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What is god?

Kharakov said:
Keith&Co. said:
... a heresy that will send people to hell in the fullness of time?
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What's a "fullness of time"?
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That's 'eventually' when spoken by someone who reads a lot of fantasy novels he found in a box in the back of the bookstore with the covers ripped off, 25 cents each. Possibly 'when all is said and done.'
could be read as: 'by the time the fat lady sings.'
 
hehe. All right. I suppose I don't see that time has an end in G (ending), although it may have an ending component when we hear the tolls of the feast bell (hopefully not a summoning to pay the toll of the fell beast).
 
Well, not the END of time. But when we reach the point of the timeline when all the plot elements have been wrapped up, and we can see where we stand. The season finale, when the 'to be continued' caption doesn't appear on the screen.

Volume 2 of a duology, volume 3 of a trilogy, volume 6 of a badly misnamed trilogy...
 
Keith&Co. said:
Well, not the END of time. But when we reach the point of the timeline when all the plot elements have been wrapped up, and we can see where we stand. The season finale, when the 'to be continued' caption doesn't appear on the screen.

Volume 2 of a duology, volume 3 of a trilogy, volume 6 of a badly misnamed trilogy...
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Hmm. I had a judgment levied against me which made me feel like there was no hope, but it really helped me turn around, and I was wrong about the no hope part. It actually really cleared things up and helped me become more like the positive beings that we must ultimately be.

Hehe... for whatever reason I feel like a football player in an interview after a game. Lots of endorphins, tired, used up, and not mentally coherent.
 
Keith&Co. said:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.

ERIC!

Eric H said:
The creator of the universe and life.
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What IS a god? If you had one standing beside you, how would you know it was a god, not a false deity?
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Exactly. And suppose you die and appear before the Grand Jury of the Endtimes. How do you know the devil didn't set it up as a prank (that would be a great one BTW!) for newcomers to hell? How would you know it wasn't Loki or an alien or whatever? Back to philosophical square one: How can we know anything?
 
Bomb#20 said:
ryan said:
"God's mistakes" is a human's opinion, makes no sense.
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In the minds of theists, why is it that humans are never qualified to criticize gods but always qualified to praise them?
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That's not true. Well, not entirely. On a tangential note: Why, when we discuss a matter, are we supposed to address the issue at hand, rather than attack the person presenting the matter?

Anyway, back to your question. Politesse. We've all fucked up a recipe or 2 in our lives, so we don't harshly criticize the cooking of another unless we are complete assholes or we have a purpose in doing so. It's not like someone couldn't teach people better than the asshole in Hell's Kitchen. It's just that the guy isn't teaching people- he is weeding out the talented ones from the non-talented ones. He's not teaching them to cook- he's testing their cooking ability, and their ability to deal with assholes.

Unfortunately, the guys multipronged approach, due to him being an asshole, weeds out those who are not asshole tolerant, as well as bad cooks.

If he were not such an asshole, he would be able to perfectly test someone's cooking ability. Since he is also inadvertently testing for their ability to deal with assholes (because he is an asshole), he might weed out the very best cooks, simply because they cannot deal with him being such an asshole. His asshole comment for this would be "if they can't deal with assholes, they aren't a great cook", which is exactly what a great asshole would say, but not what a great cook would say. An asshole expels excrement, not goods.

Not that someone who isn't talented or good enough for heaven isn't going through the asshole gate when they're weeded out. So really, the last judgement is the hole you come out of...
 
I'm still going with "god is a three letter word."

Or if you prefer, god is 'dog' spelled backwards.

Or, until you know what god is you can't know if god is god, or just 'dog' spelled backwards.
 
Kharakov said:
Bomb#20 said:
ryan said:
"God's mistakes" is a human's opinion, makes no sense.
Click to expand...
In the minds of theists, why is it that humans are never qualified to criticize gods but always qualified to praise them?
Click to expand...
That's not true. Well, not entirely. On a tangential note: Why, when we discuss a matter, are we supposed to address the issue at hand, rather than attack the person presenting the matter?
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Are you suggesting that pointing out an inconsistency is a personal attack?

Anyway, back to your question. Politesse. ... we don't harshly criticize the cooking of another unless we are complete assholes or we have a purpose in doing so...
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So, the reason for humans not to criticize gods is because, what, it's rude? If that's the case, then the reason isn't because a human having a critical opinion of a god makes no sense.
 
God is a shorthand for human ignorance, the filler for where there is no thought, the lorem ipsum for the scientific theories yet to be written. I could go around believing in that but what would be the point?

Does anybody really expect any believer to give us a falsifiable definition of 'god'? really? They won't, they can't.

And before any of you start, yes falsifiable is important. If a definition is not falsifiable (=testable) it follows it has no observable effect on our universe and either does not exist or is not relevant to us. Also without an embargo on unfalsifiable terms there is no limit whatsoever on what people can claim without challenge.
 
ryan said:
Jason Harvestdancer said:
Where God Went Wrong
Some more of Gods Greatest Mistakes
Who is this God person anyway?

- Oolon Colluphid
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"God's mistakes" is a human's opinion, makes no sense.
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It was funny. Douglas Adams was a unique and funny guy.

But you raise an interesting point. What is a mistake? It would seem it is little else besides an agreed-upon assessment of a situation, a convention. That being the case every time something is called a "mistake" it is only a rendering of an opinion. Someone else might argue that it was not a mistake.

God is therefore a super-duper Pee Wee Herman, always jumping up immediately after tripping over something and saying "I meant to do that!"
 
Kharakov said:
Bomb#20 said:
ryan said:
"God's mistakes" is a human's opinion, makes no sense.
Click to expand...
In the minds of theists, why is it that humans are never qualified to criticize gods but always qualified to praise them?
Click to expand...
That's not true. Well, not entirely. On a tangential note: Why, when we discuss a matter, are we supposed to address the issue at hand, rather than attack the person presenting the matter?

