God and Humans

(Random God Definitions)

Marsha

I suppose the best you can hope for from all of those groups is that they at least agree on the same Spelling for God!

Jan

Ones god is ones creator, but i believe in my ownself i could find my own god, or my creative side. you know what i mean jellybean.

John Dishwasher

Yeah, like we create our ownselves? So we are our own God? That's an argument I guess you could make once we're in control of our own will, and we're struggling as souls to bring to life our visions and passions. But what about before that? Did we create ourselves as embryos? And what about the universe that doesn't really seem to emanate from me? In any event you're offering a definition that the believer side of the debate would probably take issue with. So thanks. In the last couple of days most of the definitions I've deflected in the various forums about this have been on behalf of atheists. So, you've got a definition, and an interesting one, but it's not one that everyone is compelled to agree on.

Cindy

There is no such thing as "peace". not in this world at least. As long as there is life there is suffering. dont misinterpret suffering either. suffering is birth, death, and everything in between, this including the decaying process of the body, the mental delusions, ignorance, self_seeking/self_gratification, clinging to desires/attachments to false "things", and most importantly, the ego's false identity that we are each unique individual personality selves separate from the rest of existence, which is a complete lie.

dont watch tv.

there is no peace, only understanding. this is a sort of paradox, but a logical paradox. when you understand reality, naked, without distractions, and falsity, this is peace. the struggle is still there. the suffering is still there. it is the understand of it all that liberates us from the world and allows us to function as proper human beings amidst it all.

John Dishwasher

I really like this comment. I don't agree with the first line: "There is no such thing as peace." But I do agree when you qualify this first line by saying: "When you understand reality, naked, without distractions, and falsity, this is peace." The only thing I would add is that whether peace exists or not, we still seek it. So, though you certainly create a new dimension from which to approach the essay that originated this thread, it does not shoot down its ideas.

Bobby

god is a sense of self that transcends the individual. a reasonable man participates with the good another is willing to do. god, is also used for the individual to project into the future and perceive ones future self.

Peter

To me, we are all ONE, for we are all "god"; all apart of a bigger picture, or all a piece to a bigger puzzle(so to speak) or however you would want to think!!(my way of thinking anyways) you can correct me if you want to!!

But of course we(as humanity) all think we are sooo different from each other(sooo far apart) that we have to hate each one another cause of race, and start wars, violence, all over our own petty selfishness, ignorance, and soo forth, etc............

We all have the power to do something great, "godly" but most would rather just sit down and watch the world burn, then to do something great to help the world!! Now we do have "godly" people out there, trying to make a difference, but quite frankly they are quite outnumbered, such as myself!! I consider myself a "godly" person cause I like to help people, do great things for the greater good, to help make a difference but people laugh at that for some reason!!?? Ill never stop doing what I do, do my part!!

Greg

One finds true Peace of Mind when one becomes a vegan who doesnt kill things from the animal kingdom. This is true because one's conscious becomes free of all sensations of guilt and suffering. One slowly but surely learns to forgive oneself for being alive, and understands the difference between taking the life of a plant for survival, and taking the life of another living creature for one's own vanity or greedy pleasure. One eventually become free of all suffering and attachments to the suffering that one caused in the past. In otherwords...one forgives oneself for just trying to be alive.

Mike

Our brains are orgainzed for religious thinking_ a "power" or "force" outside ourselves so it doesn't matter if eveidence for god exists. It's not a matter of belief. Besides, "neural correlates for spirituality" does not proves that's where spirituality comes FROM, but only what occurs during a spiritual experience (like saying rain is caused by puddles) __ there is no location of consciousness.

Carol

Scientists and Southern Baptists would agree to defining God as being something believed to be the creator of all things in the universe.

Atheists and fundamentalist Muslims would agree that God (Allah) is the Supreme Being that makes people blow themselves up or crash planes into buildings in his name. Atheists would say it sarcastically.

Hindus, Jews, evangelicals, Satanists, pagans, and voodoo priests will all define God as not being the God of the Old Testament as he is in the New Testament, although evangelicals sway God's wholeness more so to the Old Testament version (if they studied it) and voodoo priests have no quality education to know anything outside their tribe's traditional observances to discern what God is.

To me, God is one of the oldest ineffective excuses not to do the things that should be done to get ahead in this world.

Bo

I, like the rest of the people here, very much enjoyed reading this and mostly agree with the conclusion you reached. I would only qualify it by saying that peace of mind is better defined, I think, by finding self_worth. What this essentially means is finding self_esteem through living, acting and believing those things which are life_affirming. When we live well we naturally take pleasure in life, and this is what we call happiness, bliss, joy, and peace of mind, etc. There is a lot more to it than just to say it, but this is what it is essentially all about.

And what about this: suppose you could find a drug or whatever which could override all other inputs and give you a sense of high self_esteem for as long as you were on it. Would taking this drug over_ride all other moral considerations, if self_esteem is the final end towards which all our other actions are just means? I respond "no", because it would likely be unsustainable, and all the pain and hurt and death which we have caused to others or ourselves through taking the drug would eventually all come rushing back to us, causing us to experience a profound LOSS of self_esteem/self_worth. The only sustainable way to achieve a continued experience of self_worth is through life_affirming acts. And yeah, the motivation to feel good about ourselves and to continue to act as though our lives have meaning and purpose IS the same thing that people intuitively seek when they invoke the metaphysical.

