How do you perceive God?

[Darth Ultor]

Well, through talking with people of several faiths, by reading the Torah, and from my favorite video game, I deduced that God is an intelligent Force intertwined and united with all things both physical and spiritual through the whole realm of existence, and He has direct and complete control of everything at every time. I see God as more of a Force than a deity, and the ultimate source of all things.

I think God wants to reward humans for their good deeds in both the mortal and spiritual worlds. And I also believe that everything happens for a reason, like for example, serious illnesses that some have to deal with, or bad economic situations. I have no idea why God works in this way, but no matter how bad it is, things always turn out for the better. One cannot see the full tapestry by just a single thread. I'm not even gonna try and explain why good people have to suffer so badly or even worse. I can't answer that, and nobody I talked to was able to. Just last July, I lost an old friend to cancer and he was one of the greatest human beings I ever met. But my faith in God will not waiver.

 

[barney]

Well, through talking with people of several faiths, by reading the Torah, and from my favorite video game, I deduced that God is an intelligent Force intertwined and united with all things both physical and spiritual through the whole realm of existence, and He has direct and complete control of everything at every time. I see God as more of a Force than a deity, and the ultimate source of all things.

I think God wants to reward humans for their good deeds in both the mortal and spiritual worlds. And I also believe that everything happens for a reason, like for example, serious illnesses that some have to deal with, or bad economic situations. I have no idea why God works in this way, but no matter how bad it is, things always turn out for the better. One cannot see the full tapestry by just a single thread. I'm not even gonna try and explain why good people have to suffer so badly or even worse. I can't answer that, and nobody I talked to was able to. Just last July, I lost an old friend to cancer and he was one of the greatest human beings I ever met. But my faith in God will not waiver.

Sounds like a bit of the old Pantheism there?

God having control over everything would mean that , well just a couple of days back, he decided to either cause or fail to prevent an earthquake that slew hundreds of innocents from newborn babies to mothers to murderers to the mentally handicapped.
A way of answering all the theodicy questions raised, is "he has a plan" and "we cant know his ways".

Another way of looking at it, is we are on a cooling planet with an unstable crust, and such things are to be expected.That god is either imaginary or malevolent or absent.

 

[جوري]

Well, through talking with people of several faiths, by reading the Torah, and from my favorite video game, I deduced that God is an intelligent Force intertwined and united with all things both physical and spiritual through the whole realm of existence, and He has direct and complete control of everything at every time. I see God as more of a Force than a deity, and the ultimate source of all things.

I think God wants to reward humans for their good deeds in both the mortal and spiritual worlds. And I also believe that everything happens for a reason, like for example, serious illnesses that some have to deal with, or bad economic situations. I have no idea why God works in this way, but no matter how bad it is, things always turn out for the better. One cannot see the full tapestry by just a single thread. I'm not even gonna try and explain why good people have to suffer so badly or even worse. I can't answer that, and nobody I talked to was able to. Just last July, I lost an old friend to cancer and he was one of the greatest human beings I ever met. But my faith in God will not waiver.

Interesting:
your perception reminds me of the light cone and absolute time:

http://physics.syr.edu/courses/modules/LIGHTCONE/minkowski.html

I think however that God is beyond human conception and perception, that point when physics touches upon sheer poetry and some fantastical that the mind can't wrap around. Completely outside the laws of time and space.. as you would take yourself to a different planet and be subject to a different set of physical laws..

I think this verse from the Quran sums my understanding of one of God's attributes best:

25:35 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass; the glass as it were a brilliant star: lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the East nor of the West, whose Oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.

of course there are others about God being the possessor of time:
It is authentically reported on the authority of Abu Hurairah (ra ) that the Prophet (saas ) said: "Allah (swt ), Most Blessed, Most High, says: "The son of Adam wrongs Me: He curses time, though I am time: In My Hands are all things and I cause the night to follow the day." 2

light, space and time I think however are the reductionist' approach but it is as close as we'll get to some understanding..

17:85 ------------- [SIZE=-1]and of knowledge ye have been vouchsafed but little.[/SIZE]


and Allah swt knows best

 

[CosmicPathos]

Interesting:
your perception reminds me of the light cone and absolute time:

http://physics.syr.edu/courses/modules/LIGHTCONE/minkowski.html

I think however that God is beyond human conception and perception, that point when physics touches upon sheer poetry and some fantastical that the mind can't wrap around. Completely outside the laws of time and space.. as you would take yourself to a different planet and be subject to a different set of physical laws..

I think this verse from the Quran sums my understanding of one of God's attributes best:

25:35 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass; the glass as it were a brilliant star: lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the East nor of the West, whose Oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.

of course there are others about God being the possessor of time:
It is authentically reported on the authority of Abu Hurairah (ra ) that the Prophet (saas ) said: "Allah (swt ), Most Blessed, Most High, says: "The son of Adam wrongs Me: He curses time, though I am time: In My Hands are all things and I cause the night to follow the day." 2

light, space and time I think however are the reductionist' approach but it is as close as we'll get to some understanding..

17:85 ------------- [SIZE=-1]and of knowledge ye have been vouchsafed but little.[/SIZE]


and Allah swt knows best

beautiful.

I believe that God's essence is entirely transcendent from material world or worlds. He is infinite.

Yet, I try to find Him in nature believing I cannot find Him here.

The flow of rivers into the oceans, the erosion of mountains to hills, the towering of peaks from plain fields, the transition of life to death, the conversion of a man into a flower by the decay of his body which nourishes the soil for vegetation .... all these cycles of creation and destruction, at micro level in the forms of molecules, as well as at universal level in the forms of stars & galaxies and the universe itself .... these are all the representation of His will. So ugly is also beautiful because God wills it.

As such, I am a huge proponent of religious melancholy.

Certainly not pantheistic as that would be shirk or probably kufr. Barney is wrong. Boaz did not say that he believes that universe/nature is God as that is what pantheism implies.

 

[barney]

Yeah, re-reading it, it does seem he wasnt pantherisming. I stand corrected but I still quite like panthers.

By the way, although i wouldnt agree with the actual causation of universe as you both so wonderfully wrote above, it was still a marvellous depiction of it.

 

[Darth Ultor]

What does kufr mean? I heard a sheik on youtube saying it in a lecture.

 

[جوري]

What does kufr mean? I heard a sheik on youtube saying it in a lecture.

Kufr = disbelief in God and that takes many forms.. sometimes kufr can be failure to uphold his commandments as well.

and Allah swt knows best

 

[Darth Ultor]

Just to elaborate a little, Obi-Wan Kenobi pretty much explained what I was saying when he was talking about the Force to Luke in A New Hope. I see God as something similar in a sense that His presence is all around us, but He's not just spiritual energy, but an intelligent all-powerful presence and the creator and ultimate source of everything natural and non. I also think He gave humans free will and thought for more reasons than just choosing good over evil, but also to progress, thus He wants us to ask questions.