The definition of the Divine is as individual as snowflakes, even among those of the same belief. I would like to provide a place for all to come and give their view on what the Divine is to them. I would like this to be done 'Dave Rabbit' style, for those who remember those thought provoking threads (why don't you do this anymore, Dave?). In other words, NO FLAMING! Respect the views of others and don't preach. Just an exchange of ideas. Questions of other posters are welcome, but none of the usual "You're wrong!" responses to other posts. I would ask that the Mods assigned to this thread help in this matter, and thank them in advance for doing so.

I will start with mine. A little background into how I came to my current belief. I was raised Roman Catholic, and attended nine years of Catholic School. In the seventh grade, our religion class focused on World Religions with Sister Susan. It was in this class that my journey really began, as I was exposed to many new thoughts and ideas.

At the end of the next school year, my Mother passed away, and I experienced a 'crisis of faith'. As soon as I graduated from high school, I stopped attending church, and considered myself to be agnostic.

A few years later I was taught transcendental meditation, and it changed my life. In addition to astral projection, I learned that I was able to speak to 'souls' on the other side. It is a limited ability, as I can only communicate with those who are close to completing their journey, Old Souls. (Yes, I can see you rolling your eyes and quietly saying "Yeah, right!") What I have found is that everytime one question gets answered, ten more take it's place.

I began to read everything I could get my hands on concerning spirituality. I now have two bookshelves filled with books on every religion you can think of. Eventually, I read a book on Wicca, and found that it very closely matched the beliefs I already held, and as it is a 'Non-organized' religion, it left plenty of room for individual belief and growth. I now consider myself to be a Wiccan and am a solitary practitioner (for those familiar with this faith). I am a firm believer in "and it harm none, do what ye will".

So my definition of the Divine comes from both contact from the other side and what truth I have found in my studies of faiths from around the world.

I believe that the Divine (I refrain from using the word 'God' due to the preconcieved ideas that come with the term) is the universe(s) itself (themselves). I have added the terms in parentheses due to the multiverse theory in physics. Science has recently discovered that the entire universe is comprised of energy, and that it's all connected. Matter is the lowest vibration of energy, and as we begin to vibrate at higher vibrations, we get closer to returning to the Divine Source. I believe that we are all parts of the Divine, and were sent to the lower vibrations so that It could experience existence. To give an example of what I mean by this, you can watch someone skydive, you can learn everything it takes to skydive, but until you skydive, you really don't understand skydiving. In much the same way, the Divine had the knowledge of existence, but lacked the experience of existence.

I believe that we return to this plane of existence over and over again until we once again vibrate at the Divine level, and then return this experience to the Divine. This has been confirmed for me by the 'Old Souls' I have refered to above.

I now turn this thread over to you, my fellow ATS members (and Mods, as I would love to hear your views as well). It will make a great reference tool when engaged in spiritual debate on other threads as you will be able to come here and see what beliefs your debate opponent holds, thus giving you better insight into their beliefs.

Again, NO FLAMING PLEASE!! I won't end this with the usual 'Dave Rabbit' ending (i.e. Star and Flag this Mutha!) but it would be nice for this thread to get the attention I feel it deserves, considering how much spiritual debate goes on here on ATS. I look forward to your replies!

Sorry about your mother, i lost my father 9 years ago, I still dream very livelike dreams being around him, kinda cool in away ..

But, my view on God is in multiple levels.
The God most people think of is what I think of as the one/ones/force that are out side this universe looking in, I dont want to go further into that.

But the God when it comes to humans and our Creation, Im pretty convinsed is the Anunnaki theory, The lab.rat story..
I prety sure they they made Eve first and saw she was what they were looking for, and then inplanted an egg to be Adam...

That is the fast version of my thoughts on things...

Hope that Please No Flame rule still applies !!!

My definition would be something like "everything and its awareness," or maybe just "everything."

The pursuit of knowing and experiencing everything is the pursuit of knowing God.

I look at creation and I realised I did not make the Plants and animals or air or sunlight. I am just an observer on this Vapor of life till I am absorbed some way by the Creator.Oboy the Creater made everything and has everything and then I get to play with it.

The way I view God or the Creator is that everything that is, is in fact God. It is like the whale we live inside of. So in my understanding the creator is

"The Isness"

Now you have opened a door with the simple statement God, the creator.

That is the Escaton.

There is also God the Savior, the Emanuel.

And God the almighty. Sometimes benevolent, sometimes the bastard, sometimes both, depending on your belief system.

It is important to be clear which God you are referring to, not meaning to suggest multiple Gods, meaning to indicate multiple ways of defining "God" as the essential requirement for being considered the one or one of the many.

If the divine is as snowflakes, then are you bringing back the pantheon?

[edit on 28-6-2009 by Cyberbian]

That which we call God can best be described as that ineffable ground of being out of which all things rise... that supports them during their period of manifestation and back into which they must ultimately dissolve.

The Hindu's say that there are three syllables in the word OM... the O... the M and the silence surrounding them or put in more scientific terms the atoms... the particles that compose them and the space between them.

I tend to think that the active principle of creation is consciousness but beyond that words fail and science has nothing to say.

Originally posted by Cyberbian
If the divine is as snowflakes, then are you bringing back the pantheon?

What I stated was that:

The definition of the Divine is as individual as snowflakes...

If you believe in a pantheon, then that would be your definition of the Divine. Do not let the word 'God' limit your response. Be it a trinity, a pantheon or one single entity.

