# Describe your God **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148 "2014-06-19T15:23:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/21 "2014-06-19T18:11:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you actually believe that this deity exists, or were you trying to be the first in with a “cute” reply? Cute, sorry ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/22 "2014-06-19T18:21:26Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I really do believe in God and maintain what I call a concious contact. I believe our universe is at best microscopic and his demension has no relation to anything physical we can comprehend. As far as indifferent goes, I think in the grand scheme of things he has a plan but we may be hundreds of billions of years away from this plan yet and everything happening inbetween is just leading up to it. I think he understands the importance of physical things reaching equallibriums and living things evolving, I dont believe even he would have the knowledge to just place everthing needed correctly but he does have a plan which will allow this to develop. I am not positive he hears me connecting with him but I feel as if he does. A friend uses this analogy-Everyone is on the same train, and the train is guaranteed to reach its destination…but how good a trip it is depends entirely on the passengers themselves. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/23 "2014-06-19T18:35:28Z")
Who, Jesus? He’s just all right with me. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/24 "2014-06-19T18:38:08Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Who, Jesus? He’s just all right with me. We’ve already done “cute”. Could you please describe him as best you can? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/25 "2014-06-19T19:11:13Z")
I’m with **Gwendee**. I don’t see God as a person, that’d be weird. God is a feeling, like a warm hug. Or a puffy vest in winter. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/26 "2014-06-19T19:12:03Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Its a dachshund. Kinda long, low with cobby feet. Smell kinda bad. > > Oh, nevermind. I misread that thread title. Which reminds me, what does a dyslexic agnostic insomniac do? Sits up all night, wondering if there is a dog. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/27 "2014-06-19T19:19:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > _ **If you happen to believe in a particular deity** _ please give as complete description as you can about the size, shape, personality, attributes, abilities etc. of the god/goddess/godthing you believe in. Size, shape, abilities: exists outside the Universe; created it out of nothing. Personality: loving. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m not really interested in descriptions of deities you personally do not believe in “But the God I don’t believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He’s not the mean and stupid God you make Him to be.” -Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s wife in _Catch-22_ ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/28 "2014-06-19T20:40:55Z")
I consider myself as a Christian, but the way that I envision God is far different from the manner in which I was taught as a child. To this end, properties like size, shape, personality, don’t make much sense because, while I understand our (humans in general as relating to God) need to anthropomorphize God, I think it creates more problems than it solves. To this end, the best way I can imagine describing how I perceive God is as a summation of consciousness. Whether this means that he is outside of the universe as a hyper-dimensional being and created it, whether he is all that is in the universe and essentially created itself and us along with it, or possibly just something that exists inside of the universe, it’s really all kind of irrelevant. The key point, though, is that God is not, in my estimation, likely made of matter and energy, though I suppose he could exist through some manner of emergence and properties we don’t yet understand. Regardless, I’m not really sure that’s here or there. What does matter is the manner in which I commune with God, and it is very much in a manner not too dissimilar from a state of pure inspiration. In the same manner that I might, say, compose a song or a poem and it seems to write itself, or when in consideration of matters how examples seem to spike in my observations, this is also how God speaks to me. This is something, I think, that works better than an anthropomorphized God, because when I tried to talk to him that way, and expected to receive words, images, feelings, or thoughts and got nothing, it was a major point of crisis in my faith. One thing I do see, though, as a greater consciousness, is that the consistent ideas of all-encompassing love is essentially what God is by definition. And though I will reference the idea that God has a plan, it’s so much in the sense of looking back at, say, evolution, from the state we’re at now, seeing where we are, and then being aware of that when looking at how things were at some point in the past. In what sense could we meaningfully describe a process as having properties such as size, shape, personality, or even abilities? All we can do is attempt to describe the rules, at least as well as we can estimate or understand that they exist. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/29 "2014-06-20T03:55:10Z")
