Who is god - to you?

[The World of Dan]

I'm in the process of collecting together a survey of questions which I want to use to ask a random selection of about 100 people what they believe 'god' to be.

There will be between 5 and 10 questions. The questions themselves won't be hard (after all, there are no right or wrong answers), but I am looking for people that are good at explaining, in detail, what they mean. even if you're an atheist/agnostic, your input is just as valid as anyone else's.

All this data is going to be collated together, and from it I'm going to be writing an article about god. I don't know what I'm then going to do with the article, other than publish it on a few websites, but the main focus of me doing this exercise is for fun - something to do, and it's a subject I'm interested in.

The reason I'm posting here is to see if I can find who would be interested in taking part in such a study. The results will be anonymous, and while I may quote peoples explanations in the article, nothing directly linking who said what will disclosed.

UPDATE: If you're interested in taking part, please follow the link below...

http://theworldofdan.co.uk/god/

[Hikaru Zero]

Aye. (That is, yes.)

But please allow some of the questions to have an option for open-endedness. I doubt most of the people here will want to be limited to specific items or an unspecified "other" choice. =)

[mynameiskc]

yes, if i don't have to do multiple choice.

[The World of Dan]

These are not multiple choice questions... These are questions that (hopefully) will make you have a long and hard think about yourself, what you believe and why you believe it.

I'm trying to understand how people think... so don't worry, this should be an interesting for you as it is for me.

[TrippinBTM]

i'm in

[rain_in_summer]

Me too! :)

[BlackGuardXIII]

I will try to help if I can.
'What else is nature except God?' Seneca

[BlackBillBlake]

OK - let's see the questions - but count me in provisionally.

[The World of Dan]

I'm going to need some time to work on my questions, but hopefully I'll be able to get them togther before next weekend.

I'm just glad that people are interested in taking part in this study - I hope I can pull it off...

[Hikaru Zero]

Oh, can I write a mini-essay? Whenever I talk about the metaphysical and philosphical, I tend to write REALLY long responses. You don't mind that, do you? (lol, I'm being serious, too)

[BraveSirRubin]

Sure, I'll answer.

[The World of Dan]

Oh, can I write a mini-essay? Whenever I talk about the metaphysical and philosphical, I tend to write REALLY long responses. You don't mind that, do you? (lol, I'm being serious, too)It's exactly what I want.. maybe you don't need to go TOO overboard with your answers... but lots of description is more useful to me than lack of description..

[The World of Dan]

OK guys - I'm ready for your answers... check the link below to get started:

http://theworldofdan.co.uk/god/

[TresBizzare420]

I'll reply later tonight.

[ChiefCowpie]

Nostradamus is God. He predicted the end of the world in 2000 and it looks like he's really close to being right.

[TrippinBTM]

I hope you got my email, I sent it last night. So anyways, whats this survey for? School or work or just for your own entertainment/knowledge?

[The World of Dan]

So far I've got 8 answer sheets, and let me tell you, each one is as diffrent as possable from all the others... I'm looking forward to getting lots more, i find this stuff really interesting...

(and yeah, I got yours ;) - thank you)

[Hikaru Zero]

I sent mine. =D

I hope you find it useful! When you're done, please post some results or analysis, I'd really like to see what came of the whole survey! =)

[Charlie381]

I'm gonna do it too, like all things like this. I agree with Hikaru, post some sort of results :-)

[rain_in_summer]

I'd really love to do it, as I said, but don't have much time at the moment.
Untill when do you need it? Just so that I have a date I have to stick to and can't postpone it into eternity if you know what I mean...

[Varuna]

I just sent my response. I look forward to seeing the results.

[The World of Dan]

thank you to everyone that has send in answers, i've got 20 now, but still need more...

Just a heads up to let you know that I don't know how long it will be before I do the study, but everyone that sends in an answer sheet will be notified when it's done :D

[The World of Dan]

Still looking for people to take the survey... please :D

[BlackBillBlake]

Hi Dan - just wondering if anything came of this? Did you arrive at any results or conclusions?

[The World of Dan]

I'm still gathering data- my idea was to get at least 100 answers, then expand upon that (looking for more people with views diffrent to the ones I'd already recieved), problem is that I don't even have 50 replies yet...

I've got about 30-40, which ain't bad, but not really enough to start working with yet..

I'll tell you one thing, so far, there are not been any two people with the same idea of god, which strikes me as odd, you know - if god does exist, why does everyone have a diffrent view of him?

I was going to do this after I published the study, but I'm thinking that my next step will be to build a simple database to store all the answers in, and put it online so people can read what other people have put.. what do you think? Maybe seeing other peoples answers will encourage people to post their own?

Anyway, I will keep you updated, but it's looking like this might take longer than I expected...

[Art Delfo]

I dont have e-mail sorry

[The World of Dan]

I dont have e-mail sorryYou must have some form of email - how else did you sign up for this site?