Anyway, back to your question. Politesse. We've all fucked up a recipe or 2 in our lives, so we don't harshly criticize the cooking of another unless we are complete assholes or we have a purpose in doing so. It's not like someone couldn't teach people better than the asshole in Hell's Kitchen. It's just that the guy isn't teaching people- he is weeding out the talented ones from the non-talented ones. He's not teaching them to cook- he's testing their cooking ability, and their ability to deal with assholes.

Unfortunately, the guys multipronged approach, due to him being an asshole, weeds out those who are not asshole tolerant, as well as bad cooks.

If he were not such an asshole, he would be able to perfectly test someone's cooking ability. Since he is also inadvertently testing for their ability to deal with assholes (because he is an asshole), he might weed out the very best cooks, simply because they cannot deal with him being such an asshole. His asshole comment for this would be "if they can't deal with assholes, they aren't a great cook", which is exactly what a great asshole would say, but not what a great cook would say. An asshole expels excrement, not goods.

Not that someone who isn't talented or good enough for heaven isn't going through the asshole gate when they're weeded out. So really, the last judgement is the hole you come out of...
Click to expand...

So the reason humans are qualified to praise god, but not to criticize him is because humans are lying just to be polite? That's awful nice of us!
 
Putting what seems to nauseate most aside, I exclude my own ritual to acknowledge God and start fresh. Me - a low intellectually functioning organic machine waking up in a bed and yawning. Wait... what is this? Oh this is life. I am conscious. I hear celery being chopped somewhere in this dwelling. A lawnmower in the distance confirms there is an "out there" until I look out what I believe is a window to make sure. I turn on a truly magical device and see the words "what is God?" and start to ramble. Then I ramble.

Good morning. Are the words "what is God", God? Why would I have the ability to ask what God is, if there isn't one? Things are happening all around me but I don't understand them. I accept them and usually pretend I know what is happening but I really have no idea. How old is the human race? I don't know, I suppose I could look it up through my magic device. That would be easy to find out. I'm going to assume 30 years. In fact I'm assuming every living thing is 30 now. When we were adolescents, we smacked each other in the face for the ball at recess. We got in trouble and didn't do it again hopefully. I would smack someone in the face repeatedly for that damn ball. I would do it every fuhking day until that ball was MINE. I'll assume I'm at the end of a 30 year cycle and the ball is still mine. There are statues of balls and everyone loves my balls because I stole the ball when I was a kid. I walked across the damn globe, which is ironically a ball, so it is mine too. Everyone knows it is my ball now. We grew up tough. People made pins and explosives to destroy my ball, but my ball is still awesome. People believe in my ball because they are of course stupid and need my ball. Everyone needs the ball, even if they don't own it themselves. 30 years ago there was a ball on a playground and everyone raced to get it. I just happened to be fearless enough to smack children up side the head for it. So many teary eyed kids running home and being told not to fight over the ball. The nature of what I see as the world is based on having big balls and the ability to be violent in order to sustain a bloodline instinctually for most things messing around on the planet. Tigers, bears and such like that stuff. The cosmos apparently likes smashing balls and fighting over them as well. So anyway, I'm going to smack the woman chopping celery and leave my home for a moment. I'll be swinging balls you can bet. Ah, look at the tiny monument of the triangle. That is so cute but it isn't as cool or as powerful as my ball. I am walking now. It is hard to type firgive my typos. Ah there is a child, I must smack it up side the head to remind it that the ball is all. Done... I'd better run now. Okays I am back home after assaulting a child with the truth. The child will probably behave now, so my work is done. I don't know if there is a real ball. I was kidding. Ha Ha. I do however know that I don't like being smacking in the face. I also know that I am conscious. The celery is chopped. It is in a pot now for bad cooking. That has nothing to do with it but a philosopher stoned enough could say that made so much sense. I don't really know or care. I do care, but I know that caring wouldn't stop the ball. An object in motion and a greater force thing comes to mind. A ball stays in motion well, and a large enough ball could do some awesome damage. Damage seems to be the point. An anthropologist is the most depressing thing a person could ever be, I'm assuming. That or a reluctant killer. I don't know. Anyway, where is the greater force? There is this God thing in motion and it has apparently been unstoppable since grade school. Did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed? I don't think people would be so concerned about God if so many children weren't smacked in the head. Minus the killing, they would just think of it as a musical act that they liked, or didn't like. Fact is though, the kids... we have to protect the kids from God. There is a way to love God and change the way God is perceived, but it takes time, and stupid people think in small timelines. There is even a way to eliminate not only the metaphorical ball, but the circle shape completely. People just want everything to happen fast. 30 years aint no fix. Literature is pointless. Thinking about it is pointless, and thinking about it is the problem in itself. Ask me what God is and if I do not make you go to Church, slap me. Things in motion are in motion. What is God is what is God, thus what God is, is God; in my opinion. The gift of consciousness and the assumed freedom to choose things. I'd say instinct is the closet word for God. We are a young species given a gift of consciousness yet still playing with our balls and that is sad to me, yet seems natural. You're reading this, thus there is God. I wrote it, thus I was conscious at the time, thus God. Not to get all dippy and strange on you but look around please? This isn't a mistake. That would be a shady mystery. I said the question "what is God" isn't as important as "how may I serve God?", and then I stopped rambling.
 
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Bomb#20 said:
So, the reason for humans not to criticize gods is because, what, it's rude? If that's the case, then the reason isn't because a human having a critical opinion of a god makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Underseer said:
So the reason humans are qualified to praise god, but not to criticize him is because humans are lying just to be polite? That's awful nice of us!
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Well...
 
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