Marsha

Finding the meaning in/of ancient words can be like trying to figure out what color sunglasses someone was wearing by looking at their foot prints in the sand. I have been studying languages for years and I proudly hold my minor in linguistics as a stipend for my efforts. I have found that Gods have been primarilly been made up of Ascended masters and Heroes. The older non human gods were associated with foodstuffs or death dealing monsters. The word God is most often associated with people's idea of perfection in humanity.

Very few translations (especially of gods)are correct directly. Trying to read the Timeaus and Criteaus translations were awful and when it comes to translating they are pretty much the crux of it. So much of what those 2 documents give to the world are really made up by experts doing the best they can. ITs hard enough translating material things much less abstracts. I have recently been studying glyph languages and my assesment of picto languages is, translation of metephoric languages is utterly useless without references or a detailed knowledge of the culture. You simply can't define a culture by its writings and THEN figure out what the words mean. This is what the so many of the so called experts do. Cuniform is the best example of a real prehistoric language that gives useful information. After all it is the way we found that the Hittites were actually Indo_European Celtic/Germanian decendants, i am certain it will help open the past even more so ESPECIALLY the ideas about GOD.

Ultimately I think that as man progresses he will see more and more that God is truly a personal idea and an agreement of communities. We all relate to the creator in a way that suits us. In a universe of infinate possibilites and unconditional love, God is all things to all people and holds to form other than what an individuals or groups choose to acknowledge. We may as well argue over the shapes that clouds make in the sky.

Hope

I agree! I feel that our searching is nothing more than a byproduct of something within our very own nature that we strive to re-member or re-constitute. There are many theories as to why and my conclusive opinion is that our inherent DNA is dormant and thus we are seeking to awaken it....DNA DNA DNA...Once again, this is my opinion for it is the one that makes the most sense to me in my search for an absolute truth to the what's the why's, the how, s, the when's, and the where's. To me, we are designed to encompass much, much, more knowingness and awareness than what has been ordained by our average human experience. We are the epitome of the creator in his likeness with the ability to harness the creative source for our personal undertakings. To deny that is to deny our true nature and thus we would only end up deceiving ourselves by the plight of anothers descriptive analysis. No_one can tell me who I am if I already know!!!

John Dishwasher

That's a whopping contribution, Hope, and I thank you for it. Again, we are starting from the same place. You and I both recognize that we are all looking for peace of mind. Your essay there is a great example of how once we get away from that simple starting place, it becomes almost inevitable that we are going to disagree. I'm not saying your wrong. I'm just saying that you have built a DNA theory about why we are not at peace and how to correct that. Others have built a Diety theory. Others have built a non_deity theory. And neuropsychologists will probably soon give us an evidence_based scientifc theory, as I say in the essay. But still, even though some will call your theory outlandish, they will have a hard time disputing the fact that the beginning place of your theory is the same as theirs: That need for peace of mind.

Matthew

Interesting post John. It made me think, I like that as a blue collar philosopher. What or who is God? I lean toward the theory of a divine spirit which is in every physical thing. Being raised in the Catholic religion (not very strictly) I basically searched out God on my own. Before I answer your question first I must say I have been told when God created mankind it gave us freewill to believe in it or not. Now, remember the old proverb or story about the group of blind men that ran into an elephant. Each one perceived it differently but all were in contact with the animal. So no matter what you call it generally the common perception is there is something more powerful than humans can imagine. As for atheists I don't know. So if a group of blind men come up to you and man A calls you John, man B call you Steve, man C calls you Sam and man D calls you Gertrude they are all talking to the same person and fighting amongst themselves would seen silly. Thus you have humanity as we know it today.

John Dishwasher

Exactly. That's what the essay is talking about. It starts with the presumption that we're all touching different parts of the elephant. But then it steps back and points out that in order to participate in this communal touching we had to first share an interest in or need to touch the elephant. We have a hard time recognizing this original need because the elephant is so big and smelly.

James

how very richard rorty of you.

few things:

(a) as a writer myself, i admire and appreciate your clarity and vocabulal extravagicity.

(2) you probably realize that you're not the first to think of this, God as 'peace of mind.' the school is as old as the enlightenment [probably older]. though you never asserted you were the first. moving on.

(=) all that neuroscientists are close to 'discovering' is that some people believe in God because of some socially objective, but individually subjective biological 'need' within us. i agree. and it's still just a mere alternative theory. how much time and money is being spent for them to figure this out?

(~) that said, what if... just what if... a certain religion was not about some indwelling need that we all feel [and i do think that need is more than just peace of mind, but satisfied justice, transcendent meaning, deep_rooted sense of mystery, etc.], or about how we deal with things we perceive, or about labeling things in a way that makes us comfortable. what if it was about flesh and blood people carrying out space and time events over the linear trajectory of history? that these things can be studied and verified, and though they do not prove God, they at least move the conversation from inside of us to outside of us.

does that change things a bit?

Cardia

yeah we all feel this need for peace of mind. and some will look for the solution in a bottle, other will seek it in a pill or a joint. you see the one question that science can't answer is why? and that really messes with our peace of mind.

Christianity has answered this question for me and brought with it just that. Peace of mind. and it's an enduring peace that even death itself will not steal from me. but maybe that's just me