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Define God!

What is your definition of God, that you disbelieve completely if you are an atheist, believe completely if a believer or are unwilling to either believe or fully discount if you are agnostic?
If we all have a different concept, my your belief may match my disbelief. Basically, describe what you would accept as a god? White male with a long beard? Or the physical laws of the universe?
Maybe we can come closer to a consensus about what does and does not constitute a god, perhaps a poll at some time to get some idea how much support each idea has.
For me, it must be sentient and have deliberately created reality. The chaotic interactions of things subject to the laws of physics does not count, nor does some advanced alien civilisation who can do magic or have technology way ahead of ours. Bottom line, sentient and was not created by anything else and created everything.

Rugglesby 8 May 12
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13 comments

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1

A myth made up of numerous stories of the old ages.

2

I remember reading an anecdote about a young man who said he didn't believe in a supreme being, and the way a priest / pastor / whatever replied, "Please describe for me the God you don't believe in." The poor kid mumbled something about a wild eyed, vengeful lunatic with a rather useless beard, and the priest said, "I don't believe in that either."

All the while, I kept thinking, "What a magnificently stupid question," and "Is that supposed to be proof that there is a supreme being after all?" All these years later, I find myself saying, "It sure is" and "It definitely isn't," which settles any residual dust the memory might have kicked up. 😛

2

A philosophical product of the human Ego. The SuperEgo is the awareness of sel-awareness. All else is just narcissism.

1

God is the outward expression of an inner character weakness.

1

Why don't you explain your god? As for me, I am confident that no god exists.

I also believe no god exists. I just get confused when so many say they are open to the possibility, or that they can't be 100% sure that there is no god. I wonder what their definition of such a possibility is. Mine as above is the self aware entity that created reality and itself. I do not believe that such exists.

Terrific...@Rugglesby

3

For me... God is a mythological character that is a personification of the collective forces of the universe, and is an emergent property of the human mind designed by evolution.

skado Level 9 May 12, 2018
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I would have to say that any sentient being that was so powerful that it could create the universe out of itself would have to have a consciousness so far removed from humankind that it would be incomprehensible to humanity, less of a connection than that between single celled organisms and humans. The gods described in the various holy books are more of an anthropomorphic deity that humans can relate to, at times loving and nurturing, at other times jealous and vengeful but most of the time just plain homicidal.
As an atheist I can accept the concept of a universal life force, indifferent to my personal needs and wants or even a god particle like Higgs boson with roots to the Big Bang theory but a sentient being that sprang out of itself and then created everything else is not acceptable to me anymore than an angry, old man in the sky deity is acceptable as anything more than a Bronze Age fairy tale. That said however, if an angry old man came down from the sky and clearly demonstrated god powers then I would readily change my mind but I wouldn't be blindly believing in something, rather I would be accepting a change in my perceived reality.

Agree completely with your answer......so well said!

@Trin81 Thank you for the praise, my fellow Ontarian. 🙂

very well explained.

1

God - the natural forces that drive the Universe

gater Level 7 May 12, 2018
2

Your definition is not a bad definition to be agnostic/atheist about. Creation ex Nihilo, however, is a relatively modern concept. By relatively modern, I mean the early Roman Catholic Church (Latin). Creation ex Nihilo essentially originated as a way of saying to the pagans, "Our God is greater than yours. He can create out of nothing." Note also that Creation ex Nihilo is not explicitly found in Genesis. The ancients thought that creation out of nothing was completely illogical. Nothing comes from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit). (Yes, Shakespeare played on this saying in King Lear.) Consequently, the ancient Greeks believed that there was always some sort of matter or primordial stuff which a creator God organized into creation as we see it (Creation ex Materia).

0

Waste my valuable time thinking about the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, et al? No thanks!

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no place for any god (omnipotent being) in my multiverse, where Nature, an omnipotent force, rules.

2

I can't describe a god of my choice... i don't want one.

same actually, if there was one I would still be an atheist.

@Rugglesby that's right!

3

Define a nuh. Nuhs are mythical creatures that live in Nuhia which also does not exist. So you tell me what you think they look like?

LOL! Exactly.

But the ancient Greeks had some interesting gods..good enough to keep entertaining us in Marvel movies centuries later.

And because Chris Hemsworth.

Hahahaha........ you just answered for me Kelvin 😉

@birdingnut Lets not forget the vikings. Greek gods lend themselves to psychology so well too. Where would Freud be without them.

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