What does the word (god) mean to you?
- Thread starter Kendall
- Start date
Can't see the issue with gender and religion but I will say that god means the topmost form of eternity, knowledge and bliss
This dude thinks it means a universal and all-powerful male figure that created life and the universe itself, sometimes responds to prayer, and is involved in the lives of humans, who he cares about.
your defintion is incomplete, since there are other entities that could fit this definition - better to speak for yourself and not others
The word god represents a concept created by man's imagination and lies outside of any factual reality. As with any such fantasy it can be used to describe an unlimited number of interpretations as has been demonstrated throughout recorded history. It has been used to describe an intelligence that controls a particular weather element, or specific aspects of nature, or all of nature, or particular solar bodies, or parts of geography (e.g. the god of the oceans). Pantheists see the whole universe as a god, others see a god as a creator of life or the universe itself. Others see a god as an all encompassing immaterial intelligence, while other see a god as a being who resides in a particular imaginary paradise.
Like any fictional construct a god concept can have almost any interpretation limited only by imagination. As with any competitive endeavor man's imagination will always lead to an ultimate fantasy as we see with the current popular Abrahamic constructs - simply an all-encompassing being with properties that are simply a list of extreme super superlatives.
What we can be quite sure of is that no such man made fantasies are in any sense real.
Like any fictional construct a god concept can have almost any interpretation limited only by imagination. As with any competitive endeavor man's imagination will always lead to an ultimate fantasy as we see with the current popular Abrahamic constructs - simply an all-encompassing being with properties that are simply a list of extreme super superlatives.
What we can be quite sure of is that no such man made fantasies are in any sense real.
Cris
evidence against this is that religion transcends borders of geography, chronology and culture - kind of difficult to work out why so many people in so many places in so many different eras "imagined" the same thing
persons who actually study world religion tend to come to different conclusions
haven't established the premises behind your opinion - ie why do you think so
doesn't escape the tautological argument that this tendency to catergorize something as ideal within all societies indicates that such a thing actually exists
why? on the strength of your opinions?
evidence against this is that religion transcends borders of geography, chronology and culture - kind of difficult to work out why so many people in so many places in so many different eras "imagined" the same thing
persons who actually study world religion tend to come to different conclusions
haven't established the premises behind your opinion - ie why do you think so
doesn't escape the tautological argument that this tendency to catergorize something as ideal within all societies indicates that such a thing actually exists
why? on the strength of your opinions?
I would agree with this
draqon
and this contradict each other
this .....
and this contradict each other
Light,
You jest surely? The evidence is that every culture developed their own imaginative vaiations, that’s why we have thousands of different religions cults and sects, because there is no common theme, apart from human imagination.
Other than human imagination? Such as? And you have evidence and facts, right?
What opinion? I was stating simple facts.
Again you jest with such BS, surely? The commonality is human imagination which certainly does exist. Show an a credible alternative.
No of course not; just merely the obviously childishly simple issue of credibility.
The commonality is the human experience. Denying God is tantamount to ignoring the elephant in the room. Oh, proof.....hmmmmm, errrr......... credible proof ...... ehhh..........Everything around us? oh! that's right! science explains that! oh, wait there is that problem....... where it came from! oh, well that'll it work itself out. And when we figure it out, and we will, what will be said then?
Emotional Hooligan
Registered Senior Member
You Are Gods
"It is only through the psyche that we can distinguish whether God and the unconscious are two different entities. Both are border line concepts for the transcendental contents. But empirically it can be established, with suffient degree of probability, that there is in the unconscious an archetype of wholeness which manifests itself spontaneously in dreams, etc, and a tendency, independent of the conscious will, to relate to other archetypes to this centre. Consequently, it does not seem improbable that the archetype produces a symbolism which has always been characterised and expressed the Deity.... The God-image does not coincide with the unconscious as such, but with a special content of it, namely the archetype of the Self. It is this archetype from which we can no longer distinguish the God-image empirically."
Psychology and Religion: West and East - Carl Jung
"I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was given from the things of my father. For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness.
Whoever has ears to hear should hear. There is light within a man of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine it is darkness."
Jesus – Gospel of Thomas
“They have not known, and they do not understand;
In darkness they keep walking about;
All the foundations of the earth are made to totter.
I myself have said, 'You are gods,
And all of you are sons of the Most High.”
Psalms 82:5
"It is only through the psyche that we can distinguish whether God and the unconscious are two different entities. Both are border line concepts for the transcendental contents. But empirically it can be established, with suffient degree of probability, that there is in the unconscious an archetype of wholeness which manifests itself spontaneously in dreams, etc, and a tendency, independent of the conscious will, to relate to other archetypes to this centre. Consequently, it does not seem improbable that the archetype produces a symbolism which has always been characterised and expressed the Deity.... The God-image does not coincide with the unconscious as such, but with a special content of it, namely the archetype of the Self. It is this archetype from which we can no longer distinguish the God-image empirically."
Psychology and Religion: West and East - Carl Jung
"I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was given from the things of my father. For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness.
Whoever has ears to hear should hear. There is light within a man of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine it is darkness."
Jesus – Gospel of Thomas
“They have not known, and they do not understand;
In darkness they keep walking about;
All the foundations of the earth are made to totter.
I myself have said, 'You are gods,
And all of you are sons of the Most High.”
Psalms 82:5
Emotional Hooligan
Registered Senior Member
"I displayed to you many fine works from the Father. For which of those works are you stoning me?" The Jews answered him: "We are stoning you, not for a fine work, but for blasphemy, even because you, although being a man, make yourself a god." Jesus answered them : "Is it not written in your Law, `I said: "You are gods"'?
Hermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos is, what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.
Yea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.
The source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.
Corpus Hemeticum
*
Hermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos is, what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.
Yea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.
The source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.
Corpus Hemeticum
*
Rjr6,
Come on, you have to do some work here.
Of what? We all like answers to things that are not explainable and when we can’t find a real answer we tend to imagine one. That is human nature around the world and for all time.
BS. Then show me the elephant.
And the connection between everything around us and the fantasy of a god is? And the proof of the connection is?
Come on, you have to do some work here.
Explains what? It doesn’t matter what science explains. The point is there is absolutely nothing that indicates a god might exist, or needs to exist – the idea is pure fantasy.
Why is that a problem? Why does anything have to come from anywhere?
It will? Why care?
And your point is?
Cris
just as we have many variations of names for things like water, trees, man woman etc
Its not uncommon for persons innvolved in such studied to come accross similar threads
here is one such view
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/index.html
You gave an opinion (Religion is an imagination) and didn't say why.
you don't state who's credibility - in other words who's authority
just as we have many variations of names for things like water, trees, man woman etc
but why the imagination of some transcendent realm that is very similar accross the board and a means to connect to it that is very similar accross the board?
Its not uncommon for persons innvolved in such studied to come accross similar threads
here is one such view
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/index.html
You gave an opinion (Religion is an imagination) and didn't say why.
In short, the tautological argument is that the large percentage of people's minds are designed in very specific ways to interact with this world and it doesn't appear to be co-incidence - like for instance we experience a need for water, and water exists, we experience a need for love and affection from others, and that also exists - so if large numbers of people are experiencing a need for god, it must indicate that there is something to fulfill that need since we don't have experience of any general desire manifest on an international communal level that this world does not have the capacity to fulfill.
you don't state who's credibility - in other words who's authority
Last edited: