Does The Universe Have An Ego?

[Guest end3]

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

[florduh]

Hey end! Hope you're doing well.

 

Gods? Of course they all have human qualities. Human experience is all we have to draw upon when we invent them.

[Guest end3]

Hey end! Hope you're doing well.

 

Gods? Of course they all have human qualities. Human experience is all we have to draw upon when we invent them.

Thanks sir.

 

So what if God tests faith by a question we can't answer in this realm?

 

Edit:  And why does humanity seem to operate outside the natural realm yet inside at the same time. 

 

This is one of those days when I think I have it figured out when I am just beginning. 

[florduh]

 

 

So what if God tests faith by a question we can't answer in this realm?

 

 

 

 

You test your own faith. Faith is generally believing things that have no evidence, sometimes things that don't even make sense. You just decide you're going to believe, and that's that. No more challenging questions or evidence allowed after that decision.

 

Someone would have to provide evidence for me to believe in a god before I could address the question. At this point, it's a nonsense question for me.

[Guest end3]

Just saying life and pure existance, i.e, the natural, has an ego/self preservation aspect....it has to. 

[florduh]

 

 

Just saying life and pure existance, i.e, the natural, has an ego/self preservation aspect....it has to. 

 

 

 

 

Self preservation must be a component of anything that survives in a competitive environment. Ego seems exclusively human.

[◊ crazyguy123 ◊]

I honestly don't think the Bible god claimed to have human qualities. Humans just invented him and gave him those qualities, in fact, he was given some of the worst qualities found in humans imaginable.

 

I do not understand why you think that a god or the universe would need to have an ego. Is there a reason why that must be so?

[Guest end3]

 

 

Just saying life and pure existance, i.e, the natural, has an ego/self preservation aspect....it has to. 

 

 

 

 

Self preservation must be a component of anything that survives in a competitive environment. Ego seems exclusively human.

 

The natural environment is not competitive?

[florduh]

 

 

The natural environment is not competitive?

 

 

 

 

Living things in the natural system compete for resources. What are you getting at?

[Ouroboros]

Just saying life and pure existance, i.e, the natural, has an ego/self preservation aspect....it has to.

Not saying that you're wrong, but the question is self preservation from what? Destruction? Competition? Enemies? Starvation? If God had it, it would suggest God has threats to his/her/its existence.

[Guest end3]

 

 

The natural environment is not competitive?

 

 

 

 

Living things in the natural system compete for resources. What are you getting at?

I guess what I am getting at is "ego" is assigned to humanity through what set of definitions.  If we are all just starstuff, then I can't see that everything else is not just as living as am I.

[Guest end3]

 

Just saying life and pure existance, i.e, the natural, has an ego/self preservation aspect....it has to.

Not saying that you're wrong, but the question is self preservation from what? Destruction? Competition? Enemies? Starvation? If God had it, it would suggest God has threats to his/her/its existence.

 

Long time no hear sir!  Hope you are well.  My first thought was that this "matched the Bilble" when assigning human characteristics to God.  Haven't let it roll around much more in the limited room in my head.  Hope the family is ok Hans.

[florduh]

If we are all just starstuff, then I can't see that everything else is not just as living as am I.

 

 

 

Everything is made of the same basic components. Iron, aluminum and wires can come together as a car or a coffee maker. Atoms can make up a meteor or a flower petal. Animate things have different qualities than inanimate things.

 

I still don't know where this is supposed to go.

[Ouroboros]

Long time no hear sir!  Hope you are well.  My first thought was that this "matched the Bilble" when assigning human characteristics to God.  Haven't let it roll around much more in the limited room in my head.  Hope the family is ok Hans.

We're all well here, except for a stupid flu thing going around.

 

I'm not sure the assigning of human attributes is necessarily Biblical. Most other ancient religions did (a few didn't). I think Jewish religion was a step away from the anthropomorphic God towards a more philosophical super-god, in non-human sense.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

You're alive! I've been wondering how you are doing? Have things improved yet for you? I know you've were going through a tough time, and I was worried and hoping everything was turning out okay.

