How do you define 'God'?

I warn you, I am crazy.

Mods, I just realized this should have been in the Philosophy section, Sorry!!!

I was thinking,

How do I define God? I have a friend who believes in Christianity. He said God was a personality, which I do not agree with. This lead me to question the way I was thinking about God. He showed me another possibility, one I have never thought about.

I want to define how I see God. You see, to me, there is a God, and there is no God.
I think or believe that God is wholeness but also, emptiness.
I had an experience where I felt those to feelings. It's VERY hard to describe this feeling. There was feeling of eternal and infinite bliss (People who never experienced this simply cannot fathom this, even I still can't) I felt whole, but also empty. It was Yin and Yang who merged.

Because of this experience, Priorities changed, my perspective of everything changed. After the experience, I KNEW that there was more than this human life.

God is Yin and Yang together. God is Love (Higher density) and since there is also a polar opposite, Hate (Lower Density).

Now, some people may say that God is not the Devil or vice versa, I do not agree.

Without light there would be only darkness (a whole) and without darkness there would be only light (a whole).
If there was only infinite possibility, nothing would be happening (Emptiness, a whole) while at the same time everything is happening (Wholeness, a whole)
You see what i'm trying to say?

This thread has brought me to the conclusion that God is Yin and Yang together.
You can define it how you want, I like to use Yin and Yang.

I hope while reading this, you have found your own definition of God, It's through each other we learn.

I'm out, Peace

Precisely 20 mins ago.... I typed into google 'What is God?'

I don't know how long ago you decided to start this thread.

One of the things which came up on my search was this: LINK

I haven't watched it yet as it won't play for me....

I don't have a definition of God. It strikes me as strange that your question is at the top of 'recent posts' when I came back to ATS.

Coincidence...

OK... I watched it and it's not had any great impact on me. I read, listen to all possibilities. I can agree with the concept that God is possibly all, I struggle to accept the teachings of religions... so I don't come to conclusions.

I am 'crazy' too

I hope you don’t mind if I re-post the answer I gave to a similar thread, when someone was asking for our definitions of God.

God is a Creator
God is one who Communicates
God is one who becomes Incarnate

God is a Creator

I see this view as distinct from both Monism and Dualism.

As I understand the difference;
Monism resolves everything to one point of origin.
Dualism resolves everything to two points of origin, distinct and independent.

Creation theory falls short of being genuine Monism, because the created universe is understood as distinct from God.

Creation theory falls short of being genuine Dualism, because the created universe is understood as dependent upon God.

My private theory is that Creation teaching ought to be called "One-and-a-half-ism", but I don't suppose it will catch on.

As far as I can see, this involves the traditional teaching of "ex nihilo" ("out of nothing") Creation.

Because if God is "creating" using pre-existing raw material, then the material is not genuinely dependent upon him- this has become Dualism.

Or if God is producing the material of the universe "out of himself", then the material is not genuinely distinct- this has become Monism.

"Ex nihilo" is the only logical alternative, which is presumably why the teaching was developed in the first place.

God is one who Communicates

This assumption is built into Biblical religion.

In the first place, the Bible is believed to contain examples of communication (as reported, for example, by the prophets).

Furthermore, the Bible is believed to reflect a policy of communication.
It is said that God is using the Bible to "reveal himself", and so Biblical religion used to be described as "revealed religion".

The belief that "God is one who Communicates" links back with the belief that "God is one who Creates".

In the first place, some of the content of the communication points to God as Creator.

The proper Biblical answer to the question "Why do you believe your God made the universe?" is not really "Becasue that's the only way to account for the universe."
The truly Biblical answer is "Because he says he did, and I believe him."

But I think the very act of communication also points to God as a Creator.

Any act of communication necessarily implies a distinction between the communicator and the other party.
I've already said the Biblical understanding of Creation involves a distinction between God and the universe.

An act of communication implies the existence of a "will" in the communicator, or at least some sort of analogy of one.
But the same could be said, surely, of an act of "Creation".

Finally, a God who creates a universe thereby sets up a relationship between himself and the universe.
The effect of communication is to set up a relationship between himself and individuals (or even a group of individuals) within the same universe.

I assume that a purely monistic deity would not be communicating with, or setting up a relationship with, parts of itself.

My point is that
The idea of the God who Creates
and the idea of the God who Communicates
are very akin to one another.

The kind of God who would Create would also be the kind of God who could Communicate.

God is one who becomes Incarnate

I could hardly, really, leave this out of a definition of the Christian God.

The understanding is that the Incarnation is a more direct presence of God within the created universe.

If this is true, it's the ultimate form of Communication, as the author of Hebrews points out;
"God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets
but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son".

But it's also the ultimate form of "establishing a relationship";

Because the doctrine of the Incarnation is that the Creator and his creation, divinity and humanity, are bound together within the person of the Son.
The bond is understood to be irrevocable.
It's impossible for a relationship to get any closer than that.

Anyone who tries to understand the church's teaching about the Incarnation will discover that it's all about finding the right "balance".

