Define God

Inevitable Droid · January 01, 2011, 11:46:58 AM

Happy New Year!

How do you define God?

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 07:24:12 PM

I would define God as an intelligent being who created the universe. He wouldn't need to have any of the traits that the Bible or any other religious text ascribes to him.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 07:41:59 PM

Does a god necessarily have to have created the universe? Any universe?
Does a god necessarily have to be intelligent?
Does a god necessarily have to have dominion over other beings?
Does a god necessarily have to be good?
Is god a relative concept e.g. it has to have dominion over the beings that classify it as a god?

Would Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen comic seric be considered a god?
Would the devil be considered a god?
EDIT: Going by our definition of god could it be argued that dolphins might correctly consider humans to be their gods?
Would stars be considered gods? If so would humans only consider the Sun as their god?

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 07:53:51 PM

Quote from: "Stevil"Does a god necessarily have to have created the universe? Any universe?

Yes.

QuoteDoes a god necessarily have to be intelligent?

Yes.

QuoteDoes a god necessarily have to have dominion over other beings?

No.

QuoteDoes a god necessarily have to be good?

No.

QuoteIs god a relative concept e.g. it has to have dominion over the beings that classify it as a god?

No.

QuoteWould Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen comic seric be considered a god?

Probably not (I've never read the comics).

QuoteWould the devil be considered a god?

No.

QuoteIs it possible that dolphins consider humans to be gods?

Uh, sure...I guess? Maybe?

QuoteWould stars be considered gods? If so would humans only consider the Sun as their god?

No.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 08:02:22 PM

Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"
QuoteIs it possible that dolphins consider humans to be gods?
Uh, sure...I guess? Maybe?

If your stance is that a god had to have created at least one universe then by this definition dolphins don't necessarily have to consider humans to be gods and if they did then they would be incorrectly assuming that humans created a universe.

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 08:08:57 PM

Quote from: "Stevil"
Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"
QuoteIs it possible that dolphins consider humans to be gods?
Uh, sure...I guess? Maybe?
If your stance is that a god had to have created at least one universe then by this definition dolphins don't necessarily have to consider humans to be gods and if they did then they would be incorrectly assuming that humans created a universe.

Well, I'm just going by my definition of what I would call a god. If dolphins can even imagine an abstract concept such as higher powers, then their definition probably varies from mine.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 08:14:32 PM

Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"Well, I'm just going by my definition of what I would call a god. If dolphins can even imagine an abstract concept such as higher powers, then their definition probably varies from mine.

Yes, likely I didn't word the dolphin example very well, I need to relate it back to us, to our definitions of god.
Going by our definition of god could it be argued that dolphins might consider humans to be their gods?

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 08:15:49 PM

Sure, why not. I highly doubt it, but I guess it's possible.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 08:32:31 PM

Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"Sure, why not. I highly doubt it, but I guess it's possible.

This is harder than I thought. I think I will try again to redefine the example
Going by our definition of god could it be argued that dolphins might correctly consider humans to be their gods?

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 08:34:03 PM

Quote from: "Stevil"
Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"Sure, why not. I highly doubt it, but I guess it's possible.
This is harder than I thought. I think I will try again to redefine the example
Going by our definition of god could it be argued that dolphins might correctly consider humans to be their gods?

No, because we aren't. However, "correctness" is of no concern. If they think we're gods, then we're gods to them. It's as simple as that.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 08:48:37 PM

Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"
Quote from: "Stevil"
Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"Sure, why not. I highly doubt it, but I guess it's possible.
This is harder than I thought. I think I will try again to redefine the example
Going by our definition of god could it be argued that dolphins might correctly consider humans to be their gods?
No, because we aren't. However, "correctness" is of no concern. If they think we're gods, then we're gods to them. It's as simple as that.

No was the answer I was looking for given your definition of god, so I have the example formed correctly I think.

I am not interested in the dolphins potential definition of god as this thread's intent is to explore our definition. I just thought these examples as a tool might help me to understand other people's definitions.

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 09:00:06 PM

Quote from: "Stevil"No was the answer I was looking for given your definition of god, so I have the example formed correctly I think.

I am not interested in the dolphins potential definition of god as this thread's intent is to explore our definition. I just thought these examples as a tool might help me to understand other people's definitions.

What is your definition of "God"?

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 09:23:52 PM

Quote from: "LegendarySandwich"
Quote from: "Stevil"No was the answer I was looking for given your definition of god, so I have the example formed correctly I think.

I am not interested in the dolphins potential definition of god as this thread's intent is to explore our definition. I just thought these examples as a tool might help me to understand other people's definitions.
What is your definition of "God"?

I think we are doing things backwards, coming up with a definition and then trying to find something that matches that definition.
I think we need to first discover this god, define its unique characteristics and then use these to define what a god is.
Problem is in finding a god without first knowing what its characteristics are. We seem to have a noun "god" that could mean anything so potentially we could discover something that doesn't already have a noun and then formulate the god noun based on that something. Hence maybe one day there will be a god and its characteristics will be well defined and testable.

LegendarySandwich · January 01, 2011, 09:27:18 PM

Quote from: "Stevil"I think we need to first discover this god, define its unique characteristics and then use these to define what a god is.

I doubt that anything I would call "God" actually exists.

Stevil · January 01, 2011, 09:27:43 PM

LegendarySandwich - going by your god definition I was just wondering why it is important that this god created the universe?
Why couldn't it simply have dominion over everything within the universe without having the burdon of creating the universe?

To me dominion is much more powerful and important than simply creation.

News:

Define God