What is God? What's SHE like?

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 12 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #941 in Religion, #81,014 overall

Is God a person? Does He/She/It exist? More questions about God...

I'm not personally invested in believing in a personal God. For me God is something impersonal, all encompassing and in everything. But what do YOU think?

This is a religious debate with room for all points of view.

Do you believe in God? 

Any God? or none at all...

Do you believe in God (any God)

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Yes, there is something divine...

HandyProductsMaster says:

I believe in God, the father the son and the holy spirit. I believe just like the world changes that God changes. All the debates over whether homesexuality is a sin, Ive had people pray over me desperately to stop me being gay, but at the end of the day being gay doesn;t stop me loving God, and unlike the bits in the bible in soddom and gommorah where homosexuality activity is greatly frowned upon, mainly becasues it was for lust and power, not for love!. Faith is about love of God and letting the faith inspire you to be happy, pretty much all religions offer the same thing, no matter what name they give to God. Its all a matter of interpretation, as long as we are happy with what we believe, who can truly criticise!

Posted June 15, 2009

Zaltark says:

As we can all see, even those that express feelings contrary to a singular "God", they still have a spiritual need or hunger. Regardless if someone 'believes' for or against, there will always be a need to want something greater than ourselves, because we are incredibly pitiful compared to all of creation. The fact that those not believing in God still having a spiritual need shows that humans were created with a gap to be filled. Some fill it with thier own versions of a god, but still it can't be denied. We NEED God, whether or not we wish to proclaim any certain one.

Posted May 23, 2009

gayatri says:

i believe in god b coz he is the one who created heaven & earth who gave me life sill im breathing is only bcoz of him
GODis spirit
jesus is only one the saviour & lord

Posted May 11, 2009

Janusz says:

Bieng a realist I tend to need proof before I believe that anything Divine exists. Why "Yes" then ? because the Proof is all around us & within us.

Posted May 09, 2009

Dyaz says:

offcourse there is a god. it`s just one and live anywhere in our selves and also in this universe...........

Posted May 06, 2009

Treasures-By-Brenda says:

I believe there is a God.

Posted April 14, 2009

dustytoes says:

Yes, I am sure of it.

Posted March 08, 2009

mephious says:

I believe there is a God, but also that the God of classical theism is a logical imposibility, am I crazy? Maybe ^^

Posted October 07, 2008

dc64 says:

Definately. I don't just believe, I know there is a God the way I know there is a breeze or a mighty wind. I don't see the wind, but I see the effects of its existance.

Posted September 02, 2008

Joan4 says:

I believe in God. I also believe that God is Love and Love is a Verb. I don't believe God is some bearded being in the sky taking notes. I do believe we are to walk in Love, to the best of our ability.

Posted August 25, 2008

No, there is no God of any kind

cryptid says:

Your options of responses don't give me much to work with, as they are two extremes. I'm more in the middle, just like you in your introduction to this lense. What god is is not just a divinity, but all things. So, yes there is a god in a sense, but not one divine. Thats what I believe, anyways.

Posted December 20, 2008

kephrira says:

I'm with the Greeks - belief is an inferior form of knowledge - but I think faith is something different, more like a form of extreme optimism rather than an inflexible metaphysical position. But that doesn't mean that I believe that there isn't a God anymore than belive there is. And I also passionately beleive than through philosophy and practical experimentation such as prayer and meditation you can be spiritual without sacrificing reason or scepticism.

Posted May 21, 2008

 
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What's the most important thing about God? 

What's the essence of this religious debate?

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So, how do YOU see God? 

What's your religious view on God?

Anything you have to say about God...

Lensmaster

TheLovingGod wrote...

This pretty much sums up my understanding of god.

www.thelovinggod.com

ReplyPosted May 21, 2009

Lensmaster

Joan4 wrote...

I agree, spirituality. What makes us think we can understand God as a concept? We are all just doing the best we can to understand the things that we can grasp. God is beyond our capabilites to understand. I try not to focus on things I do not understand, but focus instead on the little things I do understand - like walk in Love.

ReplyPosted August 25, 2008

Lensmaster

ALLAH wrote

I am God

Reply Posted July 08, 2008

Lensmaster

kephrira wrote...

