What is God?
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Can't tell if you're being sardonic or not, but we're definitely not 'fucking good at everything'. This is just all that we know. Eventually there will be a species that comes along and makes everything that we did in this short amount of time seem completely meaningless.
This is pretty much what I was getting at.
We aren't very good at most things, but it's very easy to believe that we are, which is why the "less than" concept has some real value, since it brings you a little bit closer to the reality of the situation, i.e.:
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor ineating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.
~Kabir
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor ineating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.
~Kabir
I respect whatever someone decides to believe in, but what I've never understood about the belief in God is why people have a need for the universe to have a creator, but don't have need for God to have one as well. Who made God? Saying God created the universe but neglecting to provide a creator for God simply pushes the chain one link back, but doesn't really explain where the chain came from.
You can say "God is defined as that Being who has always existed," but of course a mere definition doesn't make something true. Poseidon is defined as the god of the sea who can bring about earthquakes at will, but when the ground shakes, we don't beg Poseidon for mercy. Merely defining him as such doesn't make him real. The Loch Ness is defined as...and so on.
You need something more than a mere definition to posit something as real.
I know I'm preaching to the choir (NPI) on this forum, but I'd be sincerely interested in a believer's perspective on this.
And no, atheists don't have an answer to this, which explains the study of cosmology.
You can say "God is defined as that Being who has always existed," but of course a mere definition doesn't make something true. Poseidon is defined as the god of the sea who can bring about earthquakes at will, but when the ground shakes, we don't beg Poseidon for mercy. Merely defining him as such doesn't make him real. The Loch Ness is defined as...and so on.
You need something more than a mere definition to posit something as real.
I know I'm preaching to the choir (NPI) on this forum, but I'd be sincerely interested in a believer's perspective on this.
And no, atheists don't have an answer to this, which explains the study of cosmology.
You may find reading texts by early Christian philosophers and Catholic theologians more helpful than trying to question religious peers. Most people aren't interested in answering difficult questions like the ones you posed. The just want their fuzzy little "soul tingles."
I'd start with Thomas Aquinas. Also consult Catholic encyclopedias, etc. It's amazing how much thought early theologians put into the nature of God. Futile? Perhaps lol
This is why I like the video in the OP.
He says god is too complicated for us to understand. It's an energy we cannot grasp with our given understanding and reasoning capacities.
We're just animals with a heightened consciousness, that figured out how to build tools. Obviously we're not that big of a deal in the scale of the cosmos.
I have never heard an educated Christian say that God is defined as "that Being who has always existed". But hey, if they did say something like this then....
I suppose you need to define "always existed".
If the Christian God created time and dimension we live within, and the Christian God is outside of this "time and dimension". Then from the Christian perspective God would certainly be a being that always existed. It does not necessarily follow that the Christian can or need to in any way define anything "one step backward" as to God's existence.
