A better way of doing it, with regards to the 'God' question. If you're a theist or deist, please answer this question.

by Psychotic Parrot 86 Replies latest jw friends

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    VoidEater,

    My question was really aimed at the 99.99% of people who believe in God in the calloquial sense of the word, to take into account every possible concept of God, even ones i have not yet come across, would be simply impossible & i sense a certain amount of pride in your possession of an arcane concept of God which is not familiar to the majority of people. Perhaps that is just my observation though, i may be wrong in thinking you proud, so i'm sorry if that's the case.

    This thread was aimed mainly at those who would normally try to prove God's existence (that being the majority of believers i think), & since your God is not that kind of God, i would hesitate to label it as God at all, i can't stop you from doing that though. But to me, to simply call God the act of saying "I don't know" as well as the core of our conscious mind is an obvious misuse of the word.

    Imagine the following, suppose someone were to offer to give you a lift to work in their car, & then on arriving at the road they're parked in, you see that rather than having a car, they do in fact have a skateboard. On asking them why they said they have a car when in reality they have a skateboard, would you accept this as an answer? "Well that's just your narrow & loaded definition of the word car, my concept of the car is more akin to a skateboard." Personally, i would be a little offended at their misuse of the word car & would probably break their skateboard in half as punishment.

    By the way, polytheism tends to come under the same umbrella as monotheism, as they are both theistic positions in a way which deism & pantheism are not. So by theism i did in fact mean both monotheism & polytheism, i should have been more clear on that, but to be honest, polytheism is really not that common around these parts.

  • VoidEater
    VoidEater

    agonus: Nice description...that matches what I mean...

    Everyone is waiting for God to give them something

    That may speak to part of what you mean when you say "God"...

    If God really is looking for those who haven't thought hard about it, then i would say that He has poor taste in people.

    This is also revelatory. You seem to be speaking about God as a kind of leader, or something looking for...worshippers?

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    VoidEater,

    Sorry, but you're taking this too far now. This thread is for you to describe the God you believe in & why you believe, not for you to have a go at me for not taking into accont every possible meaning of the word God, which in your book seems to be whatever the hell you like.

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    agonus,

    God is a metaphysical fractal. That's the best way I can describe it. Macrocosm within the microcosm, that sort of thing.

    Is that really the best way you can describe it? As far as i know, fractals have nothing to do with metaphysics, & macrocosms do not exist within microcosms.

  • VoidEater
    VoidEater

    PP:

    Interesting convo - though it really does highlight why I asked for your definition, since God (like so many little words) begs definition. This board being what it is, it's useful to get at what you really mean when you talk about "God" - just as if this board were on carriages, the term "car" would perhaps need some definition.

    I am not particularly "proud" of an "arcane" definition. It's not even "arcane" in my circles.

    But if it gets people to challenge their spoon-fed WTS viewpoints, I'm pleased. We should challenge our concepts about things we've only been told about.

    I do think your overreacting a bit in your last post, sorry to have prodded you unartfully.

    This thread is for you to describe the God you believe in & why you believe

    ...and all I have done is ask you to do half of that - describe the God you envision.

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    VoidEater,

    The thing is, these aren't just WTS viewpoints, they're the viewpoints of most, if not all christians, muslims & jews all over the world. And since most of the believers on this board fit into one of those three catagories, this thread was aimed primarily at them & their particular definition of God as being, at His core, the creator of the universe.

    Your concept of God, which i actually have come across before, in Glastonbury, England, is a very New Agey concept of God, & one which i don't see much need to argue against since you are not attempting to force it upon me. You are of course free to talk about your idea of God & tell me why you believe in it, this thread isn't closed to you, it just wasn't particularly made with you in mind, & thus i failed to accomodate you all that well.

    P.S. I should also refer to the title of this thread at this point. It includes the words: "If you're a theist or deist, please answer this question."

    So i did make it clear in the thread title that it was aimed at theist/deist believing people, & not those who believe in a more esoteric concept of God.

  • VoidEater
    VoidEater

    Interesting that so many viewpoints - from hard to weak atheism, to muslim, to Christian, to Buddhist... - become available after the WTS. Even New Age.

    Though I'm not into New Age-ism, except for the music.

    To answer your question directly, I believe in whatever I believe as a way to put "transcendental" experiences into a context. So, you can easily dispose of me with one of the arguments from your previous "God of the Gaps" thread. Nothing to see here, folks, move along...

    ;-)

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    VoidEater,

    That's because the WTS leaves most people feeling very confused, insecure & (rightfully) untrusting of others. So it's not at all surprising that ex-dubs & other ex-cultists go off in a variety of different directions.

  • littlebird
    littlebird

    I believe due to 3 levels.

    1. I believe the accounts of Jesus, both from biblical & secular sources. I believe he really was the Son of God, that he lived, he died and I believe he was resurrected.

    2. I believe in God on a physical level. I look at nature and I see "design".

    3. I believe in God on a spiritual level. I pray, I feel "guided". When I listen to this guiding, I fare better than when I don't. In times of trouble, I've had to many experiences where things all fell together that, to me, just couldn't have been coincidence.

    Can I prove his existence? Nope. But, the above is all the proof I need for myself.

  • Psychotic Parrot
    Psychotic Parrot

    littlebird,

    1. I believe the accounts of Jesus, both from biblical & secular sources. I believe he really was the Son of God, that he lived, he died and I believe he was resurrected.

    I see, do you know why you believe these things?

    2. I believe in God on a physical level. I look at nature and I see "design".

    That's fine, however this would fit into the 'God of the gaps' catagory of reasons to believe in a God who created the universe.

    3. I believe in God on a spiritual level. I pray, I feel "guided". When I listen to this guiding, I fare better than when I don't. In times of trouble, I've had to many experiences where things all fell together that, to me, just couldn't have been coincidence.

    Fair enough, but have you ever watched this video?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98OTsYfTt-c

    Cheers

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit