What is God?

Why is it so important for people who don't believe in God to tell everyone that God does not exist and why is it so important for people who do believe in God to tell everyone that he does exist?

The truth is that everyone is guessing. There could be God or there could not be a God. I don't think anyone has incontrovertible proof either way. So why the need to tell other people what they should believe?
 
Love.
 
just me said:
Some people think Jesus was invented, yet God was around thousands of years before "we" saw Jesus in the flesh. Prophecies were fulfilled. Some people will never stop feeling lonely; might be a reason for that. I thought we invented dogs for that.
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Thousands of years eh? The Earth is 4 billion years old.
 
We invented dogs? Wait, what?

Anyway, to me "God" is a delusion that many people need for different reasons. At best to keep themselves sane, at worst to justify their actions.
 
Inventing dogs and inventing God sounds similar to me. Everyone cannot agree about God. Those that choose not to believe in God have to try and destroy the belief systems of others, and those that believe in God will stand up for Him.....at least those that do not just sit by quietly and watch. The subject always brings out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Then there are the nice people that just try and get along with everyone without going on the offensive. For those people, I thank you.
 
Peace said:
Why is it so important for people who don't believe in God to tell everyone that God does not exist and why is it so important for people who do believe in God to tell everyone that he does exist?
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For the same reasons that, in the US, the Republicans absolutely believe they're right and Democrats are wrong, and the Democrats absolutely believe they're right and Republicans are wrong.

Ultimately, if you're secure in your beliefs, you're not threatened by a different opinion, even if it is strongly expressed as fact.
 
Kmal said:
Personification makes it easier to relate to?

I edited the OP to make it clearer.
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Personification sure but why he? The idea of God as a father figure feels odd to me. Just my perspective.
 
Kmal said:
What is God?
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God is the oversoul which contains all of ours. The world is God, the heavens are God. Life is God, Death is God.

God isn't conscious except when we think that it is. God is neither male or female until we think it is.

God is everything and nothing.
 
God is not love... love is based on personal perception and is subjective inside of our heads. If we said God was the same people would be angry... because he is supposed to exist outside of our heads. God is therefore not love.
 
I guess you could say God is...

God personified by man is more dogma than truth.
 
But God IS love. To a person that does not believe in God, there can be nothing but to question the beliefs of others. Even the very scriptures states "God is love", so that to a believer is a direct attack against their own belief system. The dynamics of such a challenge is against Christ, better known as antiChrist. To question gives validity of sorts. Keeping quiet about one's own convictions and beliefs can at times be bad for the greater cause. "I would that thou wert hot or cold; but because thou are neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee from my mouth."

"How is it that indifference, which on its own does no apparent or immediate positive harm, ends by washing itself in the very horrors it means to have nothing to do with? Hoping to confer no hurt, indifference finally grows lethal; why is that?" Cynthia Ozick

"The Holocaust showed that there are only four roles any individual can play in our society. If we are not to be victims, then our only choices are to be perpetrators of evil, violence and injustice; indifferent bystanders who allow it to happen in our world; or upstanders (or rescuers) who act to end it." Michael Goldberg

I personally prefer the word "Shoah".
 
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God is something different to everyone, why does it matter what others believe?
 
Air said:
God is something different to everyone, why does it matter what others believe?
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One might ask, "Why do others matter?" Of course, I do not feel this way at all.

"God is something different to everyone, why does it matter what others believe? "

For it is the bitter grief of theology and its blessed task, too, always to have to seek
(because it does not clearly have present to it at the time) what in a true sense_ in its historical memory_ it has always known...always providing that one has the courage to ask questions, to be dissatisfied, to think with the mind and heart one actually has, and not with the mind and heart one is supposed to have." Karl Rahner, S.J.

Everyone views things differently, each with his/her own amount of inquisitiveness and curiosity. Thus, as we age, people have a tendency to be at different levels of understanding. Caring for others, for example, takes on many different levels of action and inaction. Each of us, simply put, are not meant to view things the same.

Scores of individuals' knowledge and understanding of a subject such as theology, when put together, leads each individual to newer questions and more broad horizons. Theologians care about what others think or believe much more than most nonbelievers, or even the layman. Each person either cares or does not care(what others believe) at different levels and for different reasons.
 