On the one hand, the distinction between the divinity and the humanity must not be exaggerated, to the point that the unity disappears.
O the other hand, the unity between them must not be exaggerated, to the point that the distinction disappears.
The correct position is somewhere halfway between the two extremes.

But this is exactly what I said, at the beginning of this piece, about Creation;
That it occupied a halfway position between Monism and Dualism.

So it seems to me that the "balancing act" which Jehovah's Witnesses love to mock, when it comes in the teaching about the Incarnation, is also inherent in the very doctrine of the Creation itself.

The kind of God who would Create is also the kind of God who could become Incarnate.


I began by naming the Christian God as
The one who Creates
The one who Communicates
The one who becomes Incarnate.

I now suggest that these three ideas are akin to one another.
They belong together, naturally.

Whether you can believe them or not, they all belong to the same kind of God.

Define God;
God is a word, a noun.
Lord - Deity - Divinity - Godhead - Idol; The source of all moral authority; the supreme being.


Do I believe in God? . . . Well when I ask my self that question allot of thoughts start to trigger in my mind. I'm Agnostic for a reason, I can not come to a conclusion, I hope God can understand that

I'm an atheist and I don't believe in a deity. To me the concept of "God" could mean anything to the believer. Limited only by the imagination.

reply to post by Threegirls


I always say coincidence does not exist
Maybe you should continue question about that subject. I've had 'coincidences' on ATS and kept going with it. I got to learn ALOT!

I just watched the video and they are right about everything in my opinion.
God cannot be defined. But I tried my best on this thread xD

reply to post by Phoenix267


I agree with Atheism to some extend but I have my own belief that I am willing to accept for now.

There is no God (Atheism) and there is a God (theism). Yin and Yang.

reply to post by Risingfall


In my decades on earth I have questioned this very topic almost constantly. I also do not believe in coincidence really

I have come across many theories.. all boil down to one really.

have you ever heard the story of The Egg ?

I read this a few years ago... I loved it!

I can not accept anything as truth. All is perception and I guess that is the point really. Our perception grows as our experience of 'reality' changes. I am open and consider all things I will accept as truth only when my journey is complete.

I'm starting to come around to the eastern philosophies and religions point of view when it comes to god. The Taoist and Buddhist explanations of "god" make more sense. As in there is not one deity that people ,just worship and obey. It's more about the discovery of ones true nature by following practices that help reveal this true nature of " god", which is you and everything around you.

God is this ever present moment of presence.
The mind will not allow you to see or know God because the mind believes in more.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
It's more about the discovery of ones true nature by following practices that help reveal this true nature of " god", which is you and everything around you.

No practice is needed when God is realized to be in you and all around you. Just stop going to the mind for answers and see with the eyes and hear with the ears.

God is 'that which is'.

reply to post by Threegirls


Wow, The Egg story is beautiful, and indeed, we are all one.

Yes indeed! Perception is ever changable and keeps growing, and yes when the journey is complete, we will all have our each individual and greater perception of truth.

I sometimes hold on to one perception of truth for the moment, because my 3rd eye opened.
During that 'Awakening', I was holding one big perspective of how the 'Draconian' system works, I could connect the dots, in other words.

This lead me to change my life and that was the moment also, when I became 'crazy'. (Have been 'crazy' my whole life, but from that moment it thousandfolded )

Now, i'm questioning everything that I come across, sinking deeper in the rabbit hole (and i'm loving it).

Nice to see other people have an open mind, it is truly a wondrous thing.

Peace

Everything.

Does everything exist?

I say yes.

Originally posted by Phoenix267
I'm an atheist and I don't believe in a deity. To me the concept of "God" could mean anything to the believer. Limited only by the imagination.

'That which is' - is reality. However the mind is always concerned with 'that which isn't'. The mind can imagine absolutely anything but this present happening.
The present is God but the mind will never see it or touch it.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Everything.

Does everything exist?

I say yes.

Everything appears to exit now - at no other time can anything exist.

Presence is all.

reply to post by Risingfall

Originally posted by Risingfall
Now, i'm questioning everything that I come across, sinking deeper in the rabbit hole (and i'm loving it).

Nice to see other people have an open mind, it is truly a wondrous thing.

Peace

I found this today and found it to be amazing.
www.truthcontest.com...
Maybe you might like to read it because it is for the open minded.
It is a present appearing presently just for you.

God must be laughing his ass of now at primitive, talking monkeys trying to define him.

"Him" is just used here as a reference point. Anthropomorphizing God is also typical of this "talking monkey"

Originally posted by olaru12
God must be laughing his ass of now at primitive, talking monkeys trying to define him.

"Him" is just used here as a reference point. Anthropomorphizing God is also typical of this "talking monkey"

The talking monkey is Satan. God is hearing the talking monkey.

How do I define 'God'?

God is FAR more than just a personality...

A personality can only exist if there is a person behind it.

During my life time He has given me several supernatural encounters that only God Himself could have done.

Below is a video I came across the other day with several examples of the type miracles that God loves to do:

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