What exactly IS God?

[PostmodernProph]

Sin is simply the boundary defining human behaviour and why we're human beings instead of 'highly developed primates.' We differ because we have the concept of sin/law. Without it we'd be even more animalistic and chaotic than we are with such limits. Just as children need and flourish under strict discipline, so do adults. Living without rules would have us exist in a state where we don't know where the lines are drawn and that uncertainty is far worse psychologically than having even overly strict limits.

Without fear of punishment, there can be no law or order. G-d may be as far above Man evolutionarily as we are single-celled organisms, but because we do better with limitations on our behaviour, I see it as more, not less consistent such a being would give us laws to live by.

I have two working hypthesis for what G-d is. The simplest if not most likely is that an alien species interacted with us long ago and were mistaken by us as gods. Though for all intents and purposes, they were.

The other notion is what we call G-d is simply the psychic manifestation of all living minds effecting reality on the quantum level. A sort of 'group think' or biological networked computer. Ever so often, like thoughts 'line up' and manifest some physical reality that can't be explained with known science and is called miraculous or divine. In reality, it's simply large-scale quantum interactions.

The universe is overwhelmingly lifeless. Yet life exists. But where lifeless stops and life begins is similar to how all living organisms are made up of living matter yet on individual scales, a single cell though 'alive' isn't also sentient. Yet taken as a whole unit, all those individual cells are sentient. So maybe stars and planets other 'singular units' are simply like cells within an organism. On the small scale not alive, but on the whole they are. And the universe as a single whole unit is what we call G-d. Beause of our limited perspective though we perceive only our immediate surroundings and mistake that for 'reality' just as a single blood cell would if it could think. A single red blood cell flowing through a vein would 'think' that's the whole world and it's a singular being unable to appreciate how it's in fact part of a greater whole.

You have some interesting thoughts. It appears you might be trying to explain God without defining it as God. (why do people type "G-d"?) I've often said, if modern science were to somehow discover the secret to spiritual nature and find the physical evidence to support God, the cries would be: "See, we told you there was no such thing as God!"

I am not as sure as you that our universe is overwhelmingly lifeless. I am also unsure if ours is the only universe or our conscious reality the only dimension. I listened to a theoretical physicist explain how dark matter and dark energy might be explained by imagining another plane of existence and reality hovering just above our own. We can detect gravity of this other 'universe' but have no other physical indicators. This is where theories of 'wormholes' and similar phenomenon come from.

I don't profess to know the answers here, I believe there is far more we don't know and understand about the universe than we do understand. What I do know is humans are intrinsically tied to a spiritual faith that no other creatures seem to have.

Jews and others often omit a letter in any name used to refer to G-d out of respect for the holiness of the name. Aloud we say "hashem" which is simple Hebrew meaning "the name."

Judaism 101: The Name of G-d

"Please note: This page contains the Name of God. If you print it out, please treat it with appropriate respect.

The name of God should be treated with respect
• God has many names in the Bible
• A Name should not be written, so it will not be discarded disrespectfully
• The most important name is the four-letter name
• The pronunciation of the four-letter name is unknown

Writing the Name of God

Jews do not casually write any Name of God. This practice does not come from the commandment not to take the Lord's Name in vain, as many suppose. In Jewish thought, that commandment refers solely to oath-taking, and is a prohibition against swearing by God's Name falsely or frivolously (the word normally translated as "in vain" literally means "for falsehood").

Judaism does not prohibit writing the Name of God per se; it prohibits only erasing or defacing a Name of God. However, observant Jews avoid writing any Name of God casually because of the risk that the written Name might later be defaced, obliterated or destroyed accidentally or by one who does not know better."

more at link

would an orthodox jew be willing to say "I am sure that's the only reason"?.......

 

[PostmodernProph]

Christianity has something like 41,000 different sects, each one preaching that the others are wrong and are going to hell.

even if it were true that there were 41k different sects (its more likely to be somewhere under a thousand) it would be a rare situation to find one preaching that the members of any other one were going to hell......

 

[Chuckt]

Christianity has something like 41,000 different sects, each one preaching that the others are wrong and are going to hell.

even if it were true that there were 41k different sects (its more likely to be somewhere under a thousand) it would be a rare situation to find one preaching that the members of any other one were going to hell......

There are a lot of churches that are independent.
Imagine that, independent churches saying the same thing.

 

[pacer]

Christianity has something like 41,000 different sects, each one preaching that the others are wrong and are going to hell.

even if it were true that there were 41k different sects (its more likely to be somewhere under a thousand) it would be a rare situation to find one preaching that the members of any other one were going to hell......

There are reportedly over 41,000 different denominations 'world-wide'.

Here is an incomplete list:

List of Christian denominations - Ask.com Encyclopedia

 

[PostmodernProph]

Christianity has something like 41,000 different sects, each one preaching that the others are wrong and are going to hell.

even if it were true that there were 41k different sects (its more likely to be somewhere under a thousand) it would be a rare situation to find one preaching that the members of any other one were going to hell......

There are reportedly over 41,000 different denominations 'world-wide'.

Here is an incomplete list:

List of Christian denominations - Ask.com Encyclopedia

/shrugs......so a couple hundred people get together and call themselves a "denomination".....the source says 33K of the 41K are independents, in other words, having no connection with other churches.......

hardly sustains the guy's point......

 

[PostmodernProph]

actually, I was working from memory after reading a handful of googles.....
came from here.....but that sites statistics had the total denominations at 33k, of which 22K were independents....
The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd edition)

ratio would likely be the same, though, which would be close....

 

[pacer]

actually, I was working from memory after reading a handful of googles.....
came from here.....but that sites statistics had the total denominations at 33k, of which 22K were independents....
The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd edition)

ratio would likely be the same, though, which would be close....

Yes, the facts are from 2001. They would be substantially different today.

 

[PostmodernProph]

actually, I was working from memory after reading a handful of googles.....
came from here.....but that sites statistics had the total denominations at 33k, of which 22K were independents....
The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd edition)

ratio would likely be the same, though, which would be close....

Yes, the facts are from 2001. They would be substantially different today.

since any increases in the last ten years are more likely to be small independent churches rather than substantial denominations, its likely to bear out my point......the vast majority of Christians are not condemning their fellow Christians to hell......