Reading a lot of the SD threads it is evident that there are a range of different gods that people believe in. Not in terms of religious flavour but in the definition of that god of their belief.
What I am curious about is what types of gods dopers believe in. 1) god that created the universe and thus exists beyond the universe - watches the universe in order that it should exist
2) god of the unexplained - slowly whittled away by scientific observation - used to include lightning, thunder, planetary motion, origin of species, inheritance, behaviour - now includes creation of universe and human consiousness.
3) god that listens to your prayers and acts on them
4) god or gods that exists within the human collective mind, created by humans and affecting societal behaviour of humans - without the human mind and human communication would cease to exist
5) god that wrote some books - bible, torah, koran, etc and gave them to humans
6) god of natural systems - eg gaia and including spirits of crops and natural processes - not being the cause of nature but the result of it
7) god that lives inside your head and will die when you die - probably same as the prayer god - a personal god that exists through your own thought and memory
8) Any combination of the above
If you can think of others please list them. Remember I am not talking about specific religions.
I was wondering whether to put this in IMHO or GD. Thought it was more GD material than IMHO, so here 'tis. Mods can move it to IMHO if required.
Wow, I’m first. Now perhaps I can engage in one of the famous hijacks I have heard of, hehehe. (Kidding)
This take a few pages, or perhaps twelve hundred, to cover, so I’ll be brief. Those who have read similar posts of mine will say this cannot be done.
I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as represented in the Hebrew lineage until the birth of His son Jesus Christ, an aspect of the God Almighty. I believe that the Bible is the primary reference for this God, and a lesson book for his followers. I tend not to debate Creation, or Revelation, as these issues have little to do with the daily Christian life(There are an amazing 1100 pages in between that you never hear about).
This is a God who receives prayer, directs and produced all living things in his way, and humanity in his image. As an all knowing and omnicient God has no real use for books, I believe the Bible was produced by man to record the knowledge man has of God and deposit it in a handy volume for reference. I belive in the deity of Christ.
Copaesthetic: Sorry if trying to distill something this complex into a simple description loses in the translation, but…
Your god has had a mortal form on earth and also created the universe?
You can communicate to your god through prayer, although the god is omnicient. So prayer is conceptualising for the benefit of the omnicent god to receive the information?
So the god created the universe, watches the universe, lives in it the universe and can communicate with humans.
This god does not live in the mind of humans then and can exist without them?
In essence yes. I can expound on why I think this is so, and why it would be necessary, but that requires condensing to a degree I cannot express.
Technically, I believe that God receives prayer, as He is omnicient, but that it is an indication of faithfulness and a desire to live by his will. The commonly held ideal of prayer effecting the events of a life undermines the belief in a divine will and a plan of existance. This is not to say that prayer for someone has no effect.
Yes. The first is a tenet of my faith, the second as well. Lives in it is accurate, but I would say that He is the universal bulding blocks that we are made of and the void that exists around them as well. Can communicate is really a given, and yes I believe He does.
I get no vote on when the sun shines, or the rate of the Earth’s rotation so I would assume this to be true.
I don’t really believe in a supreme deity of anything but I believe that everything has a touch of divinity or a soul to it. The god part of the equation is about archetypes of objects and such that personify a godhood but those are not entities unto themselves just representations of aspects that the individual creates. The purpose is not that gods exist but that divinity is in everything and holds sacred values.
Well, I’m an Athiest. Although I sometimes get the sinking feeling that the goddess Fortuna likes to “roll the bones” on my life, just for laughs. 'Don’t get the same feeling about the “Fates,” though. For what it’s worth.
And if I WERE religious, I think I’d either stick with Paganism (It worked fine for my ancestors, didn’t it?) and worship Hephestos (I always liked him), or go with a more “Pragmatic” religion like Judaism or Islam…or maybe Zoroastrianism or Yezedism, if I was feeling flamboyant. Although my sentimentality and lingering obsessive-compulsive tendencies would probably tilt me a little towards a sort of naturalistic deism.
Copaesthetic: so your god is the big universe-creator AND one that hung out on earth for a while to make sure the humans were doing well. Obviously, in this belief system, humans are incredibly important in the universe.
dorkusmalorkusmafia: I think I get what you are saying - that the interaction between the observer and the natural system creates the perception of divinity in that system.
Bryan Ekers: I almost put that one in…and I can tar both Ranchoth and Goo with the number 9 brush. Excuse the pigeon-holing, but this categorisation does help communicate the question.
I believe that there is no god or gods, and that the universe and everything in it can be explained through scientific means. I believe in neither the soul, nor the afterlife.
Although I do have an admiration for people of strong faith, especially those who use it as a positive force in their life and draw personal strength from it. My grandmother has had a very difficult life, and yet she exudes such a presence, mainly through the force of her faith in the Christian God.
Well, kinda. The divinity came first but is really unimportant unto itself. The person’s interaction with the archetypes creates godhood but gods themself don’t exist as entities.
This may be explained a little better with a very shallow example, every one has an idea of what motherhood should entail. The state of motherhood is an archetype that embodies birth, caretaking, teaching, etc. One can assign names to the state of motherhood such as Diana, the Virgin Mary, Bloeddwedd, etc but that isn’t as important as the archetype of what motherhood embodies.
This works down to the simplest pebble to the most complex organism and from the simplest state of existence to the most complex state of nuclear engineering. It encompasses everything since everything can be put into a state where it contains divinity. In other words, if you can place a word or concept to something it has achieved a sort of divinity and thus can have an archetypical form of godhood.
Not exactly. I wouldn’t presume to judge a specific level of energy required, but presumably if God can create a universe of the scope and spectrum we know, the required output to hang out would be relatively minimal. I believe he genuinely cares for us, and would hope that during Jesus’ time here a distant planet did not spin off into the cosmos due to lack of concentration.
I’m thinking my God’s closer to a 6. I consider myself to be not a religious person, but a very spiritual kinda guy. But, then, there’s this kinda thought thats closer to the 7 type of god. It’s that, I kinda think of myself as my own god. I am what shapes for me, I’m the one they can’t beat, I am the revolution, etc. etc. Anyone else know how I’m feeling?
Really? Life, having been a part of such a creation(the universe), exists as a microcosm of a divine plan, and thus does not draw the attention of the divine, but was created for His purpose. On the scale of a universe it is as easy to say that a galaxy might have been unnecessary, or that a single star in a single galaxy might not have served a purpose. Why create something that doesn’t need to be there? This implies no greater importance to a person than a star, or a galaxy, and no less to each grain of sand.
I do not believe in any god at all. The universe got created by reaction of matter and everything was formed because of that reaction.
Although, if there was proof such as me being able to physically see/touch, and them show me their powers, I’d probably believe in the greek or roman gods.
