Describe God

Great Debates
81

xenophon41 said it very well.

Eh, there are a number of assumptions here that really don’t matter. Faith is not usually held up to “rigor” (although there are many believers who espouse that there are degrees of faithfulness, i.e. that insist on strict adherence to generally accepted tenets and rituals; I suppose one could regard such adherents as “rigorous” within their worship, but usually they are called fervent or devoted or extremists). Faith defies logic; it works outside of logic. I find it difficult in the extreme to believe that the educated, intelligent people here have obtained adulthood and not discovered this for themselves. Even if one is not faithful, does not believe in any type of God and espouses atheism, that does not (or it should not) imply that one cannot comprehend that one’s worldview is not the same for everyone (or anyone) else–which is why I find this thread disingenuous and the specter of trolling (the “gotcha”) has been raised by several posters. If God is not real to you, how does that make God not real, period?

Here’s something to think about: your memories and your dreams are real, in that they actually happened–I don’t mean the actual concrete event that happened in the past, but your memory of it (whatever “it” may be). Your dreams are also real, in that they existed in your brain for whatever cycles of REM sleep you had that night (I am assuming you remember your dreams). But there is no concrete evidence of your dreams. There may well be no physical artifact that proves your memory. But are they any less real to you?
Put another way: You shared a past event with a sibling or a friend. Time passes, several years, and you come to find out that your memory and her memory of the same event differ greatly. Is one person right and another wrong? Barring any contemporaneous record or “proof”, neither of you is wrong–but neither of you is right, either. Funny how people understand this and accept it, but bring God into it and confusion reigns.

I am not saying God is a dream or a memory: I am drawing an analogy to assist in communication. Barring developmental delays, brain disorders or psychiatric issues, we here are all able to grasp the abstract. Faith (that is, believing in God or “God” if that makes people more comfortable) is abstract. So is love–not just divine love, but human love itself. It has concrete manifestations, but “love” itself is not a separate, measurable entity. If you can understand the concept of love, you can understand the concept of God/faith.

82

Absolutely. Or, perhaps they’re both wrong. But they can’t both be right.

Love exists entirely in our brains. It’s a pattern of neurological behavior. Are you saying that God exists only in the heads of believers? That he has no existence other than people’s thoughts about him?

83

I ask a question when I wish to know the answer. Since you have already indicated that you do not wish to answer the question, I really don’t understand why you are still posting in this thread.
In fact, since you seem to think that there are questions that should not be asked of religionists, why don’t you start a new thread on the subject in the appropriate thread.
Like The BBQ Pit.

84

I really, really do not understand some of you. You have a name for something, but you do not know what it looks like, what it does, or how it can be measured. And then some of you assert that in addition to the preceding, the thing that you have a name for can never be observed. What is the point? Let’s say that there is a creator and he had a purpose in mind when he created the universe. If it is impossible to know what that purpose is then why try and figure it out? It could be *A *or it could just as easily be not A. How does that affect your life?

Imagine you are lost in a wilderness and do not have a map. How does it make it any easier to find out where you are or where you are going to know that there is a map someplace that you can never read?

“I think the map says go north”.
“I say the map says go south”.
“I will kill both of you heathens that do not think it says go east”.

Isn’t it better to just say there is no fucking map and use your brains to find your way?

85

She’s black.

86

But comely!(Sorry-very old Star Trek in-joke.)

87

I don’t know how much I believe this anymore. Sometimes I totally believe it, other times (most times, lately) I think it’s nonsense. But, given that:

“God” is everything.

Ultimately there is nothing but pure spirit, which is to (imperfectly) say, “God” is not made of protons or electrons, and does not reside in this plane. Or rather, “God” is this plane. Everything we see, and are, is the manifestation of “God”.

See, being a pure spirit, a consciousness that exists completely alone is boring as shit. So “God” (I hate this term; I don’t think God is separate) creates physicality. And in the process, is entertained. God, is the author, we are the story, but God is also the story, and in fact has forgotten it is the author.

As for how this affects me life; it doesn’t. :slight_smile: As for how I know this; I don’t! (I know, real helpful). It’s just an idea I have, something that seems true to me.

88

FWIW, as an atheist, this is the best definition of God I can recall ever seeing. I disagree with Czarcasm that it was “glurge.”

