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Thread: Define God

  1. #1
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Default Define God

    I am, for the most part, an igtheist. Essentially, it seems to me that the concept of a "god" is so amorphous and ill-defined that there's no logical way to even argue about the existence of a god. The Abrahamic concept of a big G god only further confuses the issue, as in the dictionary he is defined as being the Supreme Being and if one looks under Supreme Being you find...God.

    So what is God and how is he a god? What the hell is a god? The dictionary has it as a supernatural being that is believed in and worshipped, which could include (and has included) things like what we now think of as fairies, demons, angels, saints, etc. Yet, the Abrahamic deity does not recognize any of those beings as gods, only himself.

    I'm not interested in believers vs. non-believers here so much as some sort of definition that makes sense.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

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    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    I don't see how it is possible to answer this without reference to our personal beliefs and as such, I believe the whole development of the idea to define a God, is merely a side-product of explaining the mystery of death and is a safety-blanket to overcome our fear of the grave. If I'm wrong, what's the worst that could happen?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  3. #3
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    The imaginary man who lives in the sky that people use to attribute the unknown and sometimes kill each other about that unknown. Overall, an enormous failure.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

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    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Atheist here. One of the reasons I am such is whenever I try to define God based on a set of assumed properties, I wind up with the description on the universe. Creator of all, controller of all, knower of all, a part of all things. This is, of course, a God completely divorced from human affairs, one who experiences no love, cares not what I do and wouldn't go to the effort of creating an afterlife.

    So, to define God:
    The Universe, possibly slightly anthropomorphised if one wishes to ascribe intent to the actions of the Universe.
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  5. #5
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by ivan astikov
    I don't see how it is possible to answer this without reference to our personal beliefs and as such, I believe the whole development of the idea to define a God, is merely a side-product of explaining the mystery of death and is a safety-blanket to overcome our fear of the grave. If I'm wrong, what's the worst that could happen?
    Well, there's nothing wrong with referencing your personal beliefs. I just didn't want to see the thread derailed with a big pile-on because of religion or lack thereof.

    AllWalker, that is where I end up if I follow the "Supreme Being" line of thought at any length, which then turns theology into a bunch of metaphors and semantics.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

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    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Point taken, Caerie. If I was forced to describe God, I'd say it was that which exists beyond time and matter and encompasses all that is perceived. This makes it pretty much beyond any method of communication with mere humans, and barely within our level of comprehension.
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  7. #7
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    God is what you personally want him, her, or it to be. That which you worship becomes your God.
    Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by danceswithcats
    God is what you personally want him, her, or it to be. That which you worship becomes your God.
    And so there is no defining quality of "god" aside from it being the subject of your worship? That certainly seems to agree with the dictionary, but spiritually it does look to be lacking a bit of something.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  9. #9
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by danceswithcats
    God is what you personally want him, her, or it to be. That which you worship becomes your God.
    But is there even a rational definition of 'worship'?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  10. #10
    Maximum Proconsul silenus's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Ray Charles










    Sorry - old joke
    "The Turtle Moves!"

  11. #11
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by ivan astikov
    Quote Originally posted by danceswithcats
    God is what you personally want him, her, or it to be. That which you worship becomes your God.
    But is there even a rational definition of 'worship'?
    Injecting rationality into the discussion makes for a stickier wicket.
    Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

  12. #12
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Well, it is true that the OP did not require rationality. Nor is falsifiability required, which is lacking in all definitions of god thus far given.

    If somebody could give a rational, falsifiable, and complete definition of a deity, I think that person would win far more than this thread.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  13. #13
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    It would be impossible to use our limited words and concepts to define a limitless being who not only exists outside of space-time, but who created the same.

    Words define and limit. How do you use them in regards to something without limit or definition?

    That being said, it clearly hasn't stopped people from the dawn of time until now in attempting to ascribe all manner of things to such an entity. Hence how I have argued on this board for religion (as with politics) to be treated as "opinion".
    I reserve the right to be bothered by things that don't faze you,
    and to cheerfully ignore things that bug the shit out of you.
    I am not you.

