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Is God universal?

Willys

Premium Member
To appreciate owls84, "We are all traveling to the same city..." and to draw from Raven's flame...

We are all travelers on planet earth, camping out along our varying roads to knowledge. Our campfires are built according to beliefs, the flame we see is through that prism of our belief systems through which one learns to accept G_d's lessons.

Reaching out to touch the flame is to reach to the face of G_d but is only through that designed prism. If you can touch it, it isn't G_d but only a result of a belief system.

G_d is. Belief is something you do.

Discard the prisms, become the flame. Become the campfire. Become knowledge.
 

cyd

Registered User
I feel God is god does not matter how the supreme is labeled and from what culture how they honor its all the same god.


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Thorson

Registered User
Religion is a cultural celebration and recognition of Creator. Spirituality is the personal relationship one has with Creator.


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FlBrother324

Registered User
God is God.

Think of a prism metaphorically,
God sits in His Kingdom from the center of all that is, to infinity and beyond. We all see Him from different perspectives through the prism, in our own color or hue of "Light". Our view is different yet we are all looking at the same GOD.

It is said, "that God created man in His own image." Well, either God has a sense of humor, or man's interpretation is that we are what God looks like.
Meaning: Each of us has their own view or perspective of what our God is to us. This doesn't mean there is multiple Gods, it just means the God we perceive, is the same as everyone else's, we're just looking from different directions, or through a different part of the "Light" spectrum.

Regarding what we call our God is irrelevant, no matter the "Name", we all consider Him to be the Supreme being that rules all. This of course doesn't include the fringe elements of religions that have a different belief system than that of one Supreme being or entity.

P.S.
Please understand that I am not a theologian, nor do I claim to be. The above statement is my own interpretation of MY Supreme God, or GAOTU, and in no way is meant to slight those of differing opinions. IMHO.

May the God of your choosing, bless you and keep you under his protection and care.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
Is God universal?
Yes. Otherwise, He would be a lesser being, unworthy of being considered God.
Any "god" that can be circumscribed by anything other than His own Will is not God, but some sort of inferior being.
That being said, is the God I worship this God?
I certainly hope so. At least that's what I'm going with as far as I know--but I am human, I could be getting it wrong.
Are the various "gods" of other religions God?
If they are, I praise God for His wisdom in meeting everyone as they need to be met. If they are not, I pray to God that He will be merciful and welcoming to those who honestly seek Him even if they do not know it is He they seek, and even if they have appeared to have rejected Him due to the sins committed by His would-be followers. Beyond this, I do not try to "explain" the incomprehensible, since it would only create yet another layer of error and heresy. If I did not believe my Church were correct, I would have rejected it. What I question is how correct I might be. Thus, while I say that my Church has the "best method", I cannot be arrogant about it. When one asks "What about the X?", the only answer I can give is that God is the sole Judge. I must act as I think is required of me, but in addition to evangelization and faith, humility is required of me.
 
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BryanMaloney

Premium Member
It sounds more like an Abrahamic deity than a "universal deity." How can one group BC have a universal deity that excluded everyone else?

I've had people argue with me to tell me that even though I believe in a Supreme Being, the source of all creation and life and from whom all things flow - I did not believe in the actual God.

The reasons were "the dogma of God" because:
1) Jews don't believe in the Trinity
2) Christians do
3) Muslims don't

In an anthropological sense we all worship the God of Abraham, but, if, as a Christian, I don't believe in the Trinity in the traditional sense - I won't be considered a Christian by a healthy number of folks.

Yet, Jews don't believe in the trinity and they worship the same God in most any Christian's opinion.

If the Trinity isn't a separator on being the same God, what is?

The same Christians who would say that a non-Trinitarian Christian doesn't worship the same God would also be likely to somehow twist things around to say that Jews "actually" don't worship the same God, either. Likewise, my own Church doesn't say that non-Trinitarian Christians likely worship the same God, or at the very least want to, but that they aren't doing it properly--and this could imperil their souls and lead them astray. Ultimately, God's justice and mercy are ineffable and inscrutable. He is the sole Judge.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
No matter where you are born or how you are raised you bodily makeup is made from the same stuff as mine and I believe the same God who loves us all no matter what we call Him is nothing less than universal.
Below are the basic elements in the make up of the Human body.

But this does not mean that every person actually is every other person or that we are all merely "expressions" of a single person, with no distinct identity or existence. Such a "universal human" is merely the barest bones of union and can encompass the most virtuous and the vilest. To say that this means there is a "universal person" is to equivalate Mother Theresa or the First Responders in NYC in 2001 with a child molester. In one sense, there are common traits, but that does not mean they are all the same person, no more than God is identical to Satan.
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
Let's see.

