What is God? What is he made of? This is an important question to some, because in many cases the attributes of God are described, but God himself is not defined.
If “God” is immaterial, intangible, and invisible, how is that any different from nonexistent?
When I first received Christ salvation, I made it a priority to read the whole bible and I did. But it was the Bible that made me question my faith. For I found it flawed and lacking. Due to this I launched a personal inquiry/investigation into my faith, and ultimately realized that the Christian God of the Bible was indeed man-made. Now I Blog about those findings and life after Christ.
Marcus, this is an interesting question. But I reckon if you asked the same question about mind or free will or consciousness or ethics, you’d get similarly uncertain answers. Scientists and philosophers have not really agreed on whether the mind is separate from the brain, or an emergent property of it, or just something we imagine but isn’t real. No-one can really agree about what is right and wrong, what makes it so, and whether that is objectively so, and if so how it came to be objectively so. And so on.
So if you really need to know what God is, or what mind or ethics are, then the only answer seems to be that given by the man in black to Inigo Montoya: “Get used to disappointment!” So I don’t think it offers any reason not to believe in God, unless you are going to not believe in mind and consciousness and choice and ethics and many other things.
U do make a good point unklee, but when you ask the question What is self? What is the mind? What is consciousness or ethics? In my opinion you are asking what is the nature of those things. and in my opinion the nature of those things is that they are completely abstract and conceptual. In that they only exist in the mind or in belief.
So if we are to apply that same thought we would say that god only exist in the mind in belief. And that God in all reality is only a concept.
“in my opinion the nature of those things is that they are completely abstract and conceptual”
I’m not sure what you mean by ” abstract and conceptual”. Do you mean they don’t exist as realities? Or do you mean that they are not physical? I think the two are very different. Are you saying minds and consciousness and choice are not “real”? I am quite happy to say that God is not physical, but obviously would not say that he is not real.
But whichever way you go, I don’t think it affects my main point that the argument implied in “If “God” is immaterial, intangible, and invisible, how is that any different from nonexistent?” is true. The four fundamental forces, even matter itself in quantum physics, might be considered to be “immaterial, intangible, and invisible” but they are nevertheless real.
more of the ontological definition, that God exist solely conceptually in the frameworks of the mind. I say this because there was a point even for myself, I was trying to find common ground in my belief with reasonable faith. And I remember trying to rationalize a reasonable and real definition of God. And the best I could come up with is that God is the Spirit of Hope and Community. And to a degree I still think this definition is true, but unique, because one could a apply this to a sports team or a political party.
But as to your question, more of that their existence is dependent on the human mind to think or conceive it.
“If “God” is immaterial, intangible, and invisible, how is that any different from nonexistent?”
When you give this statement, I realize, this statement are more relate God of Islam “Allah”. If you google word “Allah”, the only thing that you can find are word “Allah in Arabic” or It’s attribute only.
Even Muslim don’t say “immaterial, intangible, and invisible”, but we principle of Allah are
1) Nor is there to Him any equivalent. (112:4) which mean “If we can visualize, imagine, hear with our mind/eye (in this world), it just creation not a creator (God).”
To say God is immaterial, principally is wrong (even it logic), because we don’t know how God look like. The best answer is “We just don’t know how It look like”.
To say God is intangible, I totally agreed.
To say God is invisible, it just “Nor is there to Him any equivalent”.
Marcus, this is an interesting question. But I reckon if you asked the same question about mind or free will or consciousness or ethics, you’d get similarly uncertain answers. Scientists and philosophers have not really agreed on whether the mind is separate from the brain, or an emergent property of it, or just something we imagine but isn’t real. No-one can really agree about what is right and wrong, what makes it so, and whether that is objectively so, and if so how it came to be objectively so. And so on.
So if you really need to know what God is, or what mind or ethics are, then the only answer seems to be that given by the man in black to Inigo Montoya: “Get used to disappointment!” So I don’t think it offers any reason not to believe in God, unless you are going to not believe in mind and consciousness and choice and ethics and many other things.
Best wishes.
U do make a good point unklee, but when you ask the question What is self? What is the mind? What is consciousness or ethics? In my opinion you are asking what is the nature of those things. and in my opinion the nature of those things is that they are completely abstract and conceptual. In that they only exist in the mind or in belief.
So if we are to apply that same thought we would say that god only exist in the mind in belief. And that God in all reality is only a concept.
“in my opinion the nature of those things is that they are completely abstract and conceptual”
I’m not sure what you mean by ” abstract and conceptual”. Do you mean they don’t exist as realities? Or do you mean that they are not physical? I think the two are very different. Are you saying minds and consciousness and choice are not “real”? I am quite happy to say that God is not physical, but obviously would not say that he is not real.
But whichever way you go, I don’t think it affects my main point that the argument implied in “If “God” is immaterial, intangible, and invisible, how is that any different from nonexistent?” is true. The four fundamental forces, even matter itself in quantum physics, might be considered to be “immaterial, intangible, and invisible” but they are nevertheless real.
more of the ontological definition, that God exist solely conceptually in the frameworks of the mind. I say this because there was a point even for myself, I was trying to find common ground in my belief with reasonable faith. And I remember trying to rationalize a reasonable and real definition of God. And the best I could come up with is that God is the Spirit of Hope and Community. And to a degree I still think this definition is true, but unique, because one could a apply this to a sports team or a political party.
But as to your question, more of that their existence is dependent on the human mind to think or conceive it.
“If “God” is immaterial, intangible, and invisible, how is that any different from nonexistent?”
When you give this statement, I realize, this statement are more relate God of Islam “Allah”. If you google word “Allah”, the only thing that you can find are word “Allah in Arabic” or It’s attribute only.
Even Muslim don’t say “immaterial, intangible, and invisible”, but we principle of Allah are
1) Nor is there to Him any equivalent. (112:4) which mean “If we can visualize, imagine, hear with our mind/eye (in this world), it just creation not a creator (God).”
To say God is immaterial, principally is wrong (even it logic), because we don’t know how God look like. The best answer is “We just don’t know how It look like”.
To say God is intangible, I totally agreed.
To say God is invisible, it just “Nor is there to Him any equivalent”.
that is very interesting, I did not know. Considering my background is only Christian, this is a very interesting notion.
Pingback: An infinite God and his limitations | The BitterSweet End