89

God is a word (or idea) thats meaning evolved through human history.

90

As per the OP, describe God as you believe him to be.

91

God is glurge.

Glurge is love.

Love is good.

Good is God.

I can keep doing this all day. Maybe I can get to be archbishop someday.

92

God is all of the darkness outside the campfire. Any claims about what is out there should met with scorn and derision as self serving tripe, unless someone is willing to actually go out there and light a fire. Or invent a flashlight.

93

Totally off- topic and unappreciated.

94

It’s true that not very many people do that on this message board, but I do remember some specific instances, but I won’t link to them here because I’m not completely convinced they weren’t trolls who would get satisfaction from me mentioning them.

So instead, on the Dope we have intellectual laziness combined with an inability to be quiet about it. But at least, like you’re saying, it does not often translate into flawed policy views.

What instead happens is something like this, in a hypothetical exchange between the Master Debater (MD) and the Obnoxious Atheist (OA):

[topic is a discussion about God, in GD]
MD: God thinks X.
OA: Why does that matter, God doesn’t exist.
MD: Sure he does, and anyway lots of people have different views about God, don’t assume any one representation before assuming He doesn’t exist.
OA: Okay, define God, then I shall prove He doesn’t exist.
MD: [crickets].

or alternatively:
MD: I don’t have to define Him, I just KNOW.

or
MD: Scripture says…yadda yadda yadda.

It wouldn’t be so annoying on the Master Debater’s part if they didn’t then continue to post their intellectually lazy opinions on religion in other threads. Which of course they have a right to in GD, and I also have a right to consider it an uncurious and potentially dangerous mindset.

95

Sorry, that’s is my actual description of God. You can edit out the word “tripe” if you like, that was kind of mean.

On reading back I see that you meant this as some kind of comedy thread that I don’t understand, so I guess I am totally off topic.

96

You not believing in the god you describe is what is off-topic. Please re-read the OP.

97

“Daddy-Father” does pretty good

Daddy: As in a small child not able to do much, all needs have to be taken care of by our Daddy who is always there, all we have to do is cry, and He is there. We don’t even have to know what is wrong, or even understand it, just let Him know that something is wrong, and it is His job to find out what. He is the one to take us to great places and fill our lives with wonder.

Father: As creator and ruler of the universe (multiverse), active in every single event down to the quantum level and beyond. It is His job to provide for all His children as Father of us all.

When we cry out to Daddy we are also crying out for the ruler of all authorities and spacetime itself to act in our behalf and have the favor that we are His child and His prince or princess. We just happen to be the young children and infants of the King of Kings who Loves us.

98

God is a big pretty white God with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and looks like a big Tylenol.

99

It seems that kanicbird’s response is more pertinent to the conversation than is yours.
Please don’t let this happen again.

100

In Una’s spirit, I’ll describe the last Gods I believed in.

How powerful is she/he/it? I believed that by invoking specific deities in specific manners, I could change the world, mostly by healing. In retrospect, I believe confirmation bias and the magicalization of mundane events played into my beliefs.

What is she/he/it made of? I never considered this question: it was irrelevant.

What can’t/can the gods do? Each god, in my old belief, had domains, and worked within those, especially when invoked.

Where does she/he/it reside? Again, irrelevant.

Those irrelevancies are getting right up peoples’ butts right now, so let me provide something to shove them in further: I didn’t necessarily believe in the literal reality of the gods. But I also didn’t believe in their unreality. I regarded the question of their reality to be irrelevant; their existence was probably the least interesting thing about them to me.

The analogy I used was to a novel. With a good novel, I suspend disbelief, and in so doing am able to have a richer existence by immersing myself in the story. Fiver and General Woundwort aren’t real, of course, but that’s not the interesting thing about them. But if pressed, of course I’d admit they weren’t real.

In contrast, when I performed ritual, I didn’t suspend belief: I pocketed belief. The disbelief wasn’t hanging over me the whole time; rather, I put the question entirely to the side. By doing so, I felt I was able to have a richer existence.

Eventually that stopped working for me. I could no longer pocket the disbelief, and every time I did ritual, I felt silly and phony. So I stopped. I kind of miss it, but I don’t really think I can return to it, because my disbelief is too big to fit in my pocket anymore.

I know that’s not exactly what’s being asked, but it might explain why some theists are unable to answer the question.