God

"God" is also a: user

(person) by Jet-Poop (3.4 hr) (print) ? 1 C! Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:38:54

When capitalized, the supreme being of monotheistic religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Also, any powerful being, usually spiritual in nature, which is worshipped by a group of people.

Finally, a person who is possessed of great--nay, insurmountable--power or skill in a given area of expertise; for example, someone can be a guitar god, a hack god, a sex god, or even a barbecue god. Worship is optional, but recommended.

(idea) by Sunder (8.1 y) (print) ? Thu Mar 23 2000 at 15:01:36

An entity rosen from the need, dream and question raised by humankind, as answer or as source.

Although the argument of existence, regarding one or more of these entities seems to be an everlasting issue, much evil and good have been performed by humans in the name of gods. Can it argued from this statement that the actions of a god (existing or not) are the actions of its believers? Then a god would be existing as soon as any number of persons acted in its name.

Then humans would be creating the gods which presumably would have created them.

How can gods both be creators of the world and part of it?

If a god created and defined the world we live in, it is impossible to define a god without self being a god. And even then it is given that a god must have some rules defining it, thus having its own gods... (Gödel's incompleteness theorem, sort of.)

(idea) by sensei (6.4 y) (print) ? 2 C!s Sun Mar 26 2000 at 18:29:53

Let's just pretend that you or I were sane, compassionate beings. Would you create something (let alone everything) so that it would suffer, sicken, and die? If I were your creator, I would not want you to get a piece of apple skin stuck between your teeth. Let alone itch. Or wither. Or become incontinent. Or create Country music. Any God that is a god could only be inherently evil or insane.

(idea) by witnie (4.3 y) (print) ? 2 C!s Mon Dec 11 2000 at 10:18:52

Different religious people see their god(s) from a different perspective, which can be roughly categorized into an immanent god or one (or more) that can be described as a transcendent god. I don't want to discuss if this person / thing / entity / presence / being / whatever exists or not, just the perception of it by a large group of human beings.*

A transcendent god
The idea of a transcendent god prevails in so-called Western societies. God is a transcendent masculine authority ruling over everything. It is he who created heaven and earth and all living creatures, of which humans to his own likeness. Key aspects are the creation - the Fall - redemption - "eternal heaven" (revelation), and thus with a linear path (I'll come back to that later). God is created in the human mind to explain the things we don't understand; e.g. there is no certainty about how exactly the world started, so the metaphorical world machine is switched on by something that lies beyond human comprehension.
The position of humans is the one of manager or estate agent, and it is their duty to do that as good as possible without gaining own profit from it. Humans may have own will and responsibility, but your destiny is set by god, he determines your future. People have to, or even must use the available sources for that (some call that exploitation). In case you have a bible: Genesis 1:26-29, 2:15-17 and 3:1-24, Psalm 8 and Mathew 26:14-30. It only says that the "necessary preconditions to live" have to be maintained, but what that means isn't specified. The whole lot is strongly anthropocentric: god created the plants and animals especially for humans and gave "us" knowledge with the intention to be used.
Both aspects, being the linear interpretation of history and future and the anthropocentric view remain intact nowadays in Christian ethics (and as far as I understand the Islam, that one too). These aspects are used to "explain" the continuous use of non-renewable sources because god made them for humans to be used, and is even used to justify activities like genetic modification: by altering the genes you sort of acting like god, not creating like he did of course, but very close and working towards the heaven on earth. And after all, it is he who gave us the knowledge to (ab)use that.
The other interpretation is, that the resources are there to be used with measure, and biotechnology is interpreted as unjustifiable arrogance: humans never ever can create a world so marvellous and beautiful as he did, "we" are just simple human beings here to serve him and his will, and definitely not being pretentious to even consider comparing ourselves with him.

