The Nehor Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 50 minutes ago, Ahab said: Fast, when he wants to be, like the Easter Bunny. Got it. Thank you. No, just the best rabbit. As the best basketball players becomes sports gods so too does the best rabbit become the rabbit god. Try to keep up please.
mfbukowski Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 14 minutes ago, hope_for_things said: Without relying on any schools of philosophical thought, my current perspective about God is that you have two categories to put a God definition into. The first is that I believe when people talk about God, they are talking about an experience. Thinking of God as experience is a way to think about the feelings people have, the religious phenomena people experience, and the certainty and even trust people grant to this God experience concept. The idea of God as experience helps me to explain and appreciate everyone’s unique understanding of God and its not dependent on any particular denominational orientation. Brilliantly said. Maybe we are almost understanding each other. All that is, is an "experience." Edited February 6, 2020 by mfbukowski 1
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 Okay here is what we have so far from this thread: God is a word and not everyone agrees on its meaning. Possibilities include A creator within the universe, or the creator of the universe, signifying the ultimate or supreme type of creator The most supreme kind of being or thing, such as supreme in intelligence or other attributes A being capable of communicating feelings, ideas and images, usually associated with prayer and revelation. Those who communicate with God often describe experiences as receiving testimonies A progenitor of the human race, whether those humans are mortal or immortal or good or evil Fast, when he wants to be, like the Easter Bunny A or any glorified human being composed of spirit, flesh and bones coupled together in an inseparable and immortal body. Nice start but I think we can add some more ideas to the list.
Sunslight Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 53 minutes ago, Ahab said: Okay. Got it. Got any other definitions you would like to see included? How about adding or replacing the word "any" with your word "a"? Would that work, too, or are you referring to only one particular human being who fits that description? You could get all lawyer like and compose a 900 page essay I guess. Without proper context your just shooting in the dark.
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 Just now, Sunslight said: You could get all lawyer like and compose a 900 page essay I guess. Without proper context your just shooting in the dark. No I'm just looking to compose something short and sweet and reflective of what people mean when they use the word God, consolidating and summarizing the various ideas various people have. You can do more if you want to.
Sunslight Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 2 minutes ago, Ahab said: No I'm just looking to compose something short and sweet and reflective of what people mean when they use the word God, consolidating and summarizing the various ideas various people have. You can do more if you want to. I think the definition changes or is more focused when you place it in context of our "Father in Heaven".
bluebell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Ahab said: Now I don't know what you mean when you say you don't know what God is, since I know you are a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In my mind I'm thinking, "How can bluebell not know what God is and yet at the same time be a faithful member of the true church of Jesus Christ, as I am? A church that teaches what God is, at least on some level, and how we are children of God". You can describe God in any way you wish, but why speak as if you don't know anything at all about what God is? No clue at all? Not even a little bit? I didn't speak as if I don't know anything at all about God. I spoke as if the question you asked makes no sense. You didn't ask who God was, or what He was like, or even "what is a God". You asked "what is God" and since God isn't a what, the question makes no sense to me. 2
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 5 minutes ago, bluebell said: I didn't speak as if I don't know anything at all about God. I spoke as if the question you asked makes no sense. You didn't ask who God was, or what He was like, or even "what is a God". You asked "what is God" and since God isn't a what, the question makes no sense to me. A person is a what. A kind of being is a what. A description of God is a what. Need I go on? Since all of us are children of God... and this time when I am using the word God I am referring to the person who we refer to as our Father in heaven... any of us can possibly become a person we refer to as God, and in some sense we already are, but that doesn't go very far to describing and explaining what we are or what we can become. So that is where we can step in to describe and define what it is that we will become as we become more like him, if we do. And we can also describe and define what it is we already are if we do not ever become as perfect as our Father is.
hope_for_things Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 54 minutes ago, mfbukowski said: Brilliantly said. Maybe we are almost understanding each other. All that is, is an "experience." Excellent!! I love it, you just made my day. Thanks Edited February 6, 2020 by hope_for_things 1
teddyaware Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 26 minutes ago, bluebell said: I didn't speak as if I don't know anything at all about God. I spoke as if the question you asked makes no sense. You didn't ask who God was, or what He was like, or even "what is a God". You asked "what is God" and since God isn't a what, the question makes no sense to me. I can’t think of a single thing that exists, either as a physical reality within the universe or as a thought of something that courses through the consciousness of the human mind, about which it cannot be reasonably asked “what is it?” What is it that makes God, especially the material human God of the Latter-Day Saints, the lone exception to the rule? Edited February 6, 2020 by teddyaware 1
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 29 minutes ago, Sunslight said: I think the definition changes or is more focused when you place it in context of our "Father in Heaven". Yes, but that is only one of many true/valid definitions/meanings for the word God. We consider the Holy Ghost to be God, too, and yet we know he is not our Father in heaven. And we also know that we can become like our Father in heaven, even though we will not ever be our own Father in heaven. Which is probably why we refer to ourselves as God, rather than our Father in heaven.
