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God is everything. As cliche as it is, He is everything. He is the ultimate friend, lover, father, everything. He wants you more than anything in the entire world; He is a jealous god, a loving god, a careful god, a selfish god. He wants you all for himself, he wants you to be happy, he wants you all to himself. He lives through our spirits and every breath we breathe, as long as we live for him. He never turns his back on us, he never forsakes us, he never holds anything against us. He is all knowing, he is everywhere, he sees everything we do. He rewards us when we do things right. He corrects us when we do things wrong. But he never gives up on us. His love is amazing, it is so good, it is perfect. He washed away all of our sin, everything we've ever done wrong and everything we'll ever do wrong. We can choose whatever path in life we want to take, but He chooses our steps. You don't have to throw your hands up and shout prayers of guidance and understandings, because he hears even the most silent of hearts.
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In the Christian faith God is a holy being who is wants a personal relationship with you so that you can feel love and become a generally more loving person. In this belief system god is in everything, His people, nature, and even oxygen. Without God there would be no such thing as oxygen. As for your last sentence the way I believe we can know what God is, is from his words themselves within the Bible. As for wanting to know what your purpose is you can pray to him asking him to push you in a direction that you believe would be in His will and you will feel a burden within your heart towards what God is pointing you towards.
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You know God is there when you turn your back on Him. There is a desolate, dark feeling that overwhelms you. You realize you cannot continue through life without God back in your life.You cannot be happy. God is literally the life and energy in each of us that pushes us to bring love into this world and let it shine. God is with each of us whether we believe or not. He never deserts us.
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It sounds like you are describing a version of pantheism... You lost me with the bit about Oxygen being god... Consider that the O2 that we breathe in, either gets expelled as CO2 during respiration, or urinated out in the from of excess H2O...that doesn't say much for the god/oxygen theory.
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It sounds like you are describing a version of pantheism... You lost me with the bit about Oxygen being god... Consider that the O2 that we breathe in, either gets expelled as CO2 during respiration, or urinated out in the from of excess H2O...that doesn't say much for the god/oxygen theory.
As for myself, I haven't even heard a satisfactory definition for the concept of "god", much less seen convincing evidence that one exists. For now, I will console myself with listening to the likes of Dan Dennett, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Lawrence Krauss, Michael Shermer, Matt Dillahunty, James Randi, and the rouges at the Skeptics Guide to the Universe.
As a follow up question... If you met god, how would you be sure it was a real god at all? What test would you propose that could adequately determine that this god was not just simply an exceedingly advanced life form which was previously unknown in the universe?
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Do you know what a paradox is?
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Do you know what a paradox is?
This is. God is an absolute guess. Unknown and unknowable.
Anybody who makes claims about god - any claim at all - is lying by default.
You don't get the elemental elements lesson, as I see it has been done already.
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I want to preface this by saying that I am an atheist. I can't be sure there isn't a God, just as I can't be sure that the world is controlled by super intelligent mice. I can't be sure of anything, but the above two examples are VERY unlikely.
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I want to preface this by saying that I am an atheist. I can't be sure there isn't a God, just as I can't be sure that the world is controlled by super intelligent mice. I can't be sure of anything, but the above two examples are VERY unlikely.
To start with, oxygen is oxygen. God is a being defined slightly differently by a whole pile of people. God is not life, life is life. A lot of people try and explain God by claiming that it is something that we already have a word for, but that is an...odd interpretation of God.
Matter is matter. God isn't (and doesn't) matter. Energy is energy, but not in the new age 'life force' sort of definition of energy.
Now. How can you connect to God? First, why would you want to? Second, I don't think God exists, but trying to connect to God is (I personally believe) fruitless. There are better things to connect to: other people, yourself, the world around you, nature, science, knowledge. Anything, really.
Prayer, meditation are just ways to shut out reality and talk to yourself. Useful for some, but more useful if you know that it is you talking to you. Meditation can be helpful, if only to set time aside to examine your life and think about it. Connect to yourself, don't connect to God. You don't have a role in the human species, and neither do I. What role does an ant have in an ant colony? What role does a chimp have in it's family? What role does a blade of grass have in a field? No role, really. What role do you want to have? You may not effect the human species, because very few people do, but you can effect those around you (and hopefully for the positive). Share your ant food, don't throw poo at the other apes, or just let the blade of grass next to you get some extra sun.
Oh yeah, and we are not connected. Not really. I mean, we are, but not in some cosmic spiritual psychic kind of way. Social interaction is as good as you get. I mean, after the literal connection of sex.
If God doesn't exist, it would be impossible to know (collectively, or individually) what God is, what his ways are, and so on. A lot of people have spent time trying to work out this problem, and the best answer is that he doesn't exist. It is dangerous to pretend you can find what God's ways are, or what God is, because human prejudice and pre-concieved ideology get in the way and create real human terror. It is impossible to pin down what God is, or what he wants, and how he works, and my answer for that is because he is a complete fiction. Others disagree, and that is fine, but if you want to base your life off what a God would want--Well, I would say you can do many better things with your life, and I encourage you to.
That is just me, though. If you want to believe in God, that is your perogative--but don't try and fit him in under the periodic table of elements, because he is not there.
You don't need God, I don't think anyone does. You will be fine on your own, you will succeed. Keep examining life to find out what makes it worth living, but trying to find worth on a spiritual plane...well, I don't like it, myself.
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I want to start off by saying that I am unsure of my standings on God. I'm not sure if God does or does not exist. I don't like being so and it bothers me deeply that I cannot find "God". This is not a decision I have made, it just is how it is. And I have thought long and hard about this. I'm not sure if i would necessarily call my self atheist, but I'm not exactly agnostic either. I think the best word I can narrow it down to is LOST.
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I want to start off by saying that I am unsure of my standings on God. I'm not sure if God does or does not exist. I don't like being so and it bothers me deeply that I cannot find "God". This is not a decision I have made, it just is how it is. And I have thought long and hard about this. I'm not sure if i would necessarily call my self atheist, but I'm not exactly agnostic either. I think the best word I can narrow it down to is LOST.
so after that, I am going to say for my sake, if in theory God does exist, this is my understanding of God. God is not something or someone. It is the one and only and is higher than our thinking can ever achieve. There is no possible way of knowing if it is God or gods or if it is just an entity inside ourselves. But he/she/it is everywhere and in everything. It knows all and loves all and has created every thing the way it is for a purpose, and that purpose can never be known or discovered by us.
Now to say that you know when you have connected to God, I would say is when you can come to the realization of this wondrous world around us, or possibly a series of coincidences. Even an epiphany of some sorts on your situation or any situation that involves lives. I suggest that you may just know when it happens.
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My, but you are refreshing. Keep up the search. Keep asking questions. I'm confident you will find your answers. Good luck.
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My best understandings of God come from (surprise surprise) a faith-based, God-centred belief-system. And it paints a picture of God as an advanced entity as to be mostly beyond our scope of current comprehension. (Sort of like how adults and adult life is beyond the scope of a child's current comprehension?).
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My best understandings of God come from (surprise surprise) a faith-based, God-centred belief-system. And it paints a picture of God as an advanced entity as to be mostly beyond our scope of current comprehension. (Sort of like how adults and adult life is beyond the scope of a child's current comprehension?).
Scriptures also assert that we are made in God's image. Now I don't think that means arms and legs and a face because that is physical and we also read that God is pure Spirit. As Mr. Spock might say, "Pure Energy". So what about us is in God's image? Perhaps OUR spirit? We are attracted by the energy of beauty, put high value on truth, crave justice, enjoy growth, are "built" for relationship.
Nature around us and even the "natural laws" are also a manifestation of God. We see order and what we call chaos co-existing, we see energy and lack of energy, predictability, repeating cycles in life, very basic patterns and codes spinning off into all kinds of wonderful diversity. And I think this is an image of God as well.