  14. #14
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    God is the symbolic embodiment of our collective ignorance.

  15. #15
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Define God

    I change my mind on this several times a year - sometimes several times a day. Sometimes I think god/dess/es are "real" "things" or "beings" with power to make things happen if I ask really really nicely and show I'm dedicated to the issue. Sometimes I think god/dess/es are me, some True Self that knows stuff that the conscious me doesn't, and existed before I was born and will continue to exist after I die. Sometimes I think the whole thing is a psychological construct valuable for personal and societal insights. Sometimes I think god/dess/es are the "probabilities" we speak of in chemistry and physics which I can barely grok. Sometimes I think god/dess/es are the animating life force that makes life possible when a bunch of molecules come together just so, and it's what separates living things from other heaps of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sodium and potassium. Sometimes I think it's all a ridiculous tale we tell each other 'cause we don't know what else to say in great times of grief or stress.

    Lately, I've been reading Robert Fulghum again, a sort of philosophical comfort food. In that vein, right now I believe god/desses is poetry and possibility, and a bit of purple prose. God is maybe. May be. Anyone or anything you want to be or do that isn't who you are right now - anything that may be, that's Divine. Why not?

    Sorry, that's not very helpful, I know.
    Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don't go on forever. Must have been shattering. Stamped into one's memory. And yet, I can't remember it.

  16. #16
    Maximum Proconsul silenus's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by Lucifer
    God is the symbolic embodiment of our collective ignorance.
    Damn. That big?
    "The Turtle Moves!"

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    Default Re: Define God

    Even though it's written from an atheist perspective and I'm a Christian, I think this page and the articles it links to do a pretty good job of exploring the issues of who or what God is, what God is like, what it means for God to exist, and how people think of God (rightly or wrongly):

    What is God? Definitions, Characteristics, and Attributes of God

  18. #18
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by silenus
    Quote Originally posted by Lucifer
    God is the symbolic embodiment of our collective ignorance.
    Damn. That big?
    Yes, and shrinking all the time. You should have seen God 4,000 years ago when he was in charge of driving the sun across the sky every day, and making thunder, and so forth.

  19. #19
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Define God

    A being which operates primarily on the metaphysical plane, as opposed to the physical one.

  20. #20
    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by pedescribe
    A being which operates primarily on the metaphysical plane, as opposed to the physical one.
    A fairy?
    An angel?
    A ghost?
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  21. #21
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    God is that which is when all else isn't. FACT!
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  22. #22
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by ivan astikov
    God is that which is when all else isn't. FACT!
    Prove it.
    Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

  23. #23
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by danceswithcats
    Quote Originally posted by ivan astikov
    God is that which is when all else isn't. FACT!
    Prove it.
    What sort of proof would you accept? There can be no nice, neat equations to explain what occurs beyond the boundaries of our perception.


    And besides, the 'FACT' was thrown in sarcastically.
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  24. #24
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by AllWalker
    Quote Originally posted by pedescribe
    A being which operates primarily on the metaphysical plane, as opposed to the physical one.
    A fairy?
    An angel?
    A ghost?
    Yes, until I get more evidence of lesser powers.

  25. #25
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Define God

    Any of a number of fictional characters, belief in whose existence should be ridiculed in any over the age of 10. See also: Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc.
    Better is heart than a mighty blade
    For him who shall fiercely fight;
    The brave man well shall fight and win,
    Though dull his blade may be.

  26. #26
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Define God

    Quote Originally posted by pedescribe
    Quote Originally posted by AllWalker
    Quote Originally posted by pedescribe
    A being which operates primarily on the metaphysical plane, as opposed to the physical one.
    A fairy?
    An angel?
    A ghost?
    Yes, until I get more evidence of lesser powers.
    That should say 'unless', not 'until'. I expect that, as usual, there will be no evidence for any sort of realm beyond the physical.

  27. #27
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Define God

    Have you never been in a large, excited or agitated crowd and felt that 'electricity' that everyone seems to get caught up in? What do you think that is about, if not an energy created by the minds of the individuals in the crowd?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

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