For the past month, HuffPost has hosted an array of respondents -- including spiritual leaders, world leaders, personalities and celebrities -- who are asked to fill in the blank for the statement: God is...
The series led up to and accompanied the November 13 opening of the documentary Oh My God?
God is a word we use to describe the Ultimate Reality. All language about God is metaphorical, given that, I agree with Ringo Star who says at the end of the film Oh My God? that "God is Love". Now let me tell you what I mean by Divine Love.
I am convinced that built into our DNA is a moral law, and that law can best be described as love that goes out of itself to create. This moral law in us is remnant of our own creation. That creation occurred when what we call God went out of the God-self. This going out of Self to create something other than Self is what I call Divine Love.
God went out of God's Self to create and the universe is the result. That creation continued from space to light to planets, like Earth, to beings to human beings. In the Christian tradition we believe that God went out of himself to come to us in history in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, in his person, gave us the exemplar of self-giving love and taught us how to be self-gift. Through Christ we learn that this giving of self is the core of what it is to be a human being.
Love is not a romantic feeling, love is more than the urge to procreate, however, procreation shows us the nature of the Law of Love. Two people go out of themselves to create another self. They make sacrifices to nurture that other self and so, the Law of Love is perpetuated.
In the Christian tradition the symbol of this going out of self in love is the cross of Jesus Christ. The ultimate gift of self is to give your life in service to others. Jesus, out of integrity to the truth of his relationship with the Ultimate Reality, refused to renounce this truth and the law of love at the heart of his truth. His fidelity got him killed but allowed a deeper truth to emerge: Love does not die.
An important expression of this self-gift we call love is compassion. When we deeply examine our humanity and our needs we become aware that we share that humanity and our needs with others. Our common humanity can touch the common humanity of another. We remember when we were hungry or cold or sick or trapped in a bad situation and we identify with someone who is in a similar situation. We don't say of them, "Oh, that poor thing." We say, "Oh, that poor person." And we consider how we can help them and then we do something, we express our compassion with action. This is the Law of Love at work. To follow this law may require deep sacrifice but it also puts us in harmony with the deepest truth of our selves.
First we look deeply in ourselves and discover our common humanity. Then, for those of a mystical mindset, that is those who recognize a transcendent reality, they look deeply in themselves and discover the Ultimate Reality dwelling in them and can recognize that Ultimate Reality in another person.
A most significant expression of compassion is forgiveness. We give a gift to someone who doesn't deserve it. The gift is releasing the perpetrator from any emotional debt they owe us and renouncing revenge thoughts. We may still need to seek justice. The person who harmed us may need to pay a debt to us or to society but we do not seek retribution. We let go of negative feelings and wish them well.
The Law of Love is worked out in the practicalities of compassion and forgiveness. This Law of Love reflects the nature of what we call God and is built into our human nature. Obviously, people don't follow the Law of Love and when they don't suffering is the result. When we do follow the Law of Love we find ourselves in harmony with our deepest selves and the Ultimate Reality we call God.
Read the previous responses, from Oh My God?'s director Peter Rodger; Dr. Lawrence Blair; Demartini Institute founder Dr. John Demartini; and pastor/filmmaker Frank Desiderio.
Rabbi Adam Jacobs: What God Isn't: A Shavuot Reflection
Although it would be staggeringly naïve of me to hope that I could settle the matter of the existence of god with utter finality, out of concern for man and his future, my conscience compels me to try.
Let it be understood that I refute the statement, “God exists.â€. I understand that when people speak of this entity, they do so, believing god is an actual thing. I’m not at all sure that believers understand that I believe god is a completely fictional thing, no more real than the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, “little green menâ€, or anything else I could invent, right here and now.
I have come to the conclusion that such scientific explanations as “Theory of Evolutionâ€, or the “Big Bang Theoryâ€, fail to wean believers from religion, because science and religion operate on different planes; science is devoted to logic and testing theories, whereas religion appeals to believers on a purely emotional basis: believers apparently don’t need to know that god exists, they only need to believe it.
