NationStates Jolt Archive

We have a lot of atheists here at NationStates, as well as a lot of people who believe in a god of some sort...I'm curious to know what people's concept of god is like...predominantly Christian/Judaic? New Age? I don't want a thread of 'what I think god looks like,' but rather, what is the individual's philosophical premise for believing in one (or a selection), and what that construct is like: A big hairy bloke (or buxom, fertile mother) in the sky? Atoms? Energy? Nothingness?

I'm fond of the Universal Consciousness philosophy. God to me is just energy. No gender, no agenda, nothing. What about you lot?

I hope like hell that our existance is like a good book to some greater being that can appreciate the intricasy of existance and acheievements and actions from start to end. It would be nice...

I hope like hell that our existance is like a good book to some greater being that can appreciate the intricasy of existance and acheievements and actions from start to end. It would be nice...

It would be nice, but only if it was a freedom of choice thing. No "heaven" or "hell" bullshit.

What is 'god?'

A figment of people's imagination, IMNSHO.

God is that little evolutionary development in humans to assign order to everything.

God can also be viewed as the algorithm that governs all of our actions and leads us down a deterministic fate.

Personally, I believe that god is the founder of this universe. I believe it is pure consciousness that fragmented itself into the materials that this universe was based upon, and put itself under certain mathematical properties. It has unconsciously developed under those laws since the Big Bang, and is the Alpha and Omega. Every particle that exists is composed of god, and nothing exists wihtout god. But god is unconscious, not seperate from this universe.

And I also believe that it does not matter one bit.

If we didn't have gods, we wouldn't have "heaven", and without heaven, most people wouldn't be able to accept death, their own or someone elses. There would be no praying for someone to get better or win a lottery. God is the being we rely on so that we don't all go crazy with despair.

If there wasn't a god that would judge us on our mortal life and either reward or punish us eternally (christian, and some other religions, im not sure) Why would anyone be good of their own will? A few would, and then they would come up with religion so that everyone else would. Humanity seems unable to exist without Religion, yet with it, we are faced with moral dillemas.
hmm.

God is beleived in by pure faith, which shows that humans need something they think/know they can depend on always so that there will always be something worthwhile in living. We even use god(s) to explain how things are and why they are. Its the thing we use to explain what we cant, what we wont.

But, that is my view (and less explained then i wish it was)

I may add more.

God is an adverb.

God == the creator of our universe

It would be nice, but only if it was a freedom of choice thing. No "heaven" or "hell" bullshit.

I think the 'heaven'/'hell' thing is a political development, not a spiritual one. When a belief in god becomes a hierachical structure, you have to have some kind of carrot or anti-carrot to keep the minions underfoot.

To me, to be spiritual isn't so dependent on intellectualisations of what is acceptable conduct or thought. Though not being a complete jerk is conducive to maintaining a spiritually tranquil condition.

It would be nice, but only if it was a freedom of choice thing. No "heaven" or "hell" bullshit.
Why isn't it?

If we didn't have gods, we wouldn't have "heaven", and without heaven, most people wouldn't be able to accept death, their own or someone elses. There would be no praying for someone to get better or win a lottery. God is the being we rely on so that we don't all go crazy with despair.
Can you not conceive of people with no concept of 'heaven'?

If we didn't have gods, we wouldn't have "heaven", and without heaven, most people wouldn't be able to accept death, their own or someone elses.

My current conception of deity not only doesn't suppose the existence of life after death, it actively excludes it. Unless you're talking about some death cult (like kristjianity) true religion is about life, not death.

God to me is a giant creature and our universe is a tiny boil in his anus

quick note-i heard today that in the Old Testimate of the bible it clearly states only 200000 or so people get into heaven, so we are all fucked anyway.

God to me is a giant creature and our universe is a tiny boil in his anus

better hope he dosent sit down then :p

quick note-i heard today that in the Old Testimate of the bible it clearly states only 200000 or so people get into heaven, so we are all fucked anyway.

you heard wrong

you heard wrong
LazyHippies is right... 144,000 of the "selected" Jews decended from the 12 tribes of Isreal are prophecied to make it to heaven by the bible, but there is no limitation on this number, nor does it mention anything about the "gentiles" aka the rest of the world. if you believe in the bible, then we all have a chance. :D

LazyHippies is right... 144,000 of the "selected" Jews decended from the 12 tribes of Isreal are prophecied to make it to heaven by the bible, but there is no limitation on this number, nor does it mention anything about the "gentiles" aka the rest of the world. if you believe in the bible, then we all have a chance. :D

Actually it does. Well In Revelations. After the 144,000. Then after that, it says 'let there be outer courts for people of all places and tribes so numerous that cannot be count'. Etc etc. I have to go get you the verse if you want.. Now I gotta go eat first.

