This is a very understanding poll about different viewpoint of the excistence of the God !

Posted on: September 12, 2008, 08:28:10 AM

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For me it could be a, b, c, or f in different situations.

There is no God

Nope, no God at all.

I voted for "many personal gods". Pretty much everyone I know has their own perception (or lack of perception) of a higher power, a universal energy, etc. I don't believe in a higher sentient being, but I do believe in a higher form of... well, something I can't really explain. It's more a feeling I've got that can't really be translated into words. But yeah, there are many different points of view.

I voted for the first option but my conception is more complicated than that.

My perspective is that tied intrinsically into the physical matter/energy of our body is an element we have not found a way to measure as yet, for simplicities sake let's call this "spirit".

Us, the world, the universe and all that is, is made of energy.  We know this.  It's my perspective we simply haven't mapped it all.

Now I'm not in any way certain how this all works, but I think it is tied to the concept of "matter can neither be created nor destroyed" I think this other layer, spirit, is a part of that, and however this universe got started, we've been in a state of recycling ever since.  Our bodies decompose and feed the earth, our energy is dispersed to the winds and our spirit...I'm not sure what it does, but from my life experiences it clearly lives on in another dimension of existence which we tied to this physical plane are mostly separated from.

Some ancient Celtic peoples conceptualized a "veil" that lay between our world and the other.  This was a veil that thinned at certain points throughout the year, on "days of power" where the state of cosmic energy facilitates awareness of and access to the other world.  Samhain (Halloween, or Hallowe'en) is one of those days, and probably the most well known.

I think when we die, the learning is not over.  I think our spirit continues on to contemplate our lives and resolve issues, learn lessons, and watch over loved ones left behind.  I think at some point we then reincarnate.  I see all of this as a process of existence, that we are collectively building towards...something.

This is starting to get really long...:look  Ok, How this relates to God is this...God is also composed of spirit.  I think God is like the collective energy, the sum of all our parts, the living Earth and our individual spirits and those of the Ancestors, they meld together when not physically bound.  This is God.  And consequently Goddess.  Just as we are male and female.  I think also, that the gods are individual spirits, as we are, but different, more powerful, more aware of their capabilities in spirit than most of us, and thus, yes, capable of helping us.  I also think the gods are made stronger by belief in them.

So I'm a weird blend of a universal spirit belief and a polytheist.

As agent mulder says, "I want to believe."

That way I can properly knock their millions of teeth out.

As I said in another post, here's my feelings about a so-called God:

QuoteAlso, should such an entity exist, what makes us required to obey and listen to this "god" anyways? My sentiment is that in nature there are different levels of intelligence. The ones who have a greater amount of intelligence have the control. What does "creation" matter as to how supreme a being the creator is?

Think of it this way...humans have "created" sheep, mice, and a host of other animals through the technology of cloning. Does that mean that they should get down on their knees and prey to us? Some might argue that we are going too far and trying to be gods. Hmm, if we have the capacity to do it then...doesn't that make us gods in our own definition of it?

I would then like to pose the question...what does it mean to be a god?

If it is due to the ability to create, check that one off for humans.
If it is the ability to be compassionate and loving (as the Christian god "supposedly" is), then check that one off too.
If it is the ability to dominate and control other lifeforms, definitely check that one off as well.

With all this knowledge, not fact, not fiction, but just knowledge of how you perceive a god to be and how you know humans to be, then what is the rational justification for believing in a so-called god?

So basically I'm saying that if there is a being that created us, I see no reason to call this being a God and to worship it. If anyone has a reasonable and rational answer to this question, please please let me know. I know this might sound weird, but I see it exactly in the way the characters on Stargate feel about the Go'uld (complete guess at how that's spelled), and also probably the Asguld. They may have "powers" and all that jazz, but what makes them a god?

I am Wicca and Native American, so I believe in many gods and goddesses. Each and every living thing has a spirit and thus is part of a whole.

Janet

not beleiving in "god" means the suffering i've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. no "god" means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

ya i'm atheist!

Quote from: Natasha on September 13, 2008, 12:52:10 AM
not beleiving in "god" means the suffering i've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. no "god" means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

ya i'm atheist!

I believe in questioning the concept of spirit and soul until it actually finds personal meaning to one. If that is ectoplasm and angels, then fine. If its all the brain and matter we know of, then whatever.

I just hate people who use it cause they were raised to or as a crutch, or cause we genetically might even have a program for one. Purpose is important. REALLY.

Hi Whatsername, wonderful theory, I beleive that no mater how many different ways anyone dices it or looks at these types of concepts about a God, god, goddess, or any variety of omnipotent beings or a single infinite intelligence. The best we can come up with are a multitude of theories, some complimenting each other and others contradicting each other.

Many theories have been made about such a force or forces where we have not yet even come up with a sufficiently sensitive enough scientific instrument to detect what is on the other side of this reality into another dimension, when we do not even yet know what all exists within this the realm of this three dimensional reality. We with our present technology may only at best be able to detect such extraterrestrial phenomena by inference, like detecting some type of yet undetectable energies interacting and affecting the normal flow of energy and mass of this known space and time continuum.

The gods and goddesses of legend verses energy and mass and the quantum dimensions with no beginning and no end.

According to North American Native tradition all things, both animate and inanimate has spirit energy. Our entire mother earth is spirit, all is of the living spirit, the rocks, the earth, the plants, animals, water and all that resides within it, the air and all that resides within it. This was why when one had used what they needed from the land they returned it to the land from where all is born all should be returned to replenish the mother's living spirit energy.