I see god as the idealized and perfected state of the universe, the ultimate goal and fulfillment of all things. Therefore although from the trans-temporal spiritual universe god exists and has always existed (at the start of the universe as the 'final cause', just as the tree is the final cause which guides and regulates the development of a seed - see Categories of Causation for more on final cause), from the material universe god exists only as a potential, a desire and a direction of evolution which is inherent in all things and which can be embraced and expressed or ignored and defiled.
I do not beleive in the personified image of God as some kind of entity or being.
At least that's what think sometimes. Other times I think he's just a good excuse for a fight

ReplyPosted May 21, 2008

Lensmaster

spirituality wrote...

God is beyond understanding, in everything, beyond thought, and certainly beyond sex.

ReplyPosted May 21, 2008

On the Gender of God 

Each of the arguments in this lens could equally well be made for a female or impersonal God.

Personally I tend to believe that if there is a personal God who lives up to all the qualities mentioned in this lens, She must be female or gender-neutral. After all: giving birth is a female attribute. The female needs the male to do it - so God could also be gender-neutral: be both at once.

So, is God female, male or something else? 

Religious debate about God Itself...

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Divine attributes 

Religious debate about the divine attributes, describing God

So God is like this...???

Add any description of The Divine that I may have missed.

1

Vote Up

In everything, all around

4 points

2

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Pure Love

4 points

3

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All encompasing

3 points

4

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Energy

3 points

5

Vote Up

The ocean

2 points

6

Vote Up

Limitless Compassion

2 points

7

Vote Up

White Light

1 point

8

Vote Up

An artist

1 point

9

Vote Up

Doesn't exist

1 point

10

Vote Up

Unthinkable

1 point

11

Vote Up

A giant spagetti monster

1 point

12

Vote Up

impersonal

1 point

13

Vote Up

Allmighty

0 points

14

Vote Up

A man on a throne

0 points

15

Vote Up

Nothing else

0 points

16

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a person

0 points

17

Vote Up

A hypocrit

0 points

Links about God 

Do you believe in God?
this difficult question explored...
Attributes of God in Islam
An explanation of the Perfect Names and Attributes of Allah.
The Attributes of God
God reveals Himself not only in His names, but also in His attributes, that is, in the perfections of the divine Being. It is customary to distinguish between incommunicable and communicable attributes. Of the former there are no traces in the creature; of the latter there are.

Attributes of God - the official list (sort of) 

The standard Christian religious view of God

Usually God is seen in the Christian tradition (as well as the Muslim one) as having the following attributes - which are basically ways of saying God is Perfect.

  • All knowing = omniscient

  • All powerful

  • Independent of His creatures

  • Infinity

  • Simplicity (not composed of several parts, can't be divided up)

  • All wise

  • All Good

  • Loving

  • Morally perfect

  • Righteousness: abides by the perfect laws he created

  • faithfulness: He keeps His promises

  • sovereignty: sovereign will and sovereign power


Source of all these

Does God have a body? Does He know what it feels like to touch someone? 

A stingy religious debate

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Does God belong to a specific religion? 

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God is a person? 

If there is a source to everything, it could be a person: a creator, an artist, something like that. If God is a person, that implies choice, consciousness, awareness perhaps.

But that source could also be impersonal, beyond the limitations that personality bring. Can God be a person without having a body? Does God have a body?

Perhaps the ultimate source of all being is beyond the conceptions of 'person' or 'impersonal'?

[See John Hick on 'Philosophy of Religion']

John Hick, Philosophy of Religion 

Philosophy of Religion (4th Edition) (Foundations of Philosophy)

Philosophy of Religion (4th Edition) (Foundations of Philosophy)

by: John H. Hick

Amazon Price: $37.46 (as of 07/05/2009)Buy Now

This book is so often referred to in my philosophy or religion class, I feel I just have to read it.

John Hick takes the multi-cultural world of today seriously. He takes the existence of very different religions seriously. He finds a way to unite those religions in a philosophy that's inspiring and original.

The eternity of God - does IT know what time it is? 

God is eternal and changeless. So say the classic philosophers of religion. But if He is, is he IN TIME, responding to our needs?

Or is She perhaps BEYOND time, timeless, perfect 'from a distance'?

Does God know what time it is?

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yes, She knows everything.

