Who is god - to you?

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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...

 

I dont have e-mail sorry

 

You 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/

 

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.

Good idea, it might work

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

1. 1. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
   2. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.
2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
3. 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.