my thoughts about these kinds of things, I'm searching my mind in order to come up with anything, and it's as if I'm peering into some vastly expansive void, there's nothing solid there, it just is, limitless. Limitless as in: Limitless responses, limitless limits boundless, scatterred thoughts.
-------------------- Awaken Within!
Edited by darkstar122982 (11/20/04 10:48 PM)
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