Anyway, that's easily fixed, just get a hotmail account - http://www.hotmail.com/

[TrippinBTM]

I'll tell you one thing, so far, there are not been any two people with the same idea of god, which strikes me as odd, you know - if god does exist, why does everyone have a diffrent view of him?
Two possibilities: one, there is no god and we're all just making things up (in a sense), or two, very few of us have ever experienced god and are just philosophizing about it, based on our own life and experiences (ego) or other people's life and experiences, even those who are claimed to have found god (which is still interpreted by our ego). We're all confused because we forgot what we're trying to do: experience god...not just talk about him.

I was going to do this after I published the study, but I'm thinking that my next step will be to build a simple database to store all the answers in, and put it online so people can read what other people have put.. what do you think? Maybe seeing other peoples answers will encourage people to post their own?
Good idea, it might work

[BlackBillBlake]

I'm still gathering data- my idea was to get at least 100 answers, then expand upon that (looking for more people with views diffrent to the ones I'd already recieved), problem is that I don't even have 50 replies yet...

I've got about 30-40, which ain't bad, but not really enough to start working with yet..

I'll tell you one thing, so far, there are not been any two people with the same idea of god, which strikes me as odd, you know - if god does exist, why does everyone have a diffrent view of him?

I was going to do this after I published the study, but I'm thinking that my next step will be to build a simple database to store all the answers in, and put it online so people can read what other people have put.. what do you think? Maybe seeing other peoples answers will encourage people to post their own?

Anyway, I will keep you updated, but it's looking like this might take longer than I expected...
If you put some of the answers online as you suggest, it could well stimulate more people to respond - because they're almost sure to disagree with something!

As to different ideas, views and so on about God - it's the same with everything I suppose - every individual is unique, with their own unique viewpoint.(even if some religious people find that hard to accept) No two people share precisely the same experiences. But there is the possibility that they may be seeing the same thing, but interpreting/expressing it differently, according to their own ideas, education, experience, conditioning etc.

Or again - what people refer to as God could be just a higher circut wired into the brain....or just imagination.

[The World of Dan]

As to different ideas, views and so on about God - it's the same with everything I suppose - every individual is unique, with their own unique viewpoint.(even if some religious people find that hard to accept) No two people share precisely the same experiences. But there is the possibility that they may be seeing the same thing, but interpreting/expressing it differently, according to their own ideas, education, experience, conditioning etc.

Or again - what people refer to as God could be just a higher circut wired into the brain....or just imagination.Being an athiest myself, I tend to follow the view that god was invented by man (and not the other way around)... But lets say there is a god (like TrippinBTM suggested could be possable), surely, if he wanted us to know about him/her/it, then we would know... there would be one true religion, and we would all follow it.. But that's not the case.

Anyway, I've a long way to go in this study, I'll get working on the database and see if I can't have something up by the end of the weekend :D

[TrippinBTM]

Being an athiest myself, I tend to follow the view that god was invented by man (and not the other way around)... But lets say there is a god (like TrippinBTM suggested could be possable), surely, if he wanted us to know about him/her/it, then we would know... there would be one true religion, and we would all follow it.. But that's not the case.

But there is; it's called mysticism. Every religion has a mystical aspect. It's the meditative, introspective aspect, not the ritualistic, legalistic or moralistic aspects. These things grew up around the mystical part, either traditionally known or rediscovered via holy men like the Buddha or Jesus.

Of course, this is my opinion, but the similarities across religions, when one examines mysticism, is telling.

Still, the idea of what God is (god being the mystical experience which is beyond words) is going to vary, for the very fact that it is beyond words. Plus, it's good for the political or even religious leaders to make god in their image.

[The World of Dan]

But there is; it's called mysticism. Every religion has a mystical aspect. It's the meditative, introspective aspect, not the ritualistic, legalistic or moralistic aspects. These things grew up around the mystical part, either traditionally known or rediscovered via holy men like the Buddha or Jesus.

Of course, this is my opinion, but the similarities across religions, when one examines mysticism, is telling.

Still, the idea of what God is (god being the mystical experience which is beyond words) is going to vary, for the very fact that it is beyond words. Plus, it's good for the political or even religious leaders to make god in their image. mys·ti·cism (mĭs'tĭ-sĭz'əm)
n.


Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
The experience of such communion as described by mystics.

A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
Vague, groundless speculation.

Mysticism? Isn't that just another word for 'supernatural'? A way of saying "We don't know, so we're going to make shit up"?

Of course all religions have mysticism, because all religions are just guessing, intreperting the world in the best way they can.

I mean they've done a valiant job at it - and if you read the stories that the diffrent faiths of the world, over the years, have invented, as *fantasy* they're actully quite interesting. (Part of my research is looking into the many diffrent creation stories that the diffrent religions have).

You know, if it wasn't for the stigma (excuse the pun) attached to the christ story, then it's really very interesting - we're talking about one of the first super heroes here. Someone that comes in, heals the sick, walks on water, teaches people how they should live their life, and even manages to avoid death.

But people take it too far, they take the story littrally, totally miss the point of what the story was trying to tell the world, and now - 2000-1500 odd years later, people are going to war over the shit.