 

Why would it have to have an ego? Is the Universe and God identical? Would the Bible agree with that notion?

 

In the Bible, it seems like God is described as being a physical entity/being that can move in and around our world.

[sdelsolray]

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

 

You equate the term "Universe" with the term "God".  Is that intentional?  If so, why not simply ask the question "Does God have an Ego?"?  Of course, you may need to define "God" for us skeptics.  Feel free to do so.  Discussing and analyzing fiction is always fun.

[Kurari]

Hmm. I haven't really seen anything to suggest the universe has an "ego" or a sense of self-preservation. Not anymore than a rock would.  

 

 

And why does humanity seem to operate outside the natural realm yet inside at the same time. 

 

It's the way we evolved. It's mostly perception. We're fully part of the natural realm, but being self-aware beings with little but our hands and brains to survive with, it's easy to feel like an outsider. 

[sdelsolray]

 

 

 

The natural environment is not competitive?

 

 

 

 

Living things in the natural system compete for resources. What are you getting at?

I guess what I am getting at is "ego" is assigned to humanity through what set of definitions.  If we are all just starstuff, then I can't see that everything else is not just as living as am I.

 

 

Study "emergent properties".  Atoms are not pumps, but certain collections of atoms pump blood in mammals.  Single atoms do not have color, but certain collections of them, such as in a red fire hydrant, have color.

 

Yes, you are composed of "starstuff", but you are a certain collection of starstuff, with different properties than other collections of starstuff.

[RipVanWinkle]

The bible god was competing with the other gods mentioned in the OT. Yeah, I agree.Indeed, he had a

massive ego, exactly like one you would expect humans to invent. Wasn't it Abraham who talked god out of

killing every one in Sodom if there were 50 righteous men? Abraham then bargained god down, I think it

was to 10 righteous men, using tactics designed precisely to appeal to god's ego. That is one of the many things that makes it obvious to a reasonable person that the bible was written by men, not god. bill

[duderonomy]

 

If we are all just starstuff, then I can't see that everything else is not just as living as am I.

 

 

 

Everything is made of the same basic components. Iron, aluminum and wires can come together as a car or a coffee maker. Atoms can make up a meteor or a flower petal. Animate things have different qualities than inanimate things.

 

I still don't know where this is supposed to go.

 

 

 

end3 said: "I guess what I am getting at is "ego" is assigned to humanity through what set of definitions.  If we are all just starstuff, then I can't see that everything else is not just as living as am I."

 

What makes humans special. That's where this is supposed to go, IMHO.  

 

[Geezer]

Two things, IMO, that contributed to Christianity getting on the wrong track:

 

1. Their tendency to literalize metaphor.
2. Envisioning their deities as anthropomorphic  supernatural humanoids.

 

IMO, if the original ancient version of Gnostic Christianity (mystic) had won out over the orthodox version (dogma) it would have been better for both Christianity and mankind in general.

 

End3, have you ever read the Gnostic Gospels, especially the Gospel of Thomas?

 

The Gnostics believed God was found by looking inward not by Divine revelation. I think it’s unfortunate that approach to the Divine didn’t prevail over orthodoxy (believing the right things).

[bornagainathiest]

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

 

Be careful, End!

 

Sdelsolray was right to ask you if you're equating the word 'Universe' with 'God'. 

If you are, then you've left Christianity behind and have become a Pantheist.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism   "Pantheism is the belief that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God, or that the universe (or nature) is identical with divinity.  Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god."

 

In Christianity, God is not the universe and the universe is not God.

The personal Christian God existed 'before' the universe, caused it to be created and sustains it, moment by moment, by His will.  The personal Christian God is alive, but the universe is not alive, is not a person and therefore has no ego.  There is only one location that we know of in the entire universe that harbors life... the planet Earth.  Stars are not living beings, are not people and don't have egos.  Same for the galaxies, nebulae, planets, comets, asteroids or anything else 'out there'.

