Is there God?
I am only a few days into RF. I thought a basic question has to be asked in a site like this. I checked to see if this question was taken up before and I did not find it taken up, though I may have missed it. If so, the moderator should feel free to delete this thread. Otherwise, here goes:IS THERE GOD?I hope the discussion will bring up the basic questions as to what is meant by the word God, what is the link between God and religion, are there many Gods etc.
I am only a few days into RF. I thought a basic question has to be asked in a site like this. I checked to see if this question was taken up before and I did not find it taken up, though I may have missed it. If so, the moderator should feel free to delete this thread. Otherwise, here goes:IS THERE GOD?I hope the discussion will bring up the basic questions as to what is meant by the word God, what is the link between God and religion, are there many Gods etc.
Would God need an operator?
Actually, everybody but everybody would mean by "God" the absolute. The differences lie in trying to explain what absolute means and its implications on us.
Willamena
Mostly everybody, perhaps. I see "God" more in the unity of "absolute" with the forms we assign reality.
Mostly everybody, perhaps. I see "God" more in the unity of "absolute" with the forms we assign reality.
Nonsense. God as Absolute or Ultimate or Ground-of-Being is a relatively new articulation/projection.
I have no idea what "the absolute" means and so it appears to be an even murkier problem to solve. If one word we have no idea about is equivalent to another word we have no idea about then I don't see how that helps us and it seems like you've only equated two undefined words rather than any concept behind them.If by "the absolute" you just mean something like ultimate or infinite then there are plenty who would disagree with you. Plenty of pantheon gods, for example, would not fit into this description.
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Would God need an operator?
The operator does not require an operator. Since he is the operator of himself even. He/she is so perfect that nothign can go wrong with him/herself. He/she fixes our world whenever it is getting inbalanced, hence the incarnations...
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Is God man's alter ego?
The Biblical revelation that God made man in His own image and the corollary thought we have that just as we are, there is a God up there, only He is infinity more knowledgeable and capable than us, seems to be a thought that we always revert to. Even before the Bible the Hindus’ idols of God all looked like man (or woman) or had human qualities. And in Islam, the one religion that has never encouraged any thought of God in any form, particularly a human form, has unfailingly in every verse in the Quran God expressing Himself in human ways, like, Allah knows best/thereof We created you/in the sight of Allah etc. In all concepts of God, He ever seems to be someone who would understand us, provided we be obedient and all that. Is God, in short, man’s alter ego?
The Biblical revelation that God made man in His own image and the corollary thought we have that just as we are, there is a God up there, only He is infinity more knowledgeable and capable than us, seems to be a thought that we always revert to. Even before the Bible the Hindus’ idols of God all looked like man (or woman) or had human qualities. And in Islam, the one religion that has never encouraged any thought of God in any form, particularly a human form, has unfailingly in every verse in the Quran God expressing Himself in human ways, like, Allah knows best/thereof We created you/in the sight of Allah etc. In all concepts of God, He ever seems to be someone who would understand us, provided we be obedient and all that. Is God, in short, man’s alter ego?
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Originally Posted by penguino
If god was like us. He would be an angry, sad, annoyed, jealous person. Thats why we are not perfect.
Exodus 20:5 - I, your God, am a jealous God.
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Originally Posted by penguino
I have read that. Have you ever read a book called The Holy Vedas and The Holy Bible by something Talreja. It gives some unbelieveably physcotic quotes from the bible.
I just googled him - Kanayalal Talreja. He says Vedic religion is pure unadulterated Monotheism. I thought the Vedas, because Upanishads or Vedanta is also a part of it, and having talked of Advaita, ought to be considered the fount of Monism. Maybe a new thread ought to be started to consider what the Vedas actually stand for.
Welcome to the forums!!! I checked God? What do you mean by that? and Honestly, I do not know. The concept of a Creator/Operator is simply too difficult a concept for me to wrap my mind around. Several complications arise when trying to justify the existence of a God with me. A god being omniscient and omnipotent and omnibenevolent, a group of higher beings, the self-destruction of an ultimate lifeform are all possibilities in what I could conceive as a the Prime Mover. But why does it have to be an intelligent being that creates the universe? Is the universe really ordered enough to rationalize a sentient Creator? And even should this being be worshipped? Does it deserve worship? Is there a being currently maintaining the universe? What exactly does the task of maintaining the universe entail? That's what I think.
