What type of god do you believe in?

[antechinus]

-zorch:
Your idea of god is one that was created with the universe / is the universe. However, by the sounds of it, this god does not have any special connection with conciousness within the universe or humans or other species. It does not rely on humans to exist.
Does this god does have any particular fondness of humans?

If this not then why even bother about this god, if there is no way of interacting with it? Sounds like this god is synonomous with ‘the universe’. Sounds suspiciously like a type 2 god.
I am trying to work out how a connection can be made between

• a god that created the universe (or is the universe) and
• a god that is interested in or interacts with humans.

It still seems to me that they are separate concepts.

[wonky]

*Originally posted by Shodan *
**1 and 3. I am a Modal Monarchian Lutheran Christian with mild Deist tendencies. **

Now I’m embarrassed. When you wrote this, I assumed Gilbert and Sullivan, and I laughed. :o

Julie

[Shodan]

*Originally posted by antechinus *
**Shodan:

When you said

I misunderstood it to mean, that if a person behaves moraly then they are a Christian, even without realising it. But in your last post you are saying that being a practicing christian makes you behave morally.

Either way, that has more to do with morals and religions than god. Unless you mean that a belief in a powerful entity makes people behave morally.
**

No, God Himself makes people act morally - that is to say, when we become Christians, we act in accordance with His will, which is to behave morally, by definition. There is no morality apart from God.

So that which does not have to do with God cannot have anything to do with morality.

*Originally posted by antechinus *
**
This powerful entity, that created the universe, would be a type 1 god, but one that affects peoples behaviour through belief. Thus it is only the concept of a type 1 god that assists belief. But you cannot have ‘belief’ or ‘peoples behaviour’ without humans. So then it must be a god that relies on humans to exist. Thus it is a type 4 god, rather than a type 1.
**

I am pretty sure I don’t understand this. But God existed before humans existed. And God can and does assist humans without their knowledge or belief.

*Originally posted by antechinus *
**
I did not intend that type 4 god be a Jungian archetype but larger than that. It (they) survive in the conciousness, subconciousness, media, communications networks - any system of information storage and processing that interacts with human minds. These gods affect human behaviour - like morality. Memes exist in this way. **

And God also existed before there were any human minds, or any universe at all. God is non-contingent.

Regards,
Shodan

[antechinus]

So Shodan you are saying belief in god makes people act morally. But non believers can act morally. From my observations many people who believe in a god behave immorally and the converse for non-believers.

How are morals translated to humans from god? Via the bible, koran etc If this is the case then this was what I was getting at with type 5 god - modes of moral behaviour are learnt throught these texts.

I am pretty sure I don’t understand this. But God existed before humans existed. And God can and does assist humans without their knowledge or belief.

I am saying that even if god created the universe, it is only the belief in god that makes god real in terms of affecting peoples behaviour (behaving morally).

Without humans there is no belief, and therefore no ‘god of morality’, beyond humans.

[Cerri]

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 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

In that order.