I believe in God, but not in the Biblical Sense we've been taught to believe. God, as I imagine is the source of all the Energy that created the Universe. But, God as I believe, doesn't have the ability the we as Humans were Created to do for Him. The Universe is doomed to expand into Eternity, therefore dissipating its Energy into Infinity. Since "God" can't Physically do anything, "He" may have "created" the Human Race on Earth, and possibly other Planets as a master plan, to do for him what "He" can't do for himself. Consider what "He" has given us??? He has has given us any plant, drug, chemical, tools, curiosity, and the ability to learn how to use these things to survive. We've only scratched the surface of what's available in our forests and oceans and within reach. A Nuclear Weapon is a mere spark compared to the Energy that's already in the Universe when we discover how to harness, use and control what's been given to us. What's yet to be discovered? So, does God need us to survive? Are Humans, who can do Physical work, creating "things" that enable us to survive into Eternity, necessary for Survival???, because God's Power, if you can imagine our God as I do, can't build "things" without us to use what's already here. Jesus never built a city or a spaceship, we build those physical things from what God gave us. God isn't a person, Heaven isn't a Vacation Destination that we're all hoping to get to eventually, and Hell is simply FAILURE. We're either going to Survive or Fail, nothing else. I'm going to Help God because I don't want to Fail. OK, I'm super stoned, went outside looking at the stars and universe and got Spiritual....and I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys. Peace
God doesn't have the ability to do anything physically? He can't do for Himself? man, that sounds like blasphemy to me. He doesn't need us at all! and, there's nothing He can't do, nothing!
So God can't do anything physical, but he managed to create an entire universe to His very precise specifications? Huh.
You obviously didn't understand what my concept of "God" is. God is the Universe,the Energy and all the power that entails. The Universe was created by God because "He" is pure energy. Everything in the Universe was created by this Energy, or God. Putting God into a physical sense as a being was created by the Scholars who wrote the Bible and the Story of Creation so simple people could understand a Divine Entity in Human terms as a concept of a infinitely powerful being, not Energy itself. When the Bible was written people had no concept of Energy and the fact that Energy can neither be created or destroyed. It exists, it created the Universe and is expanding forever and ever. If you think of God as that Energy, it helps explain my concept of God "Himself" as Creator of everything from Energy, which is basically where everything comes from. Everything on Earth was created from atomic particles (energy) then evolved into what we have on Earth. I don't think God would "create" a spaceship from nothing, but he enables us to create "things" for Him to either benefit or destroy mankind. One thing Jesus could never do, or did on Earth was heal an amputee. He gave us knowledge and the science to find out for ourselves how some animals can re-generate limbs while Humans cannot as of yet. Some day, that may be possible and it is God who gave us that power, something Jesus never had. Most of the Miracles done by Jesus can be explained by Modern Science although the loves and fishes story is puzzling but a competent Magician could probably figure it out. Jesus was certainly a very Spiritual Person, but he was a Person created by God, not a Son of God Himself as my Christian upbringing taught me. I'm not saying I don't believe in God, I do. It's just my concept of what God is differs from Biblical teachings but still "fits" the concept of God being the ultimate creator and source of everything in the Universe.
I certainly understand your concept of god, but I don't understand the need to label it god. The label god carries a connotation with it. Why not leave the connotation and the label and let it be as it is, with no label at all?
I labeled my concept as God simply because I was taught there is a God. It's just that my concept doesn't "fit" what the Bible or Prophets preach. I believe in God as I described but it's not exactly how we've been led to think of our Creator or God as an Diving Being with the power to create the Universe.
I understand that but do you not think that labeling it god distracts from what it is you are trying to express?
I understand that your concept of God makes no sense. It's essentially a bad example of pantheism with some kind of neo-positivism thrown in there. So if God is energy and He created the universe then God is the universe and if God's the universe He's also everything that's apart of the universe, including humans, the tools we used and the inventions we create using those tools. But you say He can't do anything physical? (although, what's more physical than energy?) He's everything. A human creating something with a tool is basically God creating God with God. Everything in the physical universe is God, to use your definition. So really it's just God doing everything Himself. But the most confusing thing about your philosophy is you don't explain why any of this is important? Why is God so concerned with whether or not we survive? There is no Heaven (in the non-physical sense) according to you. You don't mention any end-point. Are we just to go around and aimlessly expand into infinity for no real reason?
I agree with orange. I believe energy is the foundation of all, but labeling it as god is a sticky situation. I just call it energy.
If earth exploded and ceased to exist the universe would be unaffected, there might be life on thousands of other planets for all we know, humans aren't any more important than ants in the grand scheme of things. All we can do is enjoy our existence. We are just animals.
