What is God and does it exist?

[Ignorant]

Lot's of proof and it's in fact not even debatable, it's just willfully ignored

"say the lords prayer and repent"

Lots of proof for what?

[midicon]

The state of human reality is artificial due to the technological extension of our activities. It probably started with food and boiled over into every aspect of our thoughts/influence.

All of our activities might have equivalents in nature but nothing in nature has writing and language skills like us which seemingly is a huge step in pooling knowledge and ideas. Ideas of the divine are evidently a big talking point within human interaction given the understanding of history we have. Whenever we see historical culture we see reference to the revered and the holy which I would say indicates that having a concept of the divine enhances a group's ability to comprehend and grow.

In short, it all goes hand in hand. God might be an invention (artificial) but that's par for the course within a human world, surely?

Thanks for replying Ray. I appreciate it!

[Redchad]

We know hardly anything about God but if he/it exists it is not found in the bible. If anything, we find in the bible many different seemingly superior beings named Elohim. in fact there are lots of Elohim, all of which have been mistranslated and called God or Gods. Ask any translator of ancient texts and writings, they will confirm the translation of Elohim is not known and has been argued about for thousands of years. It’s thought to have been leader, great one, judge, warrior, healer, teacher, farmer, lord, emperor king etc etc. One thing the bible does tell us, is that they are not Adamites and are mortal and do die but have exceptionally long lives. In the region in question there were many Elohim such as Chamosh Elohim of the Moabites, Rimmon the Damascus Elohim, Ashtoreth Elohim of the Ammonites all followed by various tribes, peoples or groups As the saying goes history is written by the victors, and seen as the only written record of the ancients is the bible then the line of Abraham became victorious. Their Elohim has a title which again is untranslatable, the word is a Tetragram something similar to a hieroglyph no one knows how it sounded when spoken as consonants were a later use in words. But yet again the ancient scholars made a word up which is commonly used today as YAHWEH. it is noticeable in the Bible that YAHWEH tells his followers to kill anyone even Moses told them to kill their brother, family and friends if they follow one of the other Elohim. So for thousands of years the Bible was the only source of ancient history. Up until the nineteenth century when man had educated himself enough to want the answer to the question of life and creation.  As a result archaeologists and historians began the investigation. One of the cities discovered was Ur in old Mesopotamia, Jews, Muslims and Christians (who know religious history) will know this as the birthplace of Abraham and the place where God (sorry not God another mistranslation) actually El Shaddai came to him in his tent in the form of a man and told him he was to gather his people and leave. The city of Ur we are told was occupied by the Sumerians when actually we don’t know who they were. They were named Sumerian later because the city of Ur is in Sumer. In 1835 John Taylor started excavating the city and found thousands of tablets written upon in cuneiform writing. Fortunately for us the Sumerian’s wrote everything down recipes, menus, building instructions, mathematics, maps of the stars, and their own creation story.  Surprisingly most followers of the Abrahamic religions will recognise much of the Sumerian creation story, the making of the Adamu a slave race, the Annunaki, nephillim, the women of men mixing with gods, giants and of course a flood story including doves and ravens. Only the hero of this flood is Utnapishtim not Noah and this flood came a thousand years before Judaism. They also make reference to a God who lives in the heavens (not heaven) this god has a wife and two sons unlike the bible. Enki & Enlil, it was Enlil who decided to destroy the earth with a flood. It was Enki that wanted to save mankind and instructed Utnapishtim to build a boat to save his family, other people and his animals (not two of every animal). Surprisingly modern man educated and intelligent still buys into the Bible narrative. Their ancient ancestors who put the texts together also knew the contradictions but the religious leaders basically said we’re going to pretend none of these contradictions occur and preach our story. Which brings us to the present with people still ignoring the facts and still pretending none of these contradictions are present. All the above information is available to anyone who looks, it does take a lot of time and effort to join the dots and the chapter above should be told at length but with the evidence to prove it would fill many books.

[Maxmars]

It's always intrigued me how people can devote themselves to refining the idea of God...
and then climb down a hole because "God must be hiding in there."

For many, "God" is an idea... made into an image by priests... made into a product by gold-changers...
sold and bartered by mind marketeers and social engineers...
For others, God is an embarrassing inevitability...  a fearful cloud on the horizon...

Fear is exploitable... especially when people are 'participants' in its' spread.'

But discussing this now we have a precipice near our path....
Some dig left, right, down...

If god exists, it is for humanities' sake? 
(Presumably, "gods" are just people with infinite powers and infinite time...
but even we can't simply accept that idea either.)

[KTemplar]

God is Love and it exists.

[quintessentone]

God may be that which we don't understand out there and within us all. Maybe we are all God and God is all of us.

[Maxmars]

I feel connected to a personal God.

I understand and accept that it must take the form of "choice" within society.
I make no demands of similar ideals...
The object is to harmonize what you accept into who you are in the world.

Is that a function of God, or God awareness?  Certainly not.

Again.. it comes down to "choices" we make while living in the human world.
"What is God?" Is an impossible question... whose answer implies "knowledge."
It's not about knowledge... it's about faith.  

So no, unless we can arrive at a contextual foundation...
No answers forthcoming from under this rock.


I would have had an easier time with the question:
"What could God be?" rather than what God is.
A universe of answers there.... a lot of options.

[Bootless]

I feel connected to a personal God.
...
It's not about knowledge... it's about faith.  

And that's why I call myself a polytheist. Your personal God is not anyone else's. Different people have different feelings and ideas about God, even when they say there is One.

I don't think anyone has brought up the atheist position yet. Here's a very good explanation:


Why I Say With Certainty: There. Is. No. God.

So the God being discussed here is 3) The hypothetical One God that can exist independently.
to be added to my previous listed 2 types of gods. (#6 on page one of this thread)

I must add that as far as the 3) type god goes, I am atheist.

[Maxmars]

And that's why I call myself a polytheist. Your personal God is not anyone else's. Different people have different feelings and ideas about God, even when they say there is One.

I don't think anyone has brought up the atheist position yet. Here's a very good explanation:
[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoJzGGoS0Yk]

So the God being discussed here is 3) The hypothetical One God that can exist independently.
to be added to my previous listed 2 types of gods. (#6 on page one of this thread)

I must add that as far as the 3) type god goes, I am atheist.

Your decision is unquestionable.

But, if I may risk a clarification...

The context of the snippet you quoted has bearing...

[quoting myself here]
Again.. it comes down to "choices" we make while living in the human world.
"What is God?" Is an impossible question... whose answer implies "knowledge."
It's not about knowledge... it's about faith.
[/quoting myself]

Living in the human community presents choices...

How we contort our reasoning to validate the choices we make is an endless mix of evaluations. 
When I say "personal," I mean exactly that - my own... it can be no other way. 

I disagree that atheism is a choice. 
I believe atheism is the specific negation of a choice, without theism it is nonextant;
Without the presence of a faith to object to, atheism dissolves into nothing... 

I will grant that it is embraced publicly almost as if it were a religion (sans fellowship) ...
but in the end, most of its activist proponents simply make a show of not choosing to believe....
which is an option anyone can take.

Atheism is a valid and important concept, in it, there is a lesson which may validate faith...

I don't know what 'validates' atheism... other than the media.

[Ignorant]

I think you're making it more complicated than it needs to be. Choosing not to believe in an imaginary thing is validated simply by the imaginary thing being imaginary. Substitute god with santa claus, maybe it'll make more sense then.

Atheists simply look at reality, see no evidence for the bearded manchild in the sky, and reject it.