[edit on 28-6-2009 by JaxonRoberts]

Well Mr. Roberts, since we are newly acquainted friends, I thought it would be nice of me to reply to this thread I was avoiding lol.

I am a very spiritual person. I meditate several times a day, in multiple locations, sometimes with multiple people. I have to see that the idea of a monotheistic, single entity God eludes me. I cannot for a minute believe in such a thing.

Now, that's because of my many OOBE's among other experiences I have had, that have shown me, or made me believe in what I do. For a long time I was caught between these views and the ones of my Catholic upbringing, and I came to a simple conclusion.

I don't know.

Nobody knows.

Anybody who tries to tell you they know, is delusional on some level.

Now belief is one thing, you can believe in something all you want, but truth is something entirely different. I don't think were here to find out the truth, otherwise, what would the point of the journey be?

We aren't equipped to process or understand such an idea. Can you really imagine, what kind of mind blowing, reality changing situation that would create if we were to know the truth?

Now, that being said, I have my educated opinions. I think that we live in a Universe filled with energy. Forces that we cannot see, and beings that exist at higher wave lenghts and dimensions that somewhat effect the way we see things.

Now are they what created us? Perhaps, but I think they are the product of a happy and whole existance in this plane, in order to move up to a higher level, or "ascend" as I would like to put it.

I think that all material life is subject to the theory of evolution, but the initial spark of life, that created our Galaxy, must've come from somewhere, and I think that would the collective thoughts, wants and needs of those higher beings.

That's my take on it, mind you again I don't know, I can simply guess and hope I am right, but anybody could be.

~Keeper

I don't think it is possible with our primitive minds, our inadequate language, and our silly cosmological constructs, to even come close to defining God.

So I don't try.

The consciousness that has manifested at the most complex level of electromagnetic energy (the force that encompasses the entire universe and also composes it IMHUT*). It is interconnected with every other bit of em so it is aware of all things at all times. It is part of the electricity used by every lifeform to interpret its surroundings and make decisions. Every thought that a lifeform makes is then noted and added to its collective. If enough thoughts of similar subject matter and tone enter at once, it will respond by adding an "influence" to certain system already in motion. This is your prayers being answered seemingly via miracle and mass emotion changing the atmosphere of certain events.

That is of course "god" as the creator having a hand in everything, and more or less, being everything at the same time. I'm skeptical of anything being between this level and the grunt level of consciousness which is that which is isolated into a single being (a lifeform). Though an "afterlife" level that doesn't necessarily think but rather accomodate the various smaller manifestations of consciousness into one level of unity separate yet compatible with the main "creator" level would serve a purpose and thus, I wouldn't rule that out.

*In My Humble Unproven Theory



[edit on 28-6-2009 by Eitimzevinten]

I do believe in some type of god, in the sense of a being or something that created all that exists now. Nothing can come from nothing, in the overall scheme of things. Now that does not mean I believe god is watching over us in the clouds or that when we die he judges us and sends us to heaven or hell, etc... its just the beliefe that there is something that created all that we know of now. People assume that if I believe in reencarnation for example, I have to be a religious person.

God for me is a singular diety, a vast creator of all things known and unknown.

I am continually humbled by just how incredible, and complex, the universe we live in truly is. It is a mindblower to think that inside our own Milky Way Galaxy there are between 200 to 400 billion star systems, some similar, some very different, from our own.

I wouldn´t think it being beyond the pale to predict that this Galaxy probably has at least a couple of trillion planets within all of these solar systems as well. Consider the complexity of our own Earth, from it´s physical structure and systems, to the wonders and secrets of it´s biology. Imagine all the variations of our own earthly processes which could very well be happening on the billions of planets located within the habital zones of their host stars in our Galaxy.

Now multiply what goes on in this galaxy by a hundred billion, which is about the current known estimate of the amount of other galaxies sharing the Universe with us.

For all we know, we could be in one universe among a hundred billion other ones.

And this is only at the material level. Who knows how many other forms of existances are out there, being spiritual or multi-dimensional.

This all couldn´t have started just out of nothingness. God is at the controls.

One way or another, we will all find out the ultimate secret.

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts

Originally posted by Cyberbian
If the divine is as snowflakes, then are you bringing back the pantheon?

What I stated was that:

The definition of the Divine is as individual as snowflakes...

If you believe in a pantheon, then that would be your definition of the Divine. Do not let the word 'God' limit your response. Be it a trinity, a pantheon or one single entity.

[edit on 28-6-2009 by JaxonRoberts]

Sorry I misunderstood your intent, the "definitions" are numerous, yes indeed. I actually reread what you said several time and still misconscrewed it.

I actually go with the universe both as the creator and creation as being my personal definition. The all, and the underlying pervasive driver of the all, and so we are aspects of the divine. But then so is everything else! So don't go getting a big head about your own divinity!


[edit on 28-6-2009 by Cyberbian]

I can relate to your catholic upbringing. My mom made me deal to make my confirmation, then I could walk my own path. My parish priest was flabbergasted to find me reading Dante's Inferno my last year. So in my years since I've dabbled in various beliefs. I can't shake the feeling the fictional god of the Conan stories Crom was the perfect example of divinity. He give man life and the will to thrive and all else is up to us. Prayers to Crom will go unanswered because he is indifferent to man. Faith is power but not the type that can be collected and hoarded. Who or what created us does not really matter, the fact that we are here and given all the tools to be a saint or sinner does. If the supreme being or beings wanted us to know what the "truth" was it/they would. It's better to keep us striving to "perfect" ourselves in this world. I kind of hope to learn some answers when I die, so I can find out how close I was to the truth.