I understand your question about God doing things. Just as Jesus couldn't heal an amputee, God "himself" can't help us by just making an MRI machine, a Jet Airplane or a drug that cures Cancer. He gives us the intelligence and raw materials to do it for him. I can't recall any event in Human history were "POOF", God created a City. God is the Universe, the raw energy used to create things. We are part of God, as is every molecule in the Universe. All things are God and God is all things. The Universe is expanding forever, and that's just something we can't understand because we can't comprehend the concept of Eternity. When we die, our Energy is recycled back into the Universe, so in a sense, we will live on forever in God. If you are evil, your spirit which has no molecules or atomic particles will never be at peace and that is Hell. Our spirit reuniting with God is Heaven and our "energy" will live on forever. Remember, energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. Reincarnation isn't exactly a myth. Hey, don't get all upset if you have other ideas about God, Heaven or Hell. We will actually never really know until we die. If you think about it, if God existed in the Biblical sense, he wouldn't need Prophets to persuade us to follow in his footsteps. All he would need to do is appear simultaneously everywhere on Earth to convince all of us, even skeptics of his existence. That might sound like a Hollywood Movie where God suddenly appears everywhere and speaks to all of Civilization, but it would be quick and "easy" for God to do! When God was in the Creating mode, why didn't he create a perfect utopia without evil? If he can do anything, why did Jesus have to die a Violent Death for us? Why didn't he just make us "Saved" right from the beginning? That certainly would have given Jesus a break! Why did he create evil? Why would God create a "Son" only to have him die?...for us?.....WHY! My concept of God doesn't include a vengeful God, but the Biblical God is very vengeful. Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord! My God isn't vengeful. Is yours? Personally my idea of God answers every question I ever asked the nuns in school, then got my knuckles slapped with a ruler for even asking. They considered me a rebel as a kid because I thought outside the box, asked questions and demanded logical answers, not quotes from the Bible or "Have Faith", I wanted more. My parents told me every other word I uttered as a Child was "WHY". Since nobody could answer my questions, I answered them myself with my Theory of God. If you don't agree, that's beautiful, it's your right to disagree and I thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you. PEACE! PS: Pantheism includes the belief in more than one god(s). I don't believe that. There is only one.
Once you get into anthropomorphic thinking, you're always going to end up down a dead-end path. While one man's idea of god is as good as any other, one man's experience is not. Whatever we think and believe gets in the way of what we experience, so to be able to experience the god idea without all the crap that usually comes along with it, you have to let go of the idea of it, let go of seeing it anthropomorphically, and allow something else to be there instead, something that can only be recognised in the moment without mind. Let's say there's no outside or inside, no you or me, and that the universe is a whole thing in itself. We are all that is, part of all that is, yet apparently separate from all that is at the same time, but only because our ego experiences it that way. But if everything was one whole, there would be no fundamental difference between anything, we would be connected in a way that only now is quantum physics beginning to recognise, and recognising that connection existentially changes things entirely. Does god need us becomes a question that doesn't need to be asked, for there is nothing that needs to ask it, nor anything that can answer. We need each other because we are each other, and not a single one of us is outside the whole. Without each of us, all that is wouldn't be all that is, and yet, there are far more of us than have ever been here before (or so we believe), and as we exist and must have always done so, where we 'were' before must have been existence just in some other form that we mostly have no access to right now. But it was, whatever it was, and it is, whatever it is. The spiritual ideologies often talk about finding god within, if we're going to find anything at all that is. The part of us that is connected to all that is and knows it - could easily be experienced as god were it to be realised, because the mind could only comprehend it that way, which immediately and understandably creates a feeling of separation from it. Almost like the comprehending and the reality are so different, that to think you know something creates something that cannot be, which is why I feel religion will always fail us. I've had a go at saying these things before, now and again. Each time it comes out differently, sometimes clearer, realer, sometimes not. Nothing is fixed or certain about any of this for me, nor perhaps could it ever be, because as soon as I think I know something, I only know what I think, and what I think is never it. So while I feel I've said it again, in this moment, I've also not said anything at all. But you will feel what you feel. What else can we do when it comes to saying things that can't really be said?
What makes you think God and us are separate? Why should there be a creator and the created - just because one came after the other? What is, just is, always has been, and always will be. The divine and the ordinary exist only because of our own discriminating mind and because of our own conceptualization.
Wow there is some serious shit heads in this thread, why don't we stop posting bullshit and start talking about the question given? If you are going to tell OP about how shitty his question is at least give some reasons. Does god need us? By your understandement of god he would need us so we can create him, for example your identity is based on how others perceive you, if there was no one you would have no identity because there is no one to compare to, is like trying to explain how big a tree is without any lenght system, so the tree could be small or enourmous. Using this logic we can say that god wouldnt exist if there was no one to perceive him, the universe only exist because we conscious beings (to anyone who says that they may be life in another planets, it needs to have a conscience) acknowledge its existence. From that same logic god is undeniable, because faith is what make's him real and in the same vein there cant be proof of god because faith is based on belief only. (here im talking about any kind of god)
The only people i've seen insulting religion are psycopaths...but what i dont understand is, how can a smoker of weed insult the Religion made by the god who created cannabis? man, you gotta think it over