Is he looking for his god, or yours?
Lookin’ for god in all the wrong places,
lookin’ for love in too many faces.
Your question only appears to deal with a theist god, and you have left out deist or pantheist.
God does not have to be an entity, in my case God is the Eternal Energy and all that there is that makes up the universe. Not an entity, not a thinking thing as whole, but clearly parts of it thinks;such as life.
Using this definition of God; God can be examined and tested, no faith is required, belief is discarded for informed opinion, uniformed opinion and a whole lot of “i haven’t got a clue as to what that is, how it works or where it came from” when considering the universe and all that it contains.
No, some of the Olympians were siblings of Zeus, Zeus was the youngest Child of Cronus.
Cronus/Kronus was a Titan but also a god, and he was a Child of Gods as well. Titans I think were offspring of Gai(earth) and Uranus(Sky),
Demi-Gods would be creatures like Jesus the Christ, Heracles, Perseus, Merlin, King Alexander(according to legend) etc, these are beings that are hybrid God and Human.
I like this but it doesn’t explain a lot. Who started the Big Band. What cause the chemicals to come together and produce life. If you think randomness then where did it go. Any random movement in the universe now would kill all life. Theories are no good, they answer no questions. Where did matter come from. Well it must have come from something or someone or somewhere. No questions are answered by science yet. No more than religion. Is there more to the universe than matter, energy maybe, even conscious energy that built what we call our universe.
This thread isn’t for explaining it all. This thread is for telling us your minimum qualifications for a god.
Take that to Cafe Society.
Once again, not the topic of this thread.
*Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. *
In literary speech a god is a being with abilities substantially greater or significant and of a different category than those around them. In some sense the Inca was a god. In another sense, we might make an exception for those whose powers exist because for purely political causes (that would include billionaires, since property rights are wholly dependent upon political institutions). But the 82nd Airborne transplanted to Roman times would be gods for example. As would Aquaman.
The Abrahamic G_d is another kettle of fish. Consider these distinguishing characteristics: [ol]
[li]Creator of the Universe[/li][li]Runs the afterlife[/li][li]Receives prayers[/li][li]Intervenes in human affairs[/li][li]Ultimately benevolent, in its own way[/li][li]Ultimately mysterious[/li][/ol] Number 6 is a big opt-out: it implies that not all of the above characteristics may actually obtain. Interpret #5 as “Not wholly evil” – see the Book of Job for elaboration. I’d say minimal qualifications might be #3 along with a modicum of power or #2 alone. #1 alone probably wouldn’t count. #4 qualifies for being a god, but the being either needs to be unique or have some sort of leadership role to be G-d. #1 and #4 in combination could give us something like pantheism, which is linguistically permissible.
Mix and match.
It seems most definitions contain the same attributes.
So why not go with the God we already have.
Makes things simpler.
Yep-things would so much simpler if we all let you define “God” for us.
If it’s not a force of the universe, maybe it’s just a powerful entity.
I like the “primal forces of the cosmos” definition, but maybe they only ever were powerful entities, or dreams of such.
Lower-case g? I’d count any conscious entity with inherent (i.e., not just granted to it via the tools that it uses) powers significantly beyond those of humans, at least some of which appear to our understanding to be supernatural. This may well include some aliens or other natural beings; I’m not troubled by such inclusion. If angels or the like exist, they probably also fit the bill. “Significantly beyond” I’m leaving deliberately vague: One being can be more godlike than another.
Upper-case G? That would be the Creator of the Universe. I expect that such a Being would be omnipotent, though even if not, it would still be so close to it as to be indistinguishable to us. And it would certainly be eternal, a condition far stronger than mere immortality, since time is itself a part of the created Universe. I hope and believe that it would be benevolent, but even if this should not be the case, I would still consider the Creator to be God.
I’m going to have to go with, “undefined quantity”, as in division by zero, as in f(x)=1/x, as x approaches 0.
I could not even begin to guess at the attributes that god would be required to possess for me to be able to define him as “the god”.