Sunslight Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 11 minutes ago, Ahab said: Yes, but that is only one of many true/valid definitions/meanings for the word God. We consider the Holy Ghost to be God, too, and yet we know he is not our Father in heaven. And we also know that we can become like our Father in heaven, even though we will not ever be our own Father in heaven. Which is probably why we refer to ourselves as God, rather than our Father in heaven. Once again, it really comes down to the context. I've seen guys who worship their diesel pickups which to them is their God. In the scriptures, almost exclusively, "God" refers to our Father in heaven. There are "false gods" and "idol gods" also. So, in this context is it anything which is worshipped? The scriptures also mention the "true God". There is a lot of context and So its hard to set an all encompassing definition without establishing an exact context.
bluebell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 24 minutes ago, teddyaware said: I can’t think of a single thing that exists, either as a physical reality within the universe or as a thought of something that courses through the consciousness of the human mind, about which it cannot be reasonably asked “what is it?” What is it that makes God, especially the material human God of the Latter-Day Saints, the lone exception to the rule? What is president? Is that a reasonable, well worded, and clear question? 1
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 1 minute ago, Sunslight said: Once again, it really comes down to the context. I've seen guys who worship their diesel pickups which to them is their God. In the scriptures, almost exclusively, "God" refers to our Father in heaven. There are "false gods" and "idol gods" also. So, in this context is it anything which is worshipped? The scriptures also mention the "true God". There is a lot of context and So its hard to set an all encompassing definition without establishing an exact context. For many their material possessions are their God, in the context that they think their material possessions are the most important things in their life, so that's a good reason why we shouldn't just automatically translate "God" into "Father in heaven" in all cases. For many others of us, including our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father in heaven is the most important thing/object/person in our or their life, so yes for those people it would work in most cases to translate the word God in that way. But still not in all cases, because there are other valid definitions/meanings to use the word God to refer to some other thing or person other than our Father in heaven. So one definition just will not work in all cases. Sometimes we use the word God to refer to our Father in heaven, sometimes to Jesus Christ, sometimes to us as the same kind of being they are, sometimes to anything that is considered supreme or supremely important, etc.
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 6 minutes ago, bluebell said: What is president? Is that a reasonable, well worded, and clear question? The word president is a word referring to someone who presides over something, such as the President of the United States or the presiding high priest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yes, I understood you reasonably well enough. Any other questions?
Robert F. Smith Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 3 hours ago, Ahab said: Good, as long as there is at least one person on this planet trying to put all of the information in one place. I understand that not everyone wants to do that job but I do think it might help other people to understand what various people mean when they use the word God. I'd want to summarize all of the various views as much as possible, though, finding common themes and ideas. I think I've determined that from now on when people say they believe in God I'm going to ask them what they are talking about when they say that. Which version or definition of God they have in mind. Otherwise I might not understand what the heck they are saying......................... You might be disappointed in their replies. Most people are not prepared to entertain systematic thinking about God.
teddyaware Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, bluebell said: What is president? Is that a reasonable, well worded, and clear question? (My own definition) President, a proper noun, is a word that describes the status of someone who holds the highest position of leadership and authority within particular organization. The very presence of any definition is there in answer to an implied question. Edited February 6, 2020 by teddyaware
Amulek Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 3 hours ago, bluebell said: When I hear the question "what is God" it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Like asking "What is president" or "what is mother" or "what is human". I thought the same sort of thing at first. But then I remembered God is Love. So, if God = Love, then the question becomes "What is Love?" which, as we all know, is trivially easy to answer: Baby, don't hurt me...Don't hurt me...No more... 1
The Nehor Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 1 hour ago, bluebell said: What is president? Is that a reasonable, well worded, and clear question? Only for the last three years. 1
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 52 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said: You might be disappointed in their replies. Most people are not prepared to entertain systematic thinking about God. Most people, huh. Wow. I would think that if someone was saying they believe in God they would at least be able articulate what they are saying they believe in. Someone says: I believe in God. Someone else says: What do you mean by that? So you're saying: something like "I don't know. I have no clue what I mean by that. I'm just saying I believe in God" is going to be the most common response? I will blame the public school systems, since that's how most people get edumicated. And television. And the word on the street, yo. America deserves better and I am going to help give it to them. 1
bluebell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Ahab said: The word president is a word referring to someone who presides over something, such as the President of the United States or the presiding high priest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yes, I understood you reasonably well enough. Any other questions? You answered the question “what is a president” but that’s not what I asked. Because my question didn’t make sense the way it was worded, you didn’t actually know what I was asking. You had to subconsciously add the “a” to make the question make sense, and then you answered that question instead of the one I asked.
bluebell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 45 minutes ago, teddyaware said: (My own definition) President, a proper noun, is a word that describes the status of someone who holds the highest position of leadership and authority within particular organization. The very presence of any definition is there in answer to an implied question. You answered “what is a president” but that’s not the question I asked.
Sunslight Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Ahab said: For many their material possessions are their God, in the context that they think their material possessions are the most important things in their life, so that's a good reason why we shouldn't just automatically translate "God" into "Father in heaven" in all cases. For many others of us, including our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father in heaven is the most important thing/object/person in our or their life, so yes for those people it would work in most cases to translate the word God in that way. But still not in all cases, because there are other valid definitions/meanings to use the word God to refer to some other thing or person other than our Father in heaven. So one definition just will not work in all cases. Sometimes we use the word God to refer to our Father in heaven, sometimes to Jesus Christ, sometimes to us as the same kind of being they are, sometimes to anything that is considered supreme or supremely important, etc. For LDS, God is properly defined as our Father in Heaven.
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 5 minutes ago, bluebell said: You answered the question “what is a president” but that’s not what I asked. Because my question didn’t make sense the way it was worded, you didn’t actually know what I was asking. You had to subconsciously add the “a” to make the question make sense, and then you answered that question instead of the one I asked. The "a" I added was to denote that president is a word. I suppose I could have rephrased my original OP question as : "What do people mean when they use the word God" but I didn't want to set it up that way because wanted to see what people would say in response. Your response equated to "I do'n't know. I have no idea what God is. I don't understand that question. Could you please rephrase your question?" At least I got a response from you. Thank you for participating in this thread.
Ahab Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 5 minutes ago, Sunslight said: For LDS, God is properly defined as our Father in Heaven. Yes, and there are other proper definitions, as well. God as a kind of being, both male and female. God as the supreme ruler of the universe, with no other kind of being greater than us, our kind. God as good with opposition from those who are evil. And the other things I mentioned earlier, too.
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