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Simple: an atheist is someone who lacks belief in gods. But then we run into a problem of definitions. If I asked you, "do you think there is such a thing as a blognorz?", you would be unable to answer the question unless I told you what a blognorz is.I still don't understand why you are asking these questions since you are self-identified as an atheist. Why ask questions about someone you believe does not exist?
So God is a certain set of emotions and actions?
If I chose a different set of emotions, e.g., hatred, fear, and anger, would that be a different god?
God is invisible. He is a Spirit-being.
God is a "Person" who is described at length in the Bible.
I'm afraid this really isn't helpful at all. Just to repeat, my question is, "what is a god?" You seemed to say earlier that a god is a set of emotions. How do you reconcile this with other posters who have said that a god is a person, or a burning bush? Are you all even talking about the same thing?16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, [...]
No I cannot, except that it is the invisible part of a person.First of all, could you please define "spirit", as I asked in the OP?
YHWH is invisible, yet He made Himself known in the Person of Jesus Christ who was visible while He dwelt in a human body, and is visible now in Heaven.You contradict yourself: the Bible describes God as being visible (e.g., Genesis 32:30, Exodus 33:11, most of the Gospels).
If we could get 10 people to describe YOU, do you think there would be "apparent contradictions"?Also, other posters have described God as being an emotion or set of emotions. This seems to contradict what you say. How do you reconcile these differences?
It' s WHOM is GOD
HE is a LIVING " BEING "
GOD can not be a Female
God is described in the Bible as a consuming fire.
He is Holy,
so to ask if I would recognize him, my answer is "yes" because Jesus said "my sheep hear and recognize my voice".
Jesus humbled himself and took on flesh. However, I don't believe God the Father would take on flesh
God is invisible. He is a Spirit-being.
First of all, could you please define "spirit", as I asked in the OP?
No I cannot,
except that it is the invisible part of a person.
YHWH is invisible, yet He made Himself known in the Person of Jesus Christ who was visible while He dwelt in a human body, and is visible now in Heaven.
If we could get 10 people to describe YOU, do you think there would be "apparent contradictions"?
You are toying with us.
The 'Big Bang' is a scientific description of how one stage of creation happened.Do you mean the Big Bang?
Other. All those term - in fact most of our terms, are derived from within creation and don't apply well if at all outside.Unfortunately, this doesn't really answer my question. I was hoping more for a description. By way of analogy, it's as if I had asked "what is an elephant?" and you had said, "the largest land mammal", when I was hoping more for something along the lines of "a land mammal living in Africa and India, with four legs, large ears, and a long trunk".
So maybe you can start by telling me whether a god is animal/vegetable/mineral/idea/arrangement of parts/other (please specify), and we'll go from there
.
Looking back at previous manifestations there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern.Okay, so how might this happen? If we set up cameras or theometers to watch for such a manifestation, what should they be looking for?
Other. All those term - in fact most of our terms, are derived from within creation and don't apply well if at all outside.
I guess the next descriptive stage would be Trinity - one God but three persons in eternal loving relationship as per the Athanatian Creed.
Yup.Okay, it's starting to sound as though God (or gods?) is not made of the normal sorts of matter we see around us every day: protons, electrons, photons, neutrinos, etc.
Yup. Unless he chose to make such detectable, but then he could do that in any way he chose, so it's impossible it predict in advance.But that just brings up the next question: given that our senses and measurement devices only interact with ordinary matter, does that mean that not only is God undetectable by human senses, but also that it is impossible a priori to build a device that would detect the presence or absence of God, or to detect traces of God's interaction with matter in the universe?
It's confusing because what it's trying to describe is confusing and counter-intuitive. You will note that it says explicitely that they are not the same entity. BTW, it's not meant to be a complete description of God, just a description of the relationship that we label 'The Trinity'.That document seems to go out of its way to be confusing. But insofar as it makes sense, it seems to say that "Father", "Son", and "Holy Spirit" are just three names for the same entity, which is not adequately described.
it's not that simple to define something we cannot see, feel or touch and then to note the biasedness that human beings are always are, there is nothing simple to defining "God".This should be a fairly simple question:
First of all, what is a god? If you saw a god on the street, how would you know that he/she/it was a god?