We would not be able to identify god if we sat on him. If he exists, he does so outside of our understanding of reality - whatever the hell that means - and that includes any fantasies of heaven and afterlife.
Having said that, I have not seen or read any evidence that such an entity exists. Nor that said entity takes any sort of special interest in this universe, or us specifically. Given our current circumstances, it is incredibly presumtuous of anyone to think otherwise.
What is missing is where you are looking. As once said “searching for God in all the wrong places.” Jesus said “Lo, it is not here nor there, the Kingdom of God is within you.” If you start looking where God is you will find Him. The God of the capitol G.
With all due respect, lekatt, for some of us, Jesus is not the authority figure you believe him to be.
The God of the capitol. That would be Jupiter, no?
Off- topic. Please start another thread to push your religion. That is not what this thread is about.
Using this definition, what is currently a “god” could eventually become just a powerful entity once we understand more about how it does what it does, correct?
So you’re saying; "When we understand how the magic works, is it still Magic? "
Maybe, if said “magic” appears to work on a system that is totally independent of science as we know it to be.
I guess I’d have three categories of god: practical gods, metaphysical gods, and God.
“Practical gods” are ordinary beings, with irresistible power. What qualifies as “irresistible” depends on context but in any case applies to ordinary people and their organizations, so one god being able to beat up another god doesn’t make the second any less of a god. Power being political in nature doesn’t automatically disqualify it from being irresistible but it can leave you vulnerable to even greater political power, which may be accessible to ordinary people. Practical gods are often referred to as “god-like,” and I think some have already existed and currently exist, even if none have any power over me personally.
Some examples:[ul]
[li]Klaatu would be a god in the 1950s, but not in the 23rd century when humanity has access to starships and Klingons.[/li][li]Superman would only be a god as long as nobody has any kryptonite.[/li][li]Kim Jong-un (or else the military leadership) is a god in North Korea, but not elsewhere.[/li][li]Even though the US is more powerful than North Korea, the US government is NOT a god, and neither is anybody in it, thanks to legal accountability and checks and balances and all that.[/li][li]Billionaires are NOT gods because they are subject to the same legal system as everybody else. They may be more powerful than you, but for the most part they can’t force you to do anything you really don’t want to do, and for the most part they’re not physically invulnerable either.[/li][li]The Illuminati as imagined by conspiracy theorists would count as a god. Even though it consists of many individuals, somehow they work together as one mind, and it’s subtle enough that nobody can do anything about it.[/ul][/li]
Dictators outside of North Korea are a gray area; Saddam Hussein wasn’t going to get overthrown from within, but people said that about Muammar Gaddafi too, and then it happened. I might have to qualify dictators as being god-like only if resistance is utterly unthinkable. In that case the god-kings of old were literally gods by merit of their subjects believing it, and there are very few god-kings left anymore. Similarly, cult leaders can become gods to their followers.
“Metaphysical gods” are simply beings from outside our universe or plane of existence that meaningfully interact with it, whether from without or by entering it temporarily. Their power is qualitatively different from that of practical gods, and has a much lower floor. Ghosts wouldn’t count as gods because they originate from our universe, but a god doesn’t have to do more than go “woooOOOOOOooo” in your ear to count as “meaningfully interacting.” They don’t have to behave or think like humans but there has to be something distinguishable from random noise behind them. Metaphysical gods are more or less what are normally referred to as “gods” or “spirits,” but I don’t have much else to say about them because I don’t think they exist in reality, and you can make gods however you like in fiction.
Capital-G “God” would be a single metaphysical god, qualitatively more powerful than any other metaphysical god that exists. God could be at the top, as a king of the celestial realm who bosses all the other gods around; or at the bottom, directly controlling the universe in a cosmic game of The Sims that was assembled by other gods; or simply the only god at all; the only real condition is that there’s only one god that can do what God does. Or else in a henotheistic world, “God” would simply be the term for addressing your tribe’s god, but I doubt henotheism is terribly relevant these days. And again, I don’t think gods exist, but if they did that’s how I’d determine which of them would be called God.