A question for Theists: What Does Your God Mean to/for You?

[dglas]

What, if anything, does (your) God mean to/for you? And "mean" can mean anything you want it to for the purposes of this. Open question seeking open answers.

We are not talking about what God actually means; we are talking about what it means to/for you. I say this to fully place the answers in the realms of perceptions and understandings, making you the sole authority on the answers. I do not intend to debate anything about them and I request that others refrain from doing so.

[vidiviciveni]

God is all powerful.

He created the Universe - a ball of everything that exists.

God = Power-ball :D

[dglas]

Well, gosh. Normally, you can't get them to stop. But ask for their views, in a non-combative way, and a deathly pall falls over the place...

[MG1962]

Well, gosh. Normally, you can't get them to stop. But ask for their views, in a non-combative way, and a deathly pall falls over the place...

Given the second post in the thread, why would anyone bother

[dglas]

Given the second post in the thread, why would anyone bother

It's the nature of public forums that I cannot control what people post. It doesn't necessarily mean that I approve of the post though and it wasn't mine. I thought I was clear that wasn't looking for debate or argument. Apparently, someone did not understand or chose not to show even the merest hint of courtesy...

I wonder if a user can be granted moderator status over a single thread?

[MG1962]

It's the nature of public forums that I cannot control what people post. It doesn't necessarily mean that I approve of the post though and it wasn't mine. I thought I was clear that wasn't looking for debate or argument. Apparently, someone did not understand or chose not to show even the merest hint of courtesy...

I wonder if a user can be granted moderator status over a single thread?

That was not directed at you - but any chance of moderate theists and atheists trying to have a converstation or disucssion on this board quickly gets hijacked by the more radical elements of both sides

[ImaginalDisc]

This isn't my opinion, but my friends, who tried explaining his long time "search for god" to me last night when he was drunk.

"God is mankind's search for perfection."

When I said something like, "That's a complete redifinition of god." He agreed, but stuck to guns.

[Gagglegnash]

Hi

To me, God means love, forgiveness, freedom, hope, help and guidance.

Love, because no matter what I've done, and no matter how far away from Him I've gone, he still loved me enough to die for me. Remember that move... what was it... "The Passion of Christ," that had everyone asking Jewish people, "who killed Jesus?" I have the answer: I killed Jesus. He died for ME.

Forgiveness, because in that death, he paid my manumission from my slavery to sin and washed me clean of its taint. It's an on-going process, though, and I mean to tell you; I require a LOT of forgiveness.

Freedom, because the wages of sin is death, and in that I am no longer a slave to sin, neither am I any longer enslaved by death.

Hope, help, and guidance, because in my freedom, I have hope that, with God's help and guidance, which is what I pray for, and which He never fails to provide, I can become a better, more loving, kinder, more concerned human being.

Ya ya ya - lots of schmaltz. Hey! YOU asked the question.

[Rufo]

I'm not exactly a theist, but I'm not exactly an atheist either, so I'll bite.

To me, God is what formed the universe. If the universe was formed by physical mechanics, then those are God. If the universe formed itself, then the universe is God. If the universe has existed for eternity, then eternity is God.

I am an agnostic, which means that I do not think the exact nature of this God is knowable, so I refuse to subscribe to any religion, because religions claim to have the truth about God. Sometimes, I like to antropomorphize this God for my personal convenience and amusement, but I do not actually believe it to be similar to a human or any other life form we know of.

I am also looking for a better definition, so this is not final.

[dglas]

Thank you for the responses.
And thank you for not engaging each other in debate.

Not judging. Not debating. Just asking.

[ehbowen]

To me, God means that there is, in fact, an Ultimate Authority whom one may petition.

The question of what personal name that Ultimate Authority answers to is, to me, secondary. If there are multiple claimants, they may wrestle among themselves to answer the question of who actually gets to answer that phone. More important than a name is the question of the moral character and purpose which drives him/her/it. If there is ultimately to be hope and a future for the universe, then I have to hold to the hope that those who perpetrate evil will someday be held to account.

That such a being actually exists is, IMHO, very reasonable; if you regress everything back to its ultimate beginning you are faced with the question of whether intelligence gave rise to conditions or conditions gave rise to intelligence. All of our experience and observations over the history of human civilization leads me to believe the former. We see that life comes only from life, no exceptions; the First Cause, whatever form it took, must have been alive.

With that much as a given, my natural curiosity moves me to know more. What is this Person actually like? What does He think of us, of me? How can He be approached? What direction does He ultimately desire for our world and our civilization, and what steps can I take to help bring that about?

That's enough for now. Perhaps I'll put up my own website in order to share the provisional answers that I've come to for those questions.

[dglas]

Thank you, ehbowen.