No, She is beyond time.

cryptid says:

Time is just a manifestation of humanities physical brain cycle. Once the body stops time as we know it ceases to exist.

Posted December 20, 2008

ALLAH says:

Time doesn't exist

Posted July 08, 2008

spirituality says:

I like to think God is beyond time - if He exists. And then He may know what time it is FOR ME, but I think He would hardly care. What is time anyhow? Does it really matter whether it's 11.20 at the moment? Or does it matter that on Saturday morning I was doing something?

Posted May 24, 2008

 
 
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The Goodness of God - what about evil? 

Goodness is one of the most important attributes of God. Only a perfectly Good God is worth worshiping, after all...

Well, that's not true in all religions. Powerful gods who aren't Good can also be worshiped, to increase the chances of them doing good...

Still, the God of Christianity, Islam and Judaism is assumed to be Good. Perfect. All powerful.

This leads to the classic question: what about evil? How can an all powerful God allow evil? This ties in with the freedom of choice debate: perhaps a Good God would give us freedom of choice, accepting the existence of evil as a side-effect...

How can an all powerful God allow evil?

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I don't know, it's a real problem for me.

cryptid says:

This is the biggest problem with the 3 "main religions" of the world. In terms of Christianity and Judaism, the modern day followers of these religions always seem to be idealizing their God and not seeing his "faults." Within the opening chapters of Genesis (of the Old Testament) God himself makes it know that he is both good and evil, light and darkness. Yet, in light of this followers of these religions still act as if God is only good. There is a dualism between God and Satan that needs to be knocked down, and inadvertantly combine both of these entities into one. Why? If God is all powerful, he must have created those who existed around him before humanity (including Satan). If he created a being such as Satan, than God must inadvertantly take on all the traits capable of such a being (in order to be an all knowing, all everything God). If God created evil (perhaps in the most innate form as Satan), than God must inadvertantly be a creation of himself reencarnated as an evil being in order to contrast his "good" side from "evil" side.

It is a complicated thing, beyond this.

Posted December 20, 2008

spirituality says:

For me this issue is one of the reasons I don't believe in a God that's all powerful and the essence of Good. Evil is clearly, in our daily lives, a matter of people mistreating people. There is no evidence that there is a God interfering, and there is a lot of evidence that interference might just be a GOOD idea.

Posted May 24, 2008

God has a good reason for allowing evil (tell me what you think)

HandyProductsMaster says:

God created man to live for himself and think for himself, otherwise we would all be slaves. Evil is not praised and is probably the work of the devil. If we did not have evil we woul dhave nothing to compare good with. God offers us the right to have our evils forgiven in exchange for our undying love for him

Posted June 15, 2009

TheLovingGod says:

If misfortune befalls you while you dream who is responsible?

You the dreamer or God?

Posted May 21, 2009

dc64 says:

If God did not allow evil, then this would be heaven. I think God wants us to learn how to live with evil around us, but be strong enough to deny it's hold on us. I hate it, it really blows, and sometimes I think life is SO unfair! But I think God is trying to teach us something, we just have to learn what that is.

Posted September 02, 2008

 
 
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Further debate on the causes of evil 

featured lens What is the cause of Evil?

What is the cause of Evil? I think this complicated question begs a divine answer. Evil is such an absolutist word... I prefer to ask the question as follows: what's the cause of injustice and sorrow in the universe?

What other questions should I ask here about God? 

Any feedback you want to give...

Lensmaster

Treasures-By-Brenda wrote...

Another great thinking lens, Katinka; another blessing. Nicely done.

Brenda

ReplyPosted April 14, 2009

Lensmaster

spirituality wrote...

It's humans that decide who's going to be the leader of the household (and I don't think it's either or: partners can be equal).

ReplyPosted September 03, 2008

Lensmaster

dc64 wrote...

If God were either male or female, I believe male, because why would God, is a female, have allowed the male to be the leader of the household, to be physically stronger, and to be created first?

ReplyPosted September 02, 2008

Lensmaster

kephrira wrote...

Is human language capable of containing the immensity of spiritual reality? And therefore can 'God' really be anything more than just a word? If you say you don't believe in God, and I say do, what's to say were not both right. And can a book (like the bible or koran) written in a human language really contain the word of God, or is that just really bloody arrogant?

ReplyPosted May 21, 2008

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