What is God?
 

Alot of people debate, in circles, about God. Does he exist? Can he be proven or disproven? Where does the burden of proof lie? Etc.

I've noticed that people often jump headfirst into these debates without first establishing a definition of God, and then proceed to vigorously defend their opinions against others who are not even talking about the same thing. It is the ultimate "apples versus oranges" . . .

It should be a prerequisite, in these debates, to submit a definition of the word God.

What does the word God mean, to you?

I personally believe that if there is a God, he/she/it is NOT the meddling, vengeful, almost mean god of Christian faith, but more of a big guy with an ant farm.

God is a little bird, tweeting in a meadow.

Oh, no wait, that's logic.

Which might be the same thing.

I'll take Prime Mover for $1000, Alex.

I'm sure you can find much meaner gods out there than the Christian one. Christians just come under fire for not being pc enough and for being unapologetic about it. The worst thing that you can say about Christian God is he's anti-abortion and doesn't approve of gay marriage. Oooooo...the big meanie:p

God is a sort of like a magnetic north for morality, everything is measured against him. Problem is that the damn compass keeps breaking...;)

"If triangles had a god, he'd have there sides." --old Yiddish proverb

The worst thing about the Christian God is that so many knuckleheads feel free to put words in his mouth. But then that's a problem Allah has too...

I meant mean as in, "Hm, I'm not liking you lot too much, so I'ma drown you all."

I can't find the reference, but wasn't God mad because the humans were too noisy?

Oh, so its not "I don't like you", it's "you're too loud, so BAM! DEAD!"

I dunno about the loud thing... usually in the Old Testament it's "You're too immoral, so you'll all die now and everyone else will learn from this example."

where are you getting the 'die now' part??:confused: It's more like "you're too immoral, we ban you from our church and refuse to speak to you". If an unmarried christian woman gets pregnant she loses the respect of her family and congregation, if an unmarried islamic woman gets pregnant, she's dead. Also if she is raped she dies because she must have made him do it. Same thing if she leaves the house unescourted, shows her knees or elbows, tries to access legal help...yep, we see that all the time here in the states:neutral:

Hmmmmmmmm

Perhaps I am thinking of a different Bible...

We're referring to Biblical stories (e.g. the Flood, Sodom & Gomorrah, etc.), not modern Christians.

Ahuh...and GWB didn't embark on his campaign in Iraq after communicating with God? Yep, no one died because some maniac thought God told him to do it.

I don't think this one will make it to the 'extra new' testiment as a bible story.

Did you hear the one about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?































































































He lay awake all night wondering if there really is a dog...(Har har) :)

What? How can you measure something against a concept? Or do you consult the sacred texts for the rules?

Gods are strictly conceptual entities that cultures create to explain their assumed superiority.

It's not that our compasses break, it's that magnetic north is in a different location for each individual and moves around depending on the circumstances of of the individual at a particular time.

We'd be better off without the concept.

Any chance this thread is going to move beyond loud conjecture and personal hobby horses? I'll take "No" for $20.

What is God?

The necessary, non-contingent, personal, a-priori creator.

Necessary – not possible to not exist. If anything exists, God exists.

Non-contingent – God’s being and prerogative are not submitted to any other. God acts without constraint, and exist without prior cause.

Personal – possessing all of the necessary features of personhood, including reason, will, and agency. Not an impersonal force, but a rational agent.

A-priori Creator – God existed prior to any first-event, and was the sufficient cause of the first event.

. . . He'd have three sides ???

Without establishing a definition of what is being debated, no discussion, regardless of the subject, has any chance whatsoever of moving beyond a group of completely isolated comments which cannot be weighed against each other.

My personal theory is someone got REALLY pissed off at some moral-equivalence spouting bastard. Equally good would be something to scare people into behaving like reasonable people instead of what comes naturally.

btw,has anyone ever sat down and really though hard through the concept of moral equivalency? Kind of like communism, nice on paper, sucks the big one in real life.

It seems to be a very popular buzzword. That's about the extent of my thoughts on it.

I like the "big guy with the ant farm" theory. He may also be a little forgetful ...