What is god?

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Charles_Darwin said:
That’s all very good but what is it? For example how does it store it its knowledge?
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God is ultimate reality. God is existence, not by participation but by nature of being. God is the absolute difference between absolutely nothing and something. This is what I understand God to be. God is not a being out there some where, and neither is God a being among beings; but rather God is being.

Outside divine revelation, we can only know God in this sense in so far as we know what God is not. In the Bible God identifies himself as “I Am”. Saint Anselm describes God as that which nothing greater can be thought of qualitatively and quantitatively speaking; and so God is perfect being.
 
God is perfect being. God is pure actuality. God is personal.
 
JulieAA said:
Charles, I am not sure that any of the responders on this site can reach you, as you are not open to receive, well, not at this time at least. No one can explain God to you because you are not open to hear Him. There is not a human being on the face of this earth that can explain in words what faith truly is, as it is a gift from God that is given freely to those who truly seek Him with an open heart and mind. With all due respect, I really do not believe that you are interested in knowing God as you are interested in a mindless game. If you receive and accept God into your life, that would mean that you have to admit that you have no control of your life and that you would be accountable to Him for all of your choices. Most non-believers are frightened to admit they are not in control of their life and that scares them, as it should. All of the worry and/or games will not add one simple second to your life. How sad to think “that this is all there is to life”. Please, while you still have a breath in your body, seek and search Him with an open heart. This will not be an easy life to follow; however, there will be a peace that you will not be able to put into words! I will pray for you, Charles.
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Appeals to emotion just don’t do it for me. I like that small inconvenient thing called evidence.
 
LizS said:
It IS pure “being” - that is what it (God - lets have some respect) actually is - as warpspeedpetey stated in his excellent post
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Sorry, but i don’t respect the god of the bible.
 
warpspeedpetey said:
ohhh…

G-d is not a creature, He does not have a taxonomical designation, if i were to use an illustration only for demonstration i might do it like this

exGis**-ted**nce, matter, life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
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In other words you don’t know.
 
God is absolute truth.

[34](javascript:openWindow(‘cr/34.htm’)😉 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality “that everyone calls God”.10
 
Charles_Darwin said:
In other words you don’t know.
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i gave you an answer, why do you find it insufficient? i do know and i told you that G-d is not a creature. i attempted to express it in a form you might find more familiar.

again, what answer are you looking for? what parameters would qualify as an answer for you?
 
Oh, Charles Darwin…

Bruce Lee once said,

“Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”
 
Charles_Darwin said:
I have no idea what a personal being is?
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And yet you know what its attributes are, as in, you know what the word is applicable to. A Christian can know God through inference in regards to their experience of physical reality; that is to say that they can know that God at least most probably exists in the same way that God is described in scripture, if not necessarily. We believe that we can know this because physical reality cannot sufficiently explain itself ontologically and neither can it sufficiently explain the objective meaning found in nature in so far as their being real is concerned; and through this principle we make the inference to an intelligent and perfect transcendent cause; as a sufficient explanation for physical phenomenon. However, knowing something exists, regardless of the method one has used to obtain such knowledge, does not remove the mystery of being. We know that atoms exist, but we don’t know what it is in itself; we just know what it does.
 
Charles_Darwin said:
Ok now we are getting somewhere. God does not have a physical body, what is it made up of?
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If God was made of something, then He had a beginning, thus He is not eternal.

If God was made of something, then He was not the First Cause as there was something that existed ahead of Him.🤷
 
w_stewart said:
If God was made of something, then He had a beginning, thus He is not eternal.

If God was made of something, then He was not the First Cause as there was something that existed ahead of Him.🤷
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Uh oh…you can’t say “first cause” because it contradicts the atheist philosophy.

You have to say something along the lines of, “There was no first cause- the chain of cause and effect has no beginning.”

It’s silly, but that is what they usually believe.😃

Hmm…
 
shoewindow3000 said:
Uh oh…you can’t say “first cause” because it contradicts the atheist philosophy.

You have to say something along the lines of, “There was no first cause- the chain of cause and effect has no beginning.”

It’s silly, but that is what they usually believe.😃

Hmm…
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If theists are silly in believing the First Cause, then atheists are sillier in believing otherwise.
 
Charles_Darwin said:
If i was to ask you what is a car, a human, a god? What would you reply?

Would you say that a car is fast, good looking, a polluter?

Would you say that a human is caring, evil, pretty, strong?

Well if you did you would not have told me a single thing about what these things actually are.

If i asked you, what is Albert Einstein? Would you say he discovered relativity? Is that what he is? NO. Hes a human. So what is a human, what is a car?