God is something I am a part of. Not like Joe Smith is a part of Jones Corporation where he works, and not like vanilla extract is a part of an ice cream recipe, either. More… the way this sentence is a part of this paragraph which in turn is a part of this post. The sentence exists unto itself, and yet it occurs as, and because, it is a part of the paragraph, and both it and the paragraph occur as, and because, they are a part of the larger context. The smaller parts obtain a vast portion of their meaning from the context in which they occur, but they also are a part of the larger context which would not be complete if you took the smaller components out. And if you took out all of the smaller components the larger context just ceases to be there. God is a sense of identity. I am AHunter3. We are the species human. Both of those are true statements and they are both valid senses of identity, one of them singular and one of them plural. God is… superplural. All-encompassing. More plural than any “we” could ever be. WEME3. That is God. Identity to the third power. The entirety of the universe is the body of God. God exists because God chose to exist. No prior cause gave rise to God. No subsequent event exists as a separate, caused event, either: all events are God in motion, transpiring over time. To the question “Who are you”, God would answer, “I am that which is”. Consciousness, as well as the passage of time, are subsets, or subcharacteristics, of God. God is superplural, not supernatural. God is real, albeit an abstraction. If you seek proof of God’s existence in the form of measurable effects, everything measurable _is_ an effect of God. Hence the logical question is not so much “Can you prove that your God exists” but rather “Is it useful to utilize this concept when thinking of everything, or understanding things”. I have found it so. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/30 "2014-06-20T14:26:10Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Do you feel it has a mind and/or consciousness? Or is that not required for you defintion of a god? The universe does have a consciousness, but humans are incapable of defining or conceiving it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/31 "2014-06-20T14:31:53Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > The universe does have a consciousness, but humans are incapable of defining or conceiving it. But _you_ are? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/32 "2014-06-20T15:10:51Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > The universe does have a consciousness, but humans are incapable of defining or conceiving it. What is your reason for thinking the universe has a consciousness? Is there any evidence to support this? I am unaware of any. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/33 "2014-06-20T19:41:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But _you_ are? Where’d you get that idea? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/34 "2014-06-20T19:43:05Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > What is your reason for thinking the universe has a consciousness? Is there any evidence to support this? I am unaware of any. There is no evidence. I’m basing this solely on conjecture. That’s the way gods are. Gods have little basis in truth. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/35 "2014-06-20T20:37:46Z")
Well, he’s sitting at a computer, wearing a Red Sox jersey (and what other way to explain last year???) and he’s commenting in a thread called “Describe your God”. And since humor is being frowned upon in this thread… In the words of Alec Baldwin, “I AM God.” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/36 "2014-06-20T22:25:52Z")
I believe in the Triune God as spoken of in the Nicene and Apostolic creeds. [The Creeds – The Episcopal Church](http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/creeds) God is a real person with no physical being. Since that concept is kinda hard for humans to deal with, God has traditionally been refered to as “male”. I’ve seen an alternate way of referring to God. Instead of the familiar “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” one could say, “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier.” God took on human form in the person of Jesus. God also appeared in human form to Abraham. God can pretty much do whatever God wants to do, omnipotent and omniscient. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/37 "2014-06-21T00:12:26Z")
God is the ground of being, or even being itself. Not the god of the Baptist church I grew up in, but too much for some in the UU Church I belong to now. Bottom line is it works for me. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/38 "2014-06-21T12:48:09Z")
I’m a Buddhist but I believe in all the Gods, just not their human created, nonsensical baggage. They aren’t physical beings just spiritual entities, and don’t ‘look’ like any one fixed thing. And I’m not sure where they are, but out there, everywhere. I feel I have the right to appeal to any or all of them for protection or favour anytime I like. I think maybe everyone so inclined should just find one that speaks to them and then learn whatever they can from their words or life. Also I think it’s okay to switch up for different times and phases of life. Why should I worship the same God in youth as old age? Got a special problem? Find the right God for that issue, I say, no need to be bound by the God you were raised with. Find ritual that feels right in your soul, that you truly enjoy, that brings you pleasure! How can anyone not worship life when before a smiling, reclining Buddha? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/39 "2014-06-21T12:52:21Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Well, he’s sitting at a computer, wearing a Red Sox jersey (and what other way to explain last year???) and he’s commenting in a thread called “Describe your God”. > > And since humor is being frowned upon in this thread… > > In the words of Alec Baldwin, “I AM God.” According to the psalmist all are gods, at least Jewish men. I believe the word God means something or being with power, not the creator of all things. No one can in truth say anything about God because God is unknown. that is why there are so many religions. No one can prove any thing about God or a god, just belief in what they were taught, or desire. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-god/691148/40 "2014-06-22T02:02:10Z")
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