What is a god?

[Captain Chaos]

People think of gods as creators.

My pet definition is this:
A being with the ability to design and implement a reality such as our own.


I think this is a very practical definition, although excludes many pagan deities. It does not require omnipotence or other obviously impossible characteristics, but would still be a being of enormous power.

[dthmstr254]

Quote by: Captain Chaos People think of gods as creators. My pet definition is this: A being with the ability to design and implement a reality such as our own. I think this is a very practical definition, although excludes many pagan deities. It does not require omnipotence or other obviously impossible characteristics, but would still be a being of enormous power.

What about this definition, a being or item which a person places at the head of his life.

Working, short, and it is true. Under this definition, every person has a god of sorts. For some it may be the basketball tourney that is happening. For others, maybe its your spouse, your job, your money (Bet I hit a lot of people there.)

[shunyadragon]

Quote by: Captain Chaos People think of gods as creators. My pet definition is this: A being with the ability to design and implement a reality such as our own. I think this is a very practical definition, although excludes many pagan deities. It does not require omnipotence or other obviously impossible characteristics, but would still be a being of enormous power.

Not all Gods are considered creators in the world religions, some lesser Gods like in Hinduism are manifestations of the 'Source' or the supreme diety the Creator.

[Captain Chaos]

Quote by: shunyadragon Not all Gods are considered creators in the world religions, some lesser Gods like in Hinduism are manifestations of the 'Source' or the supreme diety the Creator.

Indeed.

There are multiple definitions of the word 'god' in use. I selected on for my arguments about infinite emergence.

[shunyadragon]

Quote by: Captain Chaos People think of gods as creators. My pet definition is this: A being with the ability to design and implement a reality such as our own. I think this is a very practical definition, although excludes many pagan deities. It does not require omnipotence or other obviously impossible characteristics, but would still be a being of enormous power.

How would you diferentiate a pagan creator God from the Judeo-Christian creator God.

[Captain Chaos]

Quote by: shunyadragon How would you diferentiate a pagan creator God from the Judeo-Christian creator God.

I think the pagan creator gods were not considered omnipotent, whereas the Abrahmic god is believed, by believers, to be omnipotent.

[5010]

Quote by: Athena What force makes the river? What force grows the plants? What force in our minds causing one to be a ship builder, another to be a messenger and another to be an actor, or doctor? What are the archetypes we use to build our lives? What is a god?

I think what you are doing is comparing systems of mechanism to the term 'god'. The system of evaporation/condensation/precipitation is then attributed to the 'god of rain'. One could then answer the question 'who is the god of rain?' with: 'a system that encompasses evaporation, condensation, and precipitation'.

Since nature can be divided into many systems at many levels, discovery of each adds gods to the pantheon. Since systems encompass subsystems, you discover a hierarchy of gods.

While the ancients defined the guiding mechanisms for each system as supernatural, the contemporary thinking considers them natural. Nature, as contemporary science sees it, includes both the laws and the components that follow the laws. A creator of a finite universe is still considered natural if that creator follows the laws of nature. A system that guides a river is considered natural if that system follows the laws of nature.

[dreamer]

who is god in my eyes only one thing created me and that is my heart so as long as i follow my heart i can't go wrong.
Dreamer

[shunyadragon]

Quote by: Captain Chaos I think the pagan creator gods were not considered omnipotent, whereas the Abrahmic god is believed, by believers, to be omnipotent.

To the pagans some of thei Gods were omnipotent and some were not, but than another question comes to mind, whether pagan Gods are omnipotent or not; Do pagan Gods exist?

[Jack]

Do pagan Gods exist?

There are still cargo cults, and many countries have celebrations to honor the gods of the harvest, new moon, new year, etc. While they may not still worship those gods as seriously as their ancestors did, they still are preserved in the cultural memory.

Or did you mean exist as in really exist? Then, no.

[shunyadragon]

Quote by: Isherwood There are still cargo cults, and many countries have celebrations to honor the gods of the harvest, new moon, new year, etc. While they may not still worship those gods as seriously as their ancestors did, they still are preserved in the cultural memory. Or did you mean exist as in really exist? Then, no.

Cargo cults are always good for a big bash.

[Captain Chaos]

Quote by: dreamer who is god in my eyes only one thing created me and that is my heart so as long as i follow my heart i can't go wrong. Dreamer

Your heart is a part of yourself. Are you saying that you are self created? That would be a most impressive feat!

[Captain Chaos]

Quote by: shunyadragon To the pagans some of thei Gods were omnipotent and some were not, but than another question comes to mind, whether pagan Gods are omnipotent or not; Do pagan Gods exist?

Some people think they do.

I think it likely that super beings exist, because I cannot see how they couldn't, given forever, and the process of emergence.

I think it likely that some or at least one such being will have risen to a level of power and intelligence that is high enough to be called a god. I also think it likely that there is a being that is the most powerful - hopefully we are not alone, because I would hate to think of George Bush as the supreme being!

I see no reason to suppose that the pagan gods were such beings - given the attributes they possess, they seem much more like the product of human imagination, to me.

However, and this is the really important part.

Such beings are clearly not trying to convince you of their existence. Thus, believing in them is not very important. If a super being wanted you to believe in it, you would.

[Century 25]

To me.. "god" is an anagram of "dog"-- However.. the word itself is meaningless to me.. I can't see anything but old myths.. ah.. Athena la clause dérogatoire..

Btw.. the owl is the mascot of an organisation I belong to.. you too..??

[Zee-Axis]

I've always liked Carl Sagan's spin on it:

"god is the sum-total of all the natural, physical laws that make the universe knowable".

[Kuldeep]

Quote by: Zee-Axis I've always liked Carl Sagan's spin on it: "god is the sum-total of all the natural, physical laws that make the universe knowable".

I would like to add super-natural and meta-physical to your sum total and would mention the whole thing including the universe, is God's infinite properties only but not the God. So much the real God is beyond words of anyhuman language!!!!:eek:

[ZNFYRH]

If you think about it, aren't "supernatural" and "metaphysical" just things that we don't understand yet?

Many things that we understand now were once science fiction, supernatural, and metaphysical.

[5010]

Quote by: ZNFYRH If you think about it, aren't "supernatural" and "metaphysical" just things that we don't understand yet?

Anything supernatural can violate the known laws of nature and in so doing appears miraculous. Then as science probes deeper to discover theories that explain as well as predict such phenomina, it is reclassified as natural by those who subscribe to such theories. However, there are many claims in scripture/mythology that, if assumed true, are unsolvable by scientific method since they are non-repeating events.

For example, gazing at Medusa converted observers to stone. There is no known natural mechanism that even comes close to this, nor is there any entity known to exist today that does this, so it cannot be a subject of experimentation. Without any contemporary examples that are so blatantly supernatural, we feel safe to assume the claim is fabricated.

[dreamer]

Quote by: Captain Chaos Your heart is a part of yourself. Are you saying that you are self created? That would be a most impressive feat!

Are we not all created by our self in every action we take in life.

[Jack]

Gods are those we hope know more about what's going on than we do. We realize we don't understand much about life; why does bad happen to the good, why do we die, why aren't we all healthy and happy...

We invent gods to comfort us in our ignorance. Just like our parents when we were young, gods are supposed to have the answers we lack. Gods are our imaginary parents. We trust them to be good and be looking out for our welfare. We expect them to provide our needs. In all ways, the gods we invent mirror our desire to know that somewhere something understands everything and could tell us what it's all about.