Well a car is a wheeled mechanical device designed to transport people.They normally carry between 2-8 people. They have there own internal combustion engines, and wheels blah blah blah.

A human is a member of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae.

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Tetrapoda
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorrhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Parvorder: Catarrhini
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe: Hominini
Genus: Homo

They are carbon based life forms which DNA contains the genetic instructions blah blah blah.

Now even before we had such detailed explanations of what a human is we still knew what a human was. We just did not know the intricate details.

Ok now onto the biggy…

What is god?
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I don’t want a list of attributes like “god is love”. As that is not an answer. I do not want he is the creater of the universe, for that is NOT what IT is.**

Now tell me this… How can i believe or disbelieving in something, what i don’t even know what that thing I’m supposed to be believing in is?
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With cars you have several so its ok to describe them in that fashion.

with humans you have several individuals…in the billions of billions, so, while they are not cars or modes of transportation - I admit that they are many.

However (the biggy :rolleyes:)

God is One. So - the question is improperly phrased as “what is god”.

The correct question woudl be, " Who is God?" Because for starters there can only be one…otherwise He would not qualify for “the position”.

Get yer duckies in order pal, before you go talking about the One God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all that is seen and unseen.
 
Charles_Darwin said:
What is god?
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Charles_Darwin said:
I don’t want a list of attributes like “god is love”. As that is not an answer. I do not want he is the creater of the universe, for that is NOT what IT is.

Now tell me this… How can i believe or disbelieving in something, what i don’t even know what that thing I’m supposed to be believing in is?
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If you want an answer, I have one for you.

If you are supporter of Darwinism, as your username has hinted, I have a scientific one for you.

The Earth, this planet, our mother in common. Lives at different levels. Reproductions is an on-going process inside her life cycles. Darwinism has some mistakes which I do not want to clarify here. I am doing a scientific research on proving the God. I know she must be happy with it.

If you are interested, I would like to share with you my knowledge.

Hostility not because of the God, may be something personal.

The concepts of the God has been revealed by the reality in our world.

No matter how, the nature of the God is a living object, similar to all of us. As I used to say, “Lives at different levels”. It must be controversial, but sciences always rise in this way. It contradicts with the old school thinkings and arouses hostility from the others.

A scientific proof of the God has no offenses to her. Everyone granted freedom of speeches from the God.

I am not doing any propaganda, but would like to share my idea with others (both philosophers and scientists) first. I am doing the research work right now. It’s a lifetime project. This is a mission from the God.

Feel free to visit my page of my research if you are interested. It’s a start.
http://sites.google.com/site/teru382/my_publications/natural_sciences

I hope it will not violate the forum rule.

Teru Wong
 
Sorry, but i don’t respect the god of the bible
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You dont say!!

I think it is clear though that, although the explanations given were obviously written by people who do, at least some of the replies were actually written from the angle of human reason. Mankind has been given the ability/faculties to know God without help, but there are many like you whose heart and eyes remain closed.

The Bible was not intended as a science book. What it shows is how God has intervened in human history to reach out and help men to see the truth - again and again, culminating with the Incarnation - as man has a persistent inability to understand. At this stage, I am not really concerned with whether you accept the Bible or not, I am just pointing out what it is, and more to the point, what it is not.

Seeing as you are so insistent on proof, I do find it interesting that you chose not to answer my query as to what “knowledge” is, and how we can prove empirically that it exists. It makes me wonder if you have any intention of trying to understand, or whether the whole point is to just dismiss peoples responses. Because you dont accept that there is a God, does not make God disappear.

By the way - I used to be an atheist, and I will pray for you.
 
The task set out by the OP is not possible. The objects that the OP has characterized have been rationalized into their attributes. That is to say that reason has been exercised over them, has digested them into their various cognitive parts and has arrived at a certain meaning or meanings for them that appeals to reason. Their potential uses have been determined and their meanings assigned by reason.

A belief in God is precisely a belief in a reason superior to human reason, a will preceding human will. The exercise of human reason is subjugating. That over which reason exerts itself is subject to reason and therefore under the control of reason to the extent that it has been found to be useful or potentially useful. If God, in his person, were involuntarily subject to human reason, he could not be God. A superior reason cannot be involuntarily subject to an inferior reason and at the same time remain superior. The inferior can only know of his superior what the superior wishes to be known.

This is understandably unacceptable to those who maintain human reason is their final authority. The OP has begged the question. On what basis are we to rely on human reason as the final arbiter for the conduct of human affairs?
 
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