Your personal views on the nature of God, and how you experience God

[Surtr]

I understand that the majority of the members who post in this section are Christian, but this is not limited to any specific religion. All opinions are welcome. That said, I would like to read your opinions on what you personally feel is the nature of God, and in what way you experience the presence of God.

The question is out of genuine curiosity, and I hope everyone will be respectful of other members thoughts on the subject.

 

[winston53660]

I died one time on a operating table. Man it was so cool. I was floating around above the doctors and nurses that were freaking out. I was happy as could be though. One of the happiest times in my life I was at peace and I wanted them to stop freaking out. As far as a God there was no God. It was like I was was re-entering the universe nature or something along those lines.

 

[specklebang]

I believe that god, who I will call the Flame, exists and has always existed. God was the force that created the Universe. Is god sentient in the sense that humans know it, probably not.

In a way, you owe the Flame for your existence, your chance to experience life for the very short fragment of time you get. Can you pray to the Flame and hope to be heard in the vastness of the Universe? Is the Flame aware of you and judging you? It doesn't really matter. You will only have one shot at being a decent human being so it's the wise choice.

 

[WCH]

I died one time on a operating table. Man it was so cool. I was floating around above the doctors and nurses that were freaking out. I was happy as could be though. One of the happiest times in my life I was at peace and I wanted them to stop freaking out. As far as a God there was no God. It was like I was was re-entering the universe nature or something along those lines.

You basically just described HEAVEN.

Nature, the universe, God are synonymous. IMHO

 

[RGacky3]

You basically just described HEAVEN.

Nature, the universe, God are synonymous. IMHO

If God=the Universe, then the term "god" has lost all meaning, it's not a personal god worthy of worship, not the foundation for anything, just a collection of matter and energy moving around.

You might as well say God=the solar system .... then why talk of god? just talk of the solar system.

 

[Surtr]

If God=the Universe, then the term "god" has lost all meaning, it's not a personal god worthy of worship, not the foundation for anything, just a collection of matter and energy moving around.

You might as well say God=the solar system .... then why talk of god? just talk of the solar system.

I'm not so sure about that. It can be as personal as you make it.

 

[Sarcogito]

If God=the Universe, then the term "god" has lost all meaning, it's not a personal god worthy of worship, not the foundation for anything, just a collection of matter and energy moving around.

You might as well say God=the solar system .... then why talk of god? just talk of the solar system.

Isn't that the gist of pantheism?

 

[WCH]

If God=the Universe, then the term "god" has lost all meaning, it's not a personal god worthy of worship, not the foundation for anything, just a collection of matter and energy moving around.

You might as well say God=the solar system .... then why talk of god? just talk of the solar system.

IMO, GOD created everything thus GOD is everything.

If, in fact, God is matter and energy, do we not affect the whole by our actions?

 

[RGacky3]

I'm not so sure about that. It can be as personal as you make it.

No ... It can't be .... since the universe doesn't make decisions ... it follows laws of nature to a t. The universe doesn't have agency.

 

[RGacky3]

Isn't that the gist of pantheism?

Which is why pantheism is essencially atheism in denial.

 

[Surtr]

No ... It can't be .... since the universe doesn't make decisions ... it follows laws of nature to a t. The universe doesn't have agency.

So do we. It's inescapable.

 

[RGacky3]

IMO, GOD created everything thus GOD is everything.

If, in fact, God is matter and energy, do we not affect the whole by our actions?

That doesn't make any sense ... I made oatmeal this morning ... that doesn't mean I AM oatmeal .... Also God cannot create himself.

 

[WCH]

That doesn't make any sense ... I made oatmeal this morning ... that doesn't mean I AM oatmeal .... Also God cannot create himself.

You ARE what you eat...sorry. 8)

Call it what you will, you can not separate God from his creation. They are one in the same.

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

I'm a hard polytheist. I believe in many gods, as literal divine beings with their own thoughts, feelings, and personalities.

 

[braymoore]

I understand that the majority of the members who post in this section are Christian, but this is not limited to any specific religion. All opinions are welcome. That said, I would like to read your opinions on what you personally feel is the nature of God, and in what way you experience the presence of God.

The question is out of genuine curiosity, and I hope everyone will be respectful of other members thoughts on the subject.

I believe that we are all created in God's image as said in the scriptures. So God to me is a perfect being with a body of flesh and bones. For how I experience God. Most of the time I can feel His presence when I am praying to him. Prayer is a literal conversation to God so when you are praying and feel that overwhelming feeling of love and peace I believe that is God. Most of the time we experience the feeling of the Holy Ghost which is given to us by God but I believe it is possible to feel the actual presence of God if He really wanted to show Himself unto you.

 

[davidtaylorjr]

I understand that the majority of the members who post in this section are Christian, but this is not limited to any specific religion. All opinions are welcome. That said, I would like to read your opinions on what you personally feel is the nature of God, and in what way you experience the presence of God.