LazyHippies is right... 144,000 of the "selected" Jews decended from the 12 tribes of Isreal are prophecied to make it to heaven by the bible, but there is no limitation on this number, nor does it mention anything about the "gentiles" aka the rest of the world. if you believe in the bible, then we all have a chance. :D

Thats not true either. 144,000 are the ones who are sealed and who get to serve God in his temple for eternity. They are not necessarily the only Jews who get to heaven, they are the ones who remain faithful through the tribulation and get to serve God in his temple in heaven.

Oh, and its in the new testament, in the very last book actually. So, this cant be what the original poster was reffering to.

My Concept of God? Is of the Christian God.

I believe God is like a loving father. He cares and loves us like children. And at the same time, he is also a lawful and orderly God. One that he is also bound by his own laws and regulation.

And because we are aware of what is good, and what is bad (because we ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil), we are held responsible for our own actions. And wrong doing is known as sin (Or missing the mark, imperfection).

God being a lawful and orderly God. To enter into his kingdom, is perfection. Perfection from all sins. That is why no human can possibly be perfect. So God gave the blood sacrifices, not only to the Jews, but it appears in many & possibly all people and religions at one point.

That you sacrifice an animal to take away your sins in place that it die that you shall not. But it still wasn't perfect, because people trusted more in their good works and water down perfection. So finally, God sent Jesus. The final and last sacrifice, that who should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He doesn't want our good works to appease him to get to heaven. He wants us to trust and live in him again, to come back and mantain a relationship as how it was before man fell.

God to me is a giant creature and our universe is a tiny boil in his anus
He should try the Liver Cleansing Diet. Or maybe St Peter could lance it for him.

Can you not conceive of people with no concept of 'heaven'?

Sure, but wouldn't they be more scared of dying? Without another life, they wouldn't want to lose this one.

In the Baha'i teachings God is described as the Unknowable Essence. In native American teaching God is often described as the Great Mystery.

Nature is that condition, that reality, which in appearance consists in life and death, or, in other words, in the composition and decomposition of all things.

This Nature is subjected to an absolute organization, to determined laws, to a complete order and a finished design, from which it will never depart -- to such a degree, indeed, that if you look carefully and with keen sight, from the smallest invisible atom up to such large bodies of the world of existence as the globe of the sun or the other great stars and luminous spheres, whether you regard their arrangement, their composition, their form or their movement, you will find that all are in the highest degree of organization and are under one law from which they will never depart.

But when you look at Nature itself, you see that it has no intelligence, no will. For instance, the nature of fire is to burn; it burns without will or intelligence. The nature of water is fluidity; it flows without will or intelligence. The nature of the sun is radiance; it shines without will or intelligence. The nature of vapor is to ascend; it ascends without will or intelligence. Thus it is clear that the natural movements of all things are compelled; there are no voluntary movements except those of animals and, above all, those of man. Man is able to resist and to oppose Nature because he discovers the constitution of things, and through this he commands the forces of Nature; all the inventions he has made are due to his discovery of the constitution of things. For example, he invented the telegraph, which is the means of communication between the East and the West. It is evident, then, that man rules over Nature.

Now, when you behold in existence such organizations, arrangements and laws, can you say that all these are the effect of Nature, though Nature has neither intelligence nor perception? If not, it becomes evident that this Nature, which has neither perception nor intelligence, is in the grasp of Almighty God, Who is the Ruler of the world of Nature; whatever He wishes, He causes Nature to manifest.

One of the things which has appeared in the world of existence, and which is one of the requirements of Nature, is human life. Considered from this point of view man is the branch; nature is the root. Then can the will and the intelligence, and the perfections which exist in the branch, be absent in the root?

It is said that Nature in its own essence is in the grasp of the power of God, Who is the Eternal Almighty One: He holds Nature within accurate regulations and laws, and rules over it.

The reader will there see that the Bahá'í Faith has not an anthropomorphic conception of God, and that if it employs a customary terminology, it is careful to explain its symbolic meaning.] *

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 1)