A strange god that gets upset if someone doesn't worship it like it wants. Rather petty, actually.
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Originally Posted by JamBar85
I personally don't believe in God. Not in the sense that a being or entity or whatever he is supposed to be, just created the earth etc. I find that very difficult to accept.I am however open to the concept of a God in some form, like in a spiritual sense. I also don't think that people who believe in God are wrong for doing so. I think that people are free to believe in whatever they want to, as long as they don't beat people over the head with it.For instance, I personally think the belief of scientology is absolutely ridiculous but i'm not going to tell that they can't or shouldn't believe in that. Who am I to say that they're wrong?Thats my opinion for now. Hope it's interesting.
Originally Posted by JamBar85
I personally don't believe in God. Not in the sense that a being or entity or whatever he is supposed to be, just created the earth etc. I find that very difficult to accept.I am however open to the concept of a God in some form, like in a spiritual sense. I also don't think that people who believe in God are wrong for doing so. I think that people are free to believe in whatever they want to, as long as they don't beat people over the head with it.For instance, I personally think the belief of scientology is absolutely ridiculous but i'm not going to tell that they can't or shouldn't believe in that. Who am I to say that they're wrong?Thats my opinion for now. Hope it's interesting.
Yours is a very fair position - live and let live. But why do you say both, "I personally don't beleive in God" and "I am however open to the concept of a God in some form..." A God in some form is still a God. Or do you mean that you don't rule out the possibility of a God but in no way are you going to be caught being a follower of God?
Originally Posted by frg001
The idea of any supernatural being operating or creating the universe to me makes absolutely no sense...
In order to feel the need for anything to be proved, we must first have doubts as to the existence or veracity of that thing. Nobody, for instance, would come up to us on the street while we are walking and seek prove that we are alive because it would be obvious to him. However, if we look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but lack that rippling biceps, a stranger, in doubt, might wonder if we are indeed Arnie and start stalking us. If he finally gets proof good enough for him (like seeing us get into a limousine marked “Governor of California”) he would probably shout out, “Hey Arnie, have you stopped pumping iron?” So if something is not obvious, proof might be called for. Moreover, what is obvious to one person may not be that obvious to another. And what is obvious may not be a fact (the chap seen getting into Arnie’s car might have been his movie double).The thing about what we call God is that it is not something obvious, like the Sun that rises in the East every morning and sets in the West every evening. What is not obvious about the sun is that it does not move at all as far as we on earth are concerned. But this not-so-obvious fact about the sun we get to know later in school. If we can get the facts wrong on something so obvious as sunrise and sunset, it is easy to see how we can get facts wrong about something not so obvious as God. Of course, for a person who is dead certain that God is not fact but fiction, he is not in need of any proof. But most of us are on the borderline. We are not sure. Maybe, maybe not. Well, for us, there are lots of schools out there, with various theories of God, waiting to persuade us. We might need to join one of them schools!
Greetings K.Venugopal. Welcome to RF. I see from your OP that you do not wish to fool around with trivial stuff. As Willamena mentioned above, your question has been taken up in other threads although your formulation seems more open than many to me in that it avoids the word ‘exist’ which some of our threads use. Several threads including a couple on ‘definition of God’ and ‘sharing God concepts’ address your last questions. My selection in your poll went to ‘yes.’ God is.
God is the answer to three of the simplest yet most profound questions of them all:1. What caused this show called the universe?2. How is it that everything in the universe seems to fall in place the more we ponder over it?3. Why is it we have still not been able to have an answer to questions 1 and 2?The amazing thing religions have done is to usurp the equation “let the unknown be ‘x’”, renamed the unknown ‘x’ as ‘God’ (or Allah or whatever) and declared we have already got answers to the questions. The word God may be useful in soothing our frayed nerves in trying to get the answers, but it is not the truthful answer.
Questions #1 and #2 are profound from an epistomological, rather than ontological, standpoint. #3 doesn't count --epistomology answers them.
Some see God rather as the variable responsible for the possibility of an "X".
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Originally Posted by whichreligion
I think we all should believe in the existence of God as it is surrounding us and guides us everyday.
What convinced you of the existence of God?
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Originally Posted by whichreligion
We should be more concerned about which religion is the righteous and which way leads us to God.
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Originally Posted by whichreligion
We should be more concerned about which religion is the righteous and which way leads us to God.
Have you found out which religion is righteous and which way leads us to God?
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