If god is the most important thing there is, then god would be more important than anything man could devise, such as, a court of law. If, in mans’ court of law, statements and evidence are examined in minute detail, in an effort to reach the truth, any statement that includes such as “I have no proof, but if you’ll just believe. . .â€, would be laughed right out of the courtroom. And yet, while man holds his peers to this standard of veracity, the supposedly most important thing of all (god) gets a no-proof-needed pass. Believing anything without evidence must involve a considerable measure of self-deception.
I’m convinced that god was invented by man, and that, somewhere along the line, rather than merely being a pre-science explanation for various phenomena, it was put to use by those who wanted to wield power over others. As seems pretty evident to me, man is, among other things, ultimately an arbitrary and subjective creature. Those who want power are aware that their arbitrariness and subjectivity could call their claims of authority into question. The solution was obvious: invent god, or use already-invented god(s) to establish a hierarchal chain of authority: if god is the ultimate authority, and I am its intermediary, then, you must obey me, as well as god.
In summary, and as I’ve stated many times: god is merely mans’ invented anthropomorphic representation of objective authority.
All true religions teach the same thing, respect, reverence, truthfulness, kindness and compassion. Any religion that doesn't honor these tenants is plainly a false doctrine. The Gods are free to all.
What makes you think that approach is any more acceptable to any god or gods than just following any one of the world's existing religions? It appears to me that people pick the gods they want to follow based on their own personality and experiences. Nice people choose a god who is nice, mean people choose a god who is mean.
It was so in the original King James Bible.
"Jesus" is a transliteration hailing ZEUS, not the Creator.
The "cross" was introduced into christianity by pagan Rome. The orginal word is "stake" or "post". Using the "cross" as a holy symbol breaks the 2nd commandment. It is a pagan SUN SIGN (Sol Invictus)
The word "God" is not of Hebraic origin unless you count Ba'al Gad (pronounced the same) who was the Lord of Fortunes.
In the last 2000 years, the message has become so distorted....
The reason Caesar (and many others) were considered the Messiah was because the whole world had access to the written prophecy in the stars and all kingdoms attempted to lay claim to the prophecy.
Christmas is also the annual celebration of the Serpent god Wadjet in Egypt and is also the solstice deity in South American Incan Empires.
return the favor.....
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Oh well, I don't have a faith gene; so what.
I am convinced that built into (most of) our DNA is a requirement to survive. Since without existence what other requirement is there? The method for achieving this varies with those circumstances prevailing. If we do not apply an appropriate response (however unpalatable that response might be) we perish. If we are not aware enough to determine the correct response, then we might as well throw every type of response available to us at the problem. In the hope that at least one will prove effective. Once we aware enough to realize what we are trying to do, identifying appropriate and inappropriate responses becomes simplified.
As for reality. Isn’t that a single unavoidable actually? Perceived to be different in as many ways, as there are individuals attempting to quantify it.
Answer: A fairy tale or the bogeyman.
check your definition of God.
To me "God" is the collective consciousness of all beings in the Universe/Multiverse. All consciousnesses that have ever taken form, all consciousnesses that are now in a form, and all consciousnesses that will ever take a form in the future anywhere in the Universe/Multiverse. This vast sea of consciousness is God.
Anything less than this is too limiting for me. I really see no religion on this planet yet out of this foundation. But I think we will eventually get to that understand in ten or twenty thousand years. All revelation from now on will be scientific understanding of all that we encounter in the Creation. Every aspect of the Creation is the Teaching.
Shared knowledge on the Internet is our best chance yet to advance over the next 50-100. To this end I recommend these books on the profound knowledge of Wold Ages which it appears is the highest spiritual knowledge the human race has discerned so far:
http://www.cosmosandpsyche.com/
http://circulartimes.org/The%20Temple%20of%20Man.htm
http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/santillana.htm
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040910.html
Is that snark?
When someone approaches you talking about Jebus, put your hand on your wallet.