Question from Emma:
Hi, I have a religion assignment and I have to investigate the question
‘Who/What is God?’
I am endeavouring to ask people of all different religions, non-religions and world views their opinions to include in the project, so would you be able to tell me, in your opinion
WHO/WHAT IS GOD?
Answer by SmartLX:
The ontology of God tends to be of more importance to theists than it is to atheists, apart from “strong atheists” who positively believe that there are no gods as opposed to just not believing in any. To believe in either the presence or the absence of a thing, you have to have at least some idea of what it is.
A broad theistic definition of a god would be an immortal, intelligent supernatural being with the power to control the universe to some extent, but deists disagree with this because they reject any idea of divine intervention. A broad deistic definition of a god would be an intelligent supernatural being that created the universe, but some theistic gods don’t fit that description (for instance lesser polytheistic gods like Mars and Venus).
The common ground between the two is the idea of an immortal supernatural being with some influence, past or present, on the universe in which we live. Some other hypothetical supernatural beings such as ghosts might also fit this description, so you might add “that was not previously a mortal being”, but the Mormons believe humans can become gods, so that doesn’t work. Therefore I’m content with the above definition in italics, which is slightly too broad but gets the job done. Since I don’t believe in ghosts any more than i believe in gods, that aspect makes little difference to me.
3 thoughts on “Who/What is God?”
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Might be a little late now, but if you are really interested in this, check out “A History of God” by Karen Armstrong.
What god is, is a story, and Nothing more. There may well be a god that created the universe and all that entails, but if there is, it most certanly is not one of the gods invented by man, and there are many. Stephen Hawkings says, a god is not required to create the universe, and I believe this true. Energy, which is the same thing as matter created the universe, the galaxies, solar systems and all life forms. If there truly is a god, then it would have to be this energy. But, this energy has no conscious thought or reguard for any one or any thing, not even human beings, which are the pinnacle of energys achievments. As thinking beings, we try to make things more complicated and envolved than they really are. It is actually quite simple. Matter exists, has always existed and with enough time, which also has always existed, we exist…for a time.
This young woman would have been better off with a math or science assignment than writing something on this silly question.