Secondly, if that god happened to be a/the God of Christianity, how would you know?
If your answer includes the terms "soul", "spirit", "supernatural", or related terms, please define those as well.
I can think of a few problems that might appear in this thread. I'll attempt to forestall them in a followup post.
it's not that simple to define something we cannot see, feel or touch and then to note the biasedness that human beings are always are, there is nothing simple to defining "God".
personally, the concern of idolatry to make God in some image is coming in. the selfishness and pride that comes in with defining God as one wants and hopes to, is starting to draw concerns.
simply put, "if horses had gods, they would look like horses."
What does "holy" mean?
Okay, so Jesus and God the Father are different entities.
So it sounds as if you're talking about two different gods: one is a fire, and the other is a human being. This contradicts other posters, who have said that there is only one god. How do you resolve this contradiction? Others have said that God is an emotion or set of emotions. Are they talking about yet a third god?
This presupposes that the book of Daniel was writteen in 530 BC rather than around 165 BC.aren...
I will tell you who God is. The true God - is the God of the Bible. I will describe His attributes:
God is infinite, holy, all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, divine, eternal, supernatural and is a Spirit. You can't see God with your natural eyes but you can with your spiritual eyes. His nature also is love, peace, joy, longsuffering, patience, kindness, faith, temperance and gentleness. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Who is God? The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are three persons who are equal in nature, power, essense and authority. Read these scriptures for yourself - don't just take my word for it. (Its the one What and the three Who's).
Isaiah 43:10 - One God
1 Corinthians 8:6 - one God the Father
Hebrews 1:8 - The Father speaking to the Son
Acts 5:3-4: The Holy Spirit being God
John 17:1-26:the Father and Son love one another and speak to each other
John 15:26- together the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit
John 8:14-18 -Jesus proclaims that he and the Father are two distinct witnesses and two distinct judges.
Why of the Bible? Because there is overwhelming evidence of the Bible- everything points to it. Its a spiritual book but if one were to choose an religion by intellect alone - it would be the Bible. Below is some information because it would take pages here!
The Bible has stronger manuscript evidence than Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar and Tacitus. Its been virtually unaltered since its original writing as backed up by secular historical scholars. These scholars have compared the earliest manuscripts. Reliability is affirmed by its testimony of its authors who were eye witnesses of the recorded events by secular historians who confirm many events, people, places and customs recorded in scripture (Bible). Archaelogically evidence is continuous and non stop of the Bible and verifys its reliability. Next, the Bible has hundreds of prophesies in it that has come true and its not by chance, common sense. One example, in the Book of Daniel written in 530 B.C. accurately predicts the progression of kingdoms from Babylon through the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire and Roman Empire. This includes the persecution and suffering of the jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the freedom for the jews under Judas Maccabeus, 165 B.C.
Perhaps you could point to an unbiased, honest, statistically valid, examination because I've yet to see one despite asking. The evidence presented by the standard set of apologists is not statistically valid - for starters they don't even a method for determining whether or not a biblical passage is a prophesy before it's 'fullfillment'.It is statistically unreal that any or all of the Bible's specific prophesies could have been fulfilled by good guessing or deliberate deceit.
God is infinite, holy, all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, divine, eternal, supernatural and is a Spirit. You can't see God with your natural eyes but you can with your spiritual eyes.
[...]
[The Bible is] a spiritual book
Okay, it's starting to sound as though God (or gods?) is not made of the normal sorts of matter we see around us every day: protons, electrons, photons, neutrinos, etc.
Yup.
How the heck should I know? God-stuff. The only substances we know about are ones that are part of creation. God, as the only thing not created, if he can be said to be 'made' of anything at all is made of stuff I can't experience separate from him since he is the only thing made from it.Okay, so what is God made of?
I think you are toying with us as FallingWaters said. You know very well that when Jesus said "my sheep know my voice" he was not talking about animals. Stop playing games with us.
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