An immanent god
The other view of god emphasizes the closeness of the being: god is within the creation, instead of above watching over the world. This idea prevails in the Orthodox Church and e.g. the pacha mama of the Indians. The whole reality is created by god, and a part of god. As well as the living matter as dead matter show proof of the presence of god, and god is still creating. God isn't necessarily a masculine authority, but more like a mother, supervisor and enlighting spirit; caring, nurturing, empathizing - and vital for the carefulness of the creation.
Humans are part of this ongoing creation, to keep on realizing the power of god. An important aspect is the integrity of the creation. It tends to result in a more holistic point of view of the world, and in contrast with the transcendent god, ecocentric. Humans participate in this ongoing process using the given knowledge and technology, almost "helping and improving the creation, next to god", especially when the aim is to eradicate diseases and hunger (but the latter has more to do with fair distribution of the resources I think, and thus shouldn't justify constructing pesticide resistant crops etc.). On the other hand, when this results in implementations devastating for the world, it is interpreted as a disbelief and destruction of the existence of god. Einstein is quoted in this context: "science without religion is paralysed, religion without science is blind."

* I know I've said some aspects quite bluntly, but this is still without the intention to insult groups of people. However, if I would have presented this information very politely, all this would have been extremely woolly, sort of vague and would have become a very long write up.

The above text is a (simplified) translation of a chapter of my thesis applied philosophy called "Acceptance of genetically modified micro-organisms on the basis of different points of view of life", Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands.

(person) by mauler (10.3 hr) (print) ? 1 C! Mon Oct 06 2003 at 9:53:09

KANJI: SHIN JIN kami (god, spirit, soul)

ASCII Art Representation:
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Character Etymology:

A combination of 示, the Japanese kanji meaning "show," and 申, a kanji meaning "forceful speech."

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: SHIN JIN
kun-yomi: kami kan- kou- ka kagu kana kamo kuma ko koha dama mi

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: none

English Definitions:

SHIN, JIN: god, spirit, soul

kami: god, spirit, soul

Ka(nagawa): prefecture near Tokyo

kan(nushi): Shinto priest

kou-, -shin: of or relating to Kobe

kagu(ra): ancient Shinto music and dancing

mi(kon): portable shrine carried in festivals

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 4087
Henshall: 324

Unicode Encoded Version:

神

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

神戸 (koube): Kobe
神風 (kamikaze): kamikaze
神話学 (shinwagaku): mythology
神学 (shingaku): theology
神武 (jinmu): Jimmu, the legendary first emperor of Japan
女神 (megami): goddess
神様 (kamisama): God (monotheistic)

Previous: somebody | Japanese Kanji | Next: deep

(definition) by Webster 1913 (print) 2 C!s Tue Dec 21 1999 at 23:55:39

God (?), a. & n.

Good.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

God (?), n. [AS. god; akin to OS. & D. god, OHG. got, G. gott, Icel. gu, go, Sw. & Dan. gud, Goth. gup, prob. orig. a p. p. from a root appearing in Skr. h, p. p. hta, to call upon, invoke, implore. Cf. Goodbye, Gospel, Gossip.]

A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.

He maketh a god, and worshipeth it. Is. xliv. 15.

The race of Israel . . . bowing lowly down To bestial gods. Milton.

The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.

God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John iv. 24.

A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard.

Whose god is their belly. Phil. iii. 19.

Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power.

[R.]

Shak.

Act of God. Law See under Act. -- Gallery gods, the occupants of the highest and cheapest gallery of a theater. [Colloq.] -- God's acre, God's field, a burial place; a churchyard. See under Acre. -- God's house. (a) An almshouse. [Obs.] (b) A church. -- God's penny, earnest penny. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl. -- God's Sunday, Easter.

God, v. t.

To treat as a god; to idolize.

[Obs.]

Shak.

printable version
chaos

Linus Torvalds	Satan	Jesus Christ	La Blue Girl
How can a thinking, rational adult be a monotheist?	Brian Eno	Bill Clinton	Lesbian Techniques
gun control	Steve Jobs	OpenGL	Guns
Girlfriend who likes computers	42	sex	Goddammit, I should never have built that giant killer robot
Deus Ex Machina	Pascal's wager	Antichrist	Jello
God is Dead	Microsoft UNIX	Christian	Christ

No more writeups are being accepted for this node. we all have our own concept of God, and if we all put a writeup here...that'd be an awful lot of writeups. If you feel you have something truly important or significant to add, write it up in your scratchpad, /msg an editor or god, and let them view it. If they agree that it's worth noding, they'll unlock the node for you. If you feel you have something to add to this node, post it on your Scratch Pad and contact an editor.

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