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Norton said:
Ultimately, if you're secure in your beliefs, you're not threatened by a different opinion, even if it is strongly expressed as fact.
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I dunno if I can buy that insecurity in beliefs is the driving force behind this behavior. From listening to the last several posts, I think many of them are certain in their beliefs and feel that the other side is somehow missing out or miserable because they don't share the same view. Or maybe they just really enjoy talking about something which they feel confident about. It's interesting how their beliefs evoke such an emotional reaction.

I think this is a topic that has significant emotional meaning attached to it and people feel emotionally threatened by beliefs that differ from their own. This is not so much about that they are insecure in their own beliefs but that they can't understand a different belief. That is just the intuitive read I am getting off of it. I think this behavior shows that people can reconcile with the reality that people think differently than they do, but they just can't reconcile that people feel differently than they do and that is very threatening to them. They seem to be emotionally driven to convey how they feel in hopes that the other individuals will come to feel the same way but the irony is that they seem to drive each other further apart.

This thread is so very difficult because so many of the words they use clearly have significantly different emotional meanings attached to them. They are speaking the same language in a cognitive sense, but in an emotional sense they are speaking completely different languages.
 
An incomprehensible power that inexplicably started some incomprehensible process an unknown length of time ago. My intuition tells me that he's good, knows way more than humanity ever can, has some sort of master plan (see The Adjustment Bureau), and has a really clever sense of humor.
 
Peace said:
I dunno if I can buy that insecurity in beliefs is the driving force behind this behavior. From listening to the last several posts, I think many of them are certain in their beliefs and feel that the other side is somehow missing out or miserable because they don't share the same view. Or maybe they just really enjoy talking about something which they feel confident about. It's interesting how their beliefs evoke such an emotional reaction.
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Sometimes, people express beliefs strongly for which they lack certainty. It's as if in the strong expression they find an absolute affirmation not felt. Arguments tend to amplify expression and partition belief. Thus, belief evolves according to the external argument, not the internal uncertainty.
 
Ryo said:
Personification sure but why he? The idea of God as a father figure feels odd to me. Just my perspective.
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Before I start, I want to make it clear that I don't believe G-d is male. Sex is a quality of the created world, part of the life/death cycle. Therefore, as G-d is not part of creation, the concept of sex does not apply. All three pronouns (he, she, it) express different aspects of G-d, but none encompasses G-d.

That said, the G-d of the Jews is understood primarily as a Creator who has shown an interest in how we treat one another, and who has revealed himself to as as the Lawgiver, that our behavior might be modified as to be above the animals. If a hamster does his mom, other hamsters don't care. If a human did his mom, it would rouse our conscience--in most cases. For those who don't "get it" that you don't do your mom, we make rules to clarify it with consequences to discourage it. Okay NOW I have to deal with some statistical generalities -- which means that the things I'm about to say will have plenty of exceptions. I'm strictly referring to the top of the bell shaped curve, so don't let it throw you. IF you examine male clergy, you find that in general they are more didactic, explaining to their congregations a better way to live. IF you examine female clergy, you find that their focus is helping individuals grow and creating harmony within the group. Both of these approaches are essentially good, despite their obvious differences. NOW, looking at those statistical generalizations, do you see why Jews primarily view the Lawgiving G-d as male? Oh, sure we are not limited to that personification--the Shekinah is a FEMININE noun indicating the localized presence of the omnipresent G-d. But if you understand that "He" simply refers to G-d's more masculine traits, and isn't actually stating that G-d is a male, it WORKS.

I truly hope this was helpful in a non-pushy way.
 
GracieRuth said:
To plagiarize Loa Tze, the G-d that can be put into words is not G-d.

We sense the divine, but we cannot understand it/him/her. That we have evolved the capability of perceiving our Creator is amazing beyond words. That there is intercommunication is perhaps the greatest thing imaginable.

I would only posit two things I know about G-d.
1. He made us deliberately. From the moment of the Big Bang, all the laws of the universe were designed for the eventual evolution of sentient life.
2. For reasons unknown, he has an interest in how we treat each other. Our evolution of consciousness has essentially brought us out of an amoral nature into moral sentience.
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He wants us to become like him, perfect.
 
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