Who is God?

[Red Devil]

Pascal's Wager:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

[cheesepuffly]

Pascal's Wager:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

And thats one of the reason i believe in God, i mean i truly believe He is there, but i have nothing to loose even if He was not.

[bigbadbogie]

Except an eternities salvation... 

[cheesepuffly]

...?

[bigbadbogie]

HEAVEN!!!

[cheesepuffly]

...?

Thats kinda what i said.

If im right, which i know i am, i get that, if im wrong, then i dont loose anything.

[mrtwosheds]

Well, I think I will award Sonic 1 point for actually coming up with a name, even if it was a cartoon character.  

But basically the philosophical/theological level of this discussion has not risen above what I would expect from a primary school religious education lesson. Quite disappointing really.

God does exist! in the minds of billions of humans on this planet. That makes it a very powerful and potentially very dangerous force. Question everything you have been taught! If a judgemental God does exist, It will not forgive people who behave like stupid sheep! It gave us powerful brains for a reason. Seek the truth with every means available, with your eyes your soul and with science!
Believe what is, not what you are told to by those who simply seek power over us.
Creation is vast beyond our imaginations, We have altered our little bit of it to the point where it may fail us soon. God will not save us, unless we make it do it with our own hands and minds and mouths.

Heaven is a LIE!

[bigbadbogie]

...?

Thats kinda what i said.

If im right, which i know i am, i get that, if im wrong, then i dont loose anything.

You don't lose anything?

You will lose heaven if god isn't real...

Creation is vast beyond our imaginations

No it isn't. Our imaginations are far more epic than reality. The existence of religion proves this.

[mrtwosheds]

No it isn't. Our imaginations are far more epic than reality. The existence of religion proves this.

It simply shows how small some imaginations are.

[Avatar]

There are those who don't believe that God would allow Satan to exist.  They say "How could a benevolent all-powerful being allow true evil to exist in a Universe they created?"

The most interesting answer I've ever read to this is that God/Satan, or more basically Good/Evil, are one and the same entity and what we describe as Good and Evil are the two opposite poles of this being.

Think along the lines of a magnet, where (other than in exotic physics) there has to be a North and South pole for any magnet to function.  You can also think along the lines of electricity, where it doesn't exist without a flow between positive and negative charges.

***

I, personally, can't look at the Universe without seeing the hand of God.  I have my doubts as to orthodox views, meaning I don't think he's an old man with white robes and a long white beard, but I don't see how the order of the Universe could have arisen spontaneously from primordial chaos.   My human mind also has trouble figuring out where the primordial chaos came from, as like most humans I need a 'start' to things to be comfortable.

That same human mind has come to the conclusion that God is a being the likes of which we poor humans can never even glimpse a small part of the totality of.  The nature of a being that can create a cosmos is such that we can't even understand the smallest part of it's nature, any more than an amoeba could figure out the smallest part of a human being.

So my answer is "God is a being so far above us that we'll never understand even the smallest part of Him, despite any religion's attempts to do so..."

-Av-

[bigbadbogie]

No.

If there was a god, with our intelligence and logical ability we could understand him/it perfectly (unlike the amoeba which obviously lacks this).

There is also no such thing as chaos. There is only order, and the entwining of seperate forms of order.

Good and Evil can have no material existance as they are merely perspectives, and therefore can only ever reside in the thoughts of super-intelligent living beings like ourselves.

We are the pinnacle of creation. There is nothing above our level... only below it.


Why do people wish into existance these unexplainable and ridiculous mystical elements when we ourselves are truly at the top of the ladder? Its almost like we don't like being the best of the best after all. Maybe we don't want the responsibility.

[sabrebattletank]

If there was a god, with our intelligence and logical ability we could understand him/it perfectly (unlike the amoeba which obviously lacks this).

I doubt that. With your intelligence and logical ability, can you understand any one given person perfectly? Remember, God is [would be, might be, ect] a being, not something inanimate, like a rock or a chair. How can we understand God when we can't even understand other people?

[sabrebattletank]

There are those who don't believe that God would allow Satan to exist.  They say "How could a benevolent all-powerful being allow true evil to exist in a Universe they created?"

The most interesting answer I've ever read to this is that God/Satan, or more basically Good/Evil, are one and the same entity and what we describe as Good and Evil are the two opposite poles of this being.

Think along the lines of a magnet, where (other than in exotic physics) there has to be a North and South pole for any magnet to function.  You can also think along the lines of electricity, where it doesn't exist without a flow between positive and negative charges.

I like to think of it this way: your magnet analogy is great, but only for our perception of good and evil. Good would exist if evil did not and evil if good did not. Consider it this way: one definition of evil is an absence of good. Take a piece of paper, for example. That's good. Now punch a hole through it. What's left in the hole? Nothing -- that's evil.

[bigbadbogie]

How can we understand God when we can't even understand other people?

Understanding other people is easy.

[sabrebattletank]

Understanding other people is easy.

Yes and no. But understanding someone else perfectly? That's something that no one has ever done.