 

Also, if you are equating God with the universe, then you are promoting an anti-Christian heresy.

In Christianity, it is a heresy to say that anything physical is God. God is Spirit and only became physical for just over thirty years, in the form of Jesus Christ.  In Christianity, it is heretical to claim that anyone has seen God (the Father) because God has made Himself known only thru the person of His Son, Jesus of Nazareth.  So how are you saying you've seen God?  By equating God with the physical Universe, that's how.  If you've seen the Sun, the Moon and the stars, then you've seen God.  If the Universe = God, then we see God almost every day.  That's not Christianity, that's heresy. 

 

Lastly, if you are equating God with the universe... then He's only 13.8 billion years old and He was born in a fireball called the Big Bang.  The Bible says God is eternal, but if the Universe = God, then our telescopes and satellites can easily give us accurate information about Him.  Which makes scripture redundant.  Why rely on the words of an ancient collection of stories when modern technology is gathering more and more information about Him? 

 

After all, this page... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe ...tells us the size, age, contents, structure and laws of God.  It tells us that God is made up of Leptons, Quarks, Photons, Gluons, Weakly-Interacting Bosons and, of course, the Higgs Boson. (a.k.a., the God particle)  It tells us that Einstein's field equations of the spacetime metric describe the overall structure of God very well, except for where they break down - at the event horizons of black holes and at the gravitational singularity that's inferred to be the cause of the Big Bang, when God was born. And so on.

 

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Please note End that I'm not writing this to slap you down.  Nope! 

 

It's just that other folks will be reading this and I owe it to them to make sure they understand the difference between Christianity (Theism) and Pantheism, ok?

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

[Guest end3]

"Oneness", peace, God, would imo, be found internally on this atomic level, and by default at any scale.  Unity and separation, bonding and dissassociation and distance suggest a dichotomy, or moral absolute, or life and death defined by chemistry and physics, Our own sense of peace and wellness appear to confirm this as well in that when we are joined and associated, we are at peace, unity, etc., and when we are dissassoicated, separate, we are not well and likened to "death".

 

So at the minute, I am holding that a rock might have more lasting love than I do... 

 

So essentially, we see God in nature, and in the Universe,  and internally to us, and externally to us, and also satisfies the Bible references to God having these human qualities.....specifically by unassigning qualities to certain manifestations per a lack of insight.

[Guest end3]

 

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

You're alive! I've been wondering how you are doing? Have things improved yet for you? I know you've were going through a tough time, and I was worried and hoping everything was turning out okay.

 

Why would it have to have an ego? Is the Universe and God identical? Would the Bible agree with that notion?

 

In the Bible, it seems like God is described as being a physical entity/being that can move in and around our world.

 

Thank for the note BD.  I'm making it but not enjoying it give or take a few moments.  I assume it is my time in the barrel, but thank you again for the note....made me feel good.

[Blake]

Feel free to compare and contrast life, ego, forgiveness, selfishness, etc. 

 

My personal opinion.....it would seeme the Universe, i.e. God would have to have an Ego purely out of Self Preservation...or at least our limited reality. 

 

So why wouldn't the Bible be true when God claims to have these human qualities.

 

Be careful people.

 

The universe in and of itself does not have an ego. Humanity, and the universe, has evolved to a point in which our perception is so much more wildly advanced than it ever was before -- we actually are able to perceive the universe. The ant, the rock, a forest, etc. cannot perceive "itself" or its surroundings to the extent that we can; a worker ant doesn't ponder its life or death or first origin. This is exclusive to humanity.

 

In my view, humanity is the universe finally having become aware of itself. Consciousness itself has evolved within us. Ego came with mankind as well. That is to say, before humans, there was no ego. There was no awareness to the extent that we are all aware now.