Then there is the moon cycle ceremony of Grandmother moon who comes to visit every month to cleans and prepare the girl child for womanhood or to cleans the mother to be in the sacred moon lodge.

Father sun gives sustenance to Mother Earth and her children. The children of the grandfather stars from whence they came so shall they return.

Twice per year spring and fall the people celebrate the pot-loch, The ancient version of the modern day pow wow's. A sacred celebration in thanksgiving to the sun god and the spirit mother for providing them with the abundant seasons of trading, hunting, fishing and harvesting that they have been blessed to have to sustain them through the long sleeping time.

Cindy

I guess "Nobody knows" is about as close as it's going to get for me.  Actually, if we feel we can capture it with language, it's not really what I intended to talk about, anyway.   God isn't really fodder for the intellect - it's such hubris to think we can cram just anything into our minds . . . . 

-Celia

God is the shell and all within is the Oneness of all things contained within the shell.

Holy spirit idea, we could call the fabric of creation from all the way back from original thought, or the word spoken in the ether of creation as Albert Einstein has has once quoted Reality to be? Now there is an perplexing conundrum, I think it's conception is as varied as each human being perceives it. Reality is about as multifarious as Truth, where we can only perceive only bits and pieces of it in the physical world and again those bits differ greatly in perception from one individual to an other.

This is not really what it appears to be, in the sense of being mass or solid, no, it is more made of different densities in the grids of the Holographic universe, a very inteligently and precise designed hologram.

As for the Holy Spirit or the tapestry upon which the fabric of creation was stitched upon, the Holy spirit is the grid upon which all of creation is connected to including us and all that has consciousness. If one really believed and wanted to, you can use to grid to connect with your Creator as how ever you perceive that which is all that is, the angels and even other human beings.

Why would any angels, emissaries, or messengers of the Great Spirit, in their superior intelligence and highly evolved state of being, find it necessary to utilize our archaic method of communications when they can more easily send their thoughts to us. As evolved as they would be to the point where they could be here from billions of miles away in the blink of an eye in energy form, why not send their thoughts telepathically to connect with our own thought processes?

I also agree strongly that we do not know much of what's out there past this planet's atmosphere.   Do we know much of its elements, let alone what's outside our ionosphere? Books, oh but yes, by all means they are the stepping stones to learning that will lead you to the ****doorway*** but that is as far as the books get you. One needs to step through the doorway if one wishes to learn more of the mysteries.

This is the beginning of the rest of our journey to truth and reality. You will find that the rest of the journey is within the inner-self. If you really desire to look deep within to find the answers which cannot be seen or touched in this finite reality, beyond is infinity, the substance undetectable from this one.  It is  the Oneness of Creation experiencing its own essence through the consciousness of all within its Oneness.

All that "infinity" means is where time and space do not exist.

Cindy

Modified Feb 14th 2009 Corrected typos.

Quote from: SarahR on September 13, 2008, 12:30:30 AM
As I said in another post, here's my feelings about a so-called God:

QuoteAlso, should such an entity exist, what makes us required to obey and listen to this "god" anyways? My sentiment is that in nature there are different levels of intelligence. The ones who have a greater amount of intelligence have the control. What does "creation" matter as to how supreme a being the creator is?

Think of it this way...humans have "created" sheep, mice, and a host of other animals through the technology of cloning. Does that mean that they should get down on their knees and prey to us? Some might argue that we are going too far and trying to be gods. Hmm, if we have the capacity to do it then...doesn't that make us gods in our own definition of it?

I would then like to pose the question...what does it mean to be a god?

If it is due to the ability to create, check that one off for humans.
If it is the ability to be compassionate and loving (as the Christian god "supposedly" is), then check that one off too.
If it is the ability to dominate and control other lifeforms, definitely check that one off as well.

With all this knowledge, not fact, not fiction, but just knowledge of how you perceive a god to be and how you know humans to be, then what is the rational justification for believing in a so-called god?

So basically I'm saying that if there is a being that created us, I see no reason to call this being a God and to worship it. If anyone has a reasonable and rational answer to this question, please please let me know. I know this might sound weird, but I see it exactly in the way the characters on Stargate feel about the Go'uld (complete guess at how that's spelled), and also probably the Asguld. They may have "powers" and all that jazz, but what makes them a god?

Hey Sarah

Saint Augustine wrote there is a difference between making something and creating something. Making something means to take the form of something that already exists and manifesting it into a new incarnation. Humans are good at that. But creation is to bring about a new form altogether. Cloning sheep is making sheep because they already exist. Augustine wrote that humans have never created everything, only changed molecules from one shape to another. Creation is going from nothing to something. Christians have the term "created ex nihilo" meaning "create from nothing. Only God has done that.

I don't know any human apart from Jesus who is totally and compassionate. Someone who is sometimes compassionate and something apathetic is but a shadow of true compassion. If a bird is something that can get off the ground, than humans are birds to because we can jump up for a moment at the time. But who we are is dependent on do always, not what we do sometimes.

As far as domination and control, those are not attributes of God in Orthodox Christianity. They are part of Calivinist Christianity which came around 1600AD but I have no reason to defend those beliefs.

You sound like a thoughtful person and I hope that interests you.

I didn't vote because I believe all the answers (except that there is no God) are true. There's no conflict between Truth, Spirit, and the Trinity. Jesus spoke clearly that "God is spirit." Christianity also believes in many personal gods but those are imitations of God.

If any gods exist, I'd like to kill them...