God created

man in his own image.

Man is such an egotistic animal that yes, you might say, God may have meant man's image of himself. WOW! That interpretation has kept us in hot water for many a millennium ... now hasn't it?

:eek:hmy:
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Let's go to Mars. When we experience God there, that's one more step to confirming he's everywhere. It's a different more literal meaning for the word "universal". For a really good confirmation we'd need to go to other galaxies and experience him there, but one step outwards at a time.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
Six blind elephants were discussing the nature of sages, when they decided to examine a sage and find out for themselves. Upon carefully feeling the sage with their feet, all six elephants agreed. Sages are very flat.
 

Zaden

Registered User
:001_smile:
Six blind elephants were discussing the nature of sages, when they decided to examine a sage and find out for themselves. Upon carefully feeling the sage with their feet, all six elephants agreed. Sages are very flat.

Lol!
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
If we are intellectually honest, we must admit that we can't truly know that Deity exists. Given that, it is absurd then to suggest that we can know the nature of that Deity. All we are left with then, is belief in something far greater than ourselves, indeed far greater than we can likely even fully grasp. That's the nature of faith - steadfast belief in the absence of any proof. Once we have the humility to admit that, we are free to pursue a deeper understanding of G_d, or as some might say, a deeper relationship with G_d. So starting at that point, G_d is pretty "universal". The steps that each of us chooses to take from there are where the differences creep in, and that's OK. That those choices result in so many different opinions is how it should be, IMO. A deep and abiding faith is a very personal thing. You can't buy it, rent it, or borrow it. It must come from within.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
If we are intellectually honest, we must admit that we can't truly know that Deity exists.

There are folks who have had direct personal observation of the divine. So by "we" here you mean a large percentage of humanity but you don't mean all of humanity. Gnosis comes in various forms some of which are direct personal observation of the divine.

Given that, it is absurd then to suggest that we can know the nature of that Deity.

That part remains. What *was* the nature of the experience? Why are such experiences not observed by a majority? The list of questions just keeps coming.

All we are left with then, is belief in something far greater than ourselves, indeed far greater than we can likely even fully grasp. That's the nature of faith - steadfast belief in the absence of any proof. Once we have the humility to admit that, we are free to pursue a deeper understanding of G_d, or as some might say, a deeper relationship with G_d. So starting at that point, G_d is pretty "universal". The steps that each of us chooses to take from there are where the differences creep in, and that's OK. That those choices result in so many different opinions is how it should be, IMO. A deep and abiding faith is a very personal thing. You can't buy it, rent it, or borrow it. It must come from within.

Some have different step one because of the different experience, but we all indeed share that next step. Those people who chose to not step down the path of faith do not become a part of "us" in that sense.
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
There are folks who have had direct personal observation of the divine.

I would say that there are folks who believe that they have had such an observation, but then I am, among other things, a dyed-in-the-wool agnostic. Yes, I use the term agnostic advisedly, adhering to Huxley's original definition of the term. Unlike Huxley, my belief is quite strong. I see evidence of the Divine almost everywhere. While that evidence yields a faith that is pretty much unshakable, I will not deceive myself by equating that with knowledge.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
If we are intellectually honest, we must admit that we can't truly know that Deity exists. Given that, it is absurd then to suggest that we can know the nature of that Deity. All we are left with then, is belief in something far greater than ourselves, indeed far greater than we can likely even fully grasp. That's the nature of faith - steadfast belief in the absence of any proof. Once we have the humility to admit that, we are free to pursue a deeper understanding of G_d, or as some might say, a deeper relationship with G_d. So starting at that point, G_d is pretty "universal". The steps that each of us chooses to take from there are where the differences creep in, and that's OK. That those choices result in so many different opinions is how it should be, IMO. A deep and abiding faith is a very personal thing. You can't buy it, rent it, or borrow it. It must come from within.

If we are intellectually honest, we must admit that we can't truly know. Given that, it is absurd to suggest that we can know the nature of anything.

See also, David Hume, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding"
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
If we are intellectually honest, we must admit that we can't truly know. Given that, it is absurd to suggest that we can know the nature of anything.

Rubbish. I get so tired of that existentialist cop-out. :(
Fine. So stipulated. Within the confines, then, of our questionable existence and consciousness...
I can "know" a great many things, in that I can test and observe. More importantly, anyone else can also know those same things by using the same method. I absolutely can not know something which can not be so tested and observed.
 
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