So prayer and meditation are good tools to advance both understanding and relationship with God, so much as Humanly possibly. There is the paradigm of Christ that purports there to be a move of God to open the door to levels of relationship that are beyond purely Human ability. And this opens the door to a lot of study material as to how others in pre-History have related and NOT related with God, natural (and spiritual) consequences, failings and successes. There's actually a LOT of material there for study.
And in recent years part of my understanding of God has come from application of what I've learned in study and prayer and meditation: a kind of "spiritual play/exploration". It includes things like synchronicity, that I've mentioned elsewhere this morning. The "coming together" of unlikely or "co-incidental" things with sometimes startling timing and in quantities that might cause one to wonder just how much "co-incidence" and happenstance there might be in the world. And then there is the "mystery" of the power of prayer, when we focus spiritually upon the well-being of another and maybe sometimes, miraculous things happen.
It's like something -- someone(?) -- approves of the path we're on and wants to encourage and accelerate learning. Just as we see in healthy relationships where the focus is more on the person of the other than on using them as an object for our own greater glory.
It's profoundly interesting stuff.
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It sounds like you have spent a lot of to define who God is through your own thoughts & opinions. Which is a great first exercise. However, there will come the time (it sounds like now) where you begin to look for how God might define himself -- and find where God might have communicated that.
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It sounds like you have spent a lot of to define who God is through your own thoughts & opinions. Which is a great first exercise. However, there will come the time (it sounds like now) where you begin to look for how God might define himself -- and find where God might have communicated that.
I'd suggest taking a look into someone who claimed directly to be God. Especially given that he (purportedly) backed up his claim. Check out Jesus' claims. See if you believe Jesus when he says that he is God and that God is perfectly revealed in him. it's worth taking a look into his claims if you are curious of finding out who God is. Not too much bad can happen looking into it.
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Jesus Christ is God and this is how we know we are connected......."Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20
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Jesus Christ is God and this is how we know we are connected......."Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20
As this verse suggests, God is constantly seeking man. Religion is man seeking God.
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We already are connected. We always have been. It is our nature, however much we may try to fight it.
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Conscripting scientific jargon to lend merit to opinion only works so long as the subterfuge exceeds the grasp of your audience. When it fails, it exposes your hand and leaves you with less credibility than when you began.
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Conscripting scientific jargon to lend merit to opinion only works so long as the subterfuge exceeds the grasp of your audience. When it fails, it exposes your hand and leaves you with less credibility than when you began.
(The following should be obvious)
The most basic element of life would be hydrogen. Followed by carbon. Mass energy equivalence demonstrates that mass and energy form a constant ratio. So... all matter and energy are combined into one -- nothing special there. If god is equivalent to basic element, he lacks a consciousness and is severely limited in a universe where we know that there are interactions which are effectively invisible to atoms. Either the metaphor is broken or the science is misunderstood.
Try again?
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Being connected to God is like falling in love. There will be no doubt, you will know when you find it. A lot of people call it faith, but the actuality of finding God, is a lot more powerful then that. It’s almost a knowing, of sorts. Growing up I had faith, because my people told me too, which lead to my eventual becoming an atheist. But Now, after having done extensive research, and finding that all things are connected, art, music, Nature, science, the World, the Stars, etc, the circle of life. God is not a man in the clouds, but everything. It is the Universal spirit, that connects everything, living or otherwise. Start looking for the connections in life, and you will find God. There is a book, called the children of the law of one, and the lost teachings of atlantis, that may help you find it…
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when you can look in a mirror and see all that is beyond yourself with yourself at the centre - then you have a chance of connecting with the nearest thing to God... our oneness.
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when you can look in a mirror and see all that is beyond yourself with yourself at the centre - then you have a chance of connecting with the nearest thing to God... our oneness.
by the way - a search for a definition of an element as "basic" has to land on hydrogen -
(oxygen is not even essential for life)
of course the famous dead sea scroll Book, "John's periodic table of the elements" would have helped, if only those primitive priests had understood it well enough to include it in the Canon...
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Ever since I was about nine I've been trying to find ways to connect with God. I grew up in an atheist household, and even now I don't follow any particular religion, but I hear people talk about how they just know when they connect with God and I've never had that.
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