Foxy Methoxy Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Obviously, the notion of God is the basis of religion and this question is probably the most basic religious question I could ask. Since I follow no religion and do not believe in the existence of God, my answer is: "God is a man-made notion that represents a person or group's archetype for perfection." What is your answer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 God is a spungmonkey. "We love the moon!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerise Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 God is a catch-all noun for whatever concept people want it to be at the time. The definition of "god" can be presented in a bunch of fill-in-the-blank qualities that appeal to social sensibility and personal opinion at the time of their choosing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poonis Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 God is what is attributed the unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spamandham Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 God is that which can only be described in terms of what it isn't. God is semantically the same as 'nothing'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willybilly30 Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Last time I tried to answer a question like this I was told to prove it and could not prove it. So I have decided no one knows what god is and everyone’s ideas about god is a guess. Maybe there is a god and maybe there is not. Its all a guessing game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotBlinded Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 God is that which can only be described in terms of what it isn't. God is semantically the same as 'nothing'. Exactly. No-thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianka Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Unless we have more than just atheists answering we are going to get the same answer, or a variation of it. So, as redundant as this is.... God is nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LloydDobler Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 There's a view called non-cognitivism that holds that the very question leads to the undefinable, and therefore is beyond nonsense, it's just meaningless, as are phrases like 'god is love' or 'god is before time' or 'god has no beginning or end'. I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxy Methoxy Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 "God is nothing." I think an atheist can do better than that. Enough people have been slaughtered over the name of one god or another for the word to represent more than nothing. Although I agree that the concept of God is a man made fabrication, I can hardly pass off the religious notion of such a being as a harmless nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 God is Justification. Pick something and add the word "for." God is justification for war. God is justification for religion. You can add anything to it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 "God is nothing." I think an atheist can do better than that. Enough people have been slaughtered over the name of one god or another for the word to represent more than nothing. Although I agree that the concept of God is a man made fabrication, I can hardly pass off the religious notion of such a being as a harmless nothing. OK very well, God is a potetic symbol for those contemplating the splended mysteries of existance... OR, he is a very, very heavy and evil club with which power-hungery fuckers blugend weaker people into sumbissiveness so they may exercise control over them. Take your pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skankboy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 "God" is a place holder for things we don't yet understand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuddhistCommunist Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 "God is not a person not less than a person", God is neither a living being nor a nonliving being. God cannot be described in the world of the phenomena, to touch the nomenal level, one must first touch the phenomenal level. To make a long story short, You can't prove or disprove God. You can have assumptions and logic, but you can't possibly pass worldly speculation on something in which none of it applies. Anyway... It's best no one talks about God, because when you do you get caught in a notion, such as the christians. As far as the christian God goes. Fuck him! he may be based on something real, but is far from any concievable truth! peace, BC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianka Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 "God is nothing." I think an atheist can do better than that. Enough people have been slaughtered over the name of one god or another for the word to represent more than nothing. Although I agree that the concept of God is a man made fabrication, I can hardly pass off the religious notion of such a being as a harmless nothing. The slaughting done in the name of God does not characterize God in any way. He is not the reason why people kill each other, human error is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotBlinded Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 "God is not a person not less than a person", God is neither a living being nor a nonliving being. God cannot be described in the world of the phenomena, to touch the nomenal level, one must first touch the phenomenal level. That is pretty much what I meant when I said that god is no-thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mythra Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 God is an idea that started out okay - "ooh that sun feels warm on my back today" - and went downhill from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MQTA Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 YIF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhampir Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 "God is a man-made notion that represents a person or group's archetype for perfection." Seeing as certain mythologies represent deities in a knowing way as being less than perfect (Norse gods for example), this definition falls short in my opinion. "God is a malleable representation of nature, the forces thereof, and/or that which creates and controls it, often personifying human or animal qualities in a greatly increased (ie. stronger, faster, smarter, wiser, etc.) manner as a way to relate to the mind of it's human creator, though not absolutely requiring such an embodiment." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godlessgrrl Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 God is a mirror. He reflects the cultures that created him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGiant Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 That that would be god cannot be defined all that well, kind of like the Tao. At least most definitions leave a few important bits out. My view on this. YMMV. Oh, I do have one other definition: you're looking at him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuddhistCommunist Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 That that would be god cannot be defined all that well, kind of like the Tao. At least most definitions leave a few important bits out. My view on this. YMMV. Oh, I do have one other definition: you're looking at him. He's My computer screen!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Gods Fail Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 My definition is much like Dhampir's quote: "God is a malleable representation of nature, the forces thereof, and/or that which creates and controls it, often personifying human or animal qualities in a greatly increased (ie. stronger, faster, smarter, wiser, etc.) manner as a way to relate to the mind of it's human creator, though not absolutely requiring such an embodiment." Gods, including OT & NT biblegod, (and the supernatural in general) are a primitive people's ways of explaining patterns that they don't understand. Gods are called upon to fill in the blanks and give us a way to get a handle on things that puzzle us. Why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? Because Apollo pulls it across the sky in his chariot. Why do we all speak different languages? Because Yaweh had to stop humans from building a tower to heaven. It's amazing to me that humans invented gods and gave them such rich, detailed histories. Obviously part of that reason was political - an attempt to define a people or tribe, and pull them together. But I think often god-stories also served as entertainment: sitting around the fire at night, a story-teller would be called upon to tell a particular tale of how the god did this or that, either by himself/herself or through human followers. What would follow then would be a thrilling episode of warriors and kings, heroines and villains, all topped off with miracles and other supernatural pyrotechnics where the god sets things to right (or at least resolve the story somehow). It was primitive television! Gods are the first stage toward enlightenment. All peoples, everywhere, had gods/spirits to build meaning and purpose around existence for at least one stage in their development. It's just what we do - our big, inquisitive brains are always asking questions. Unfortunately, while gods can help people dream and use their imagination, they eventually hinder it by creating artificial barriers. "Here there be monsters." Gods do not like us to get past them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssel Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 What is your answer? Wouldn't you need to first realize what a "god" is before you get into what The God is? What does the word "god" actually mean whether one exists or not. Obviously a great many people throughout history have used the concept, so what is the concept? What is the difference between the god of war and the god of life (just for an example). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy-tiger Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 What is your answer? Wouldn't you need to first realize what a "god" is before you get into what The God is? That was the question... what is god? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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