The question is out of genuine curiosity, and I hope everyone will be respectful of other members thoughts on the subject.

God is Holy, Righteous, Loving, Forgiving, Pure, and True.

 

[Trip]

I died one time on a operating table. Man it was so cool. I was floating around above the doctors and nurses that were freaking out. I was happy as could be though. One of the happiest times in my life I was at peace and I wanted them to stop freaking out. As far as a God there was no God. It was like I was was re-entering the universe nature or something along those lines.

If we were merely biological beings, solely the product of fortuitous chemical bonds working toward the same end, that consciousness would have ended on the operating table. I too know for a fact that our consciousness endures beyond our mortal vessels.

You mean there was no God there to personally greet you in your brief excursion beyond your physical vessel. It seems you're intent is to deny a God that you're trying to ascribe with human traits, and bind His interest to your own limited experience, in other words denying the God you've made in your own image.

 

[TwEnTY-SiX]

I see "God" as the Creator. The "Creator" being whatever force it was the caused the universe to exist. I see God's "will" as those forces which rule our universe; the natural laws of physics, biology, and the other sciences. I don't see God as an actor or master of our lives, but as that which established order out of chaos (as chaotic as that order may seem).

Since humans are just a spot on a rock in the vastness of the universe, I see God's influence on us mostly indirect through creation. What people generally think of as "God", heaven, and their associations I attribute more to a by-product of creation rather than a separate realm of existence. Energy is constantly passing through the universe, from our sun, between suns and stars, and even in every insignificant action there is a transfer of energy from one platform to another. In this I see our "souls" as some configuration of that energy, tethered to our bodies, and when we die that tether is broken and our soul re-enters the stream of energy passing all around us. I see this energy similarly as I see our atmosphere, as it envelopes the planet, but there is also an influx of new energy as our planet interacts with the sun, or a passing of energy away from our planet as other powers pass by. In my head I can visualize what I am trying to say but it is 3 a.m. so I don't know if it is coming across as I'd like.

Basically, I don't believe in the "supernatural". I think everything can be explained through some rule of creation, and what is supernatural is merely some aspect of creation that we have yet to come to comprehend.

To give it a Christian overtone I would say that the will of God is to minimize our interference with the natural order of creation. However, I would also say that we are grossly incapable of even coming close to comprehending the scope creation, or the Creator. The Bible is a book written by men. With the ambitions that drive us, attributing these works as the "Word of God" reduces the omniscience of God to the limits of human thought. That is not to say that the Bible is useless. If read for guidance as to how humans can coexist as a part of Creation, the teachings of Jesus Christ can be a great foundation. In terms of Jesus, I would say that he is the son of God just as much as any one of us are children of God. I see Jesus as more of a humanist philosopher who makes the connection between man, creation, and the importance of accepting our unique role as shepherds, but also servants to the whole of Creation.

That is probably overly simplistic for what I mean, but I will leave it at that.

 

[RGacky3]

You ARE what you eat...sorry. 8)

Call it what you will, you can not separate God from his creation. They are one in the same.

No .... you can seperate God from his creation, potters are not pottery. This is simply logic, if one creates something, one cannot be that thing, otherwise one would be creating himself, which would mean the thing would exist before it's created, it's logically incoherant.

 

[rhinefire]

I look at God differently than any religions do. I study the scientific point of view on the creation of the universe and if more religious folks would I think their faith in a god would grow stronger. The creation of the universe is amazing in itself but look at the physics surrounding all factors that create and support life on this one planet. One tiny example of how amzing it is is the idea that a huge ball of matter the size of Mars struck the Earth and the chunk of matter that was torn away from the Earth became the Moon. Now, without the Moon in it exact location human life would not have been created. So I ask religious people, why not include the scince of the universe as the methods used by your God. You cannot know and neither does science what exactly happened and why so why not say God created the heavens and the stars? Or has that already been said?

 

[Surtr]

God is Holy, Righteous, Loving, Forgiving, Pure, and True.

In what way do you experience this?

 

[sangha]

Whomever knoweth not love, knoweth not God.

 

[laska]

 

[tosca1]

I understand that the majority of the members who post in this section are Christian, but this is not limited to any specific religion. All opinions are welcome. That said, I would like to read your opinions on what you personally feel is the nature of God, and in what way you experience the presence of God.

The question is out of genuine curiosity, and I hope everyone will be respectful of other members thoughts on the subject.

Being a born-again, I feel God as my Father. An indulgent Father who knows what's best for His child.

So many times I've experienced Him in different ways - the most intense was being filled with such unexplicable surge of joy that my heart felt like bursting. I was talking to Him and making an act of offering when this happened.

 

[Medusa]

god is a superior force that l have never met but want to see him one day :mrgreen:

l believe good people will meet him no matter what they are or what they believe in..............