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What does the word 'God' mean to you?
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Subject: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Zebedee Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:33 PM I've no idea where this thread may lead, but it's asked in good faith and out of curiosity. To me, God is a relic of a previous age, a useful way of explaining the unexplainable, and a comfort when things go wrong. Sometimes I wish I believed. Over to you Ed |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: CarolC Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:37 PM I don't use the word god, except inapropriately. I prefer the word "divinity". To me "god" has too much bad historical baggage. Carol |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Richard Bridge Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:47 PM I react badly to it. I tend to expect it to be used to support irrational authoritarianism. THere can be little doubt that some religiously inspired persons have done good, but all too often the appeal to God is a banner for some awful atrocity on the national or individual level. The Roman Catholic CHurch in England seems to be strongly linked with child sex scandals, and the brutality of many sorts of protestantism hardly bear rehearsing, although they pale into insignificance beside the horror of the inquisition. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: katlaughing Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:54 PM Never use it in the singular and always with goddesses, too, except where noted in the last appellation...much prefer Great Spirit/Cosmic/Higher Self/Mother-Father God of My Heart |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: GUEST,ernest c Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:55 PM This is just another one of those divisive threads to further split an already fractured group. Why must we talk about politics, religion, and other controversial topics? No one ever really wins by making their point. They just cause someone else to react negatively to them. You are some rather naive if you don't know where this thread will lead. It will lead to arguments and bad feelings. So I ask, why are we doing this to ourselves? I think we ought to stick at least a little closer to music, and not go looking for fights. Of course, if you want to fight, then go ahead. But I still think that just because you can do something is not reason enough to do it. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Dave Wynn Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:57 PM Thought you humans believed that He is Love...sounds like a lot of hate from the last two postings....My God is fine by me...Plays Pan pipes really well and rescues little otters in distress. Know where you are with my God.....Doesn't confuse the issue with grey bits....Very black and white is my God.....you are either good and live forever or bad and dont....Simple.... Spot. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: CarolC Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:59 PM I don't know ernest c, you're the only one who sounds like they're fighting to me, so far. Carol |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Dave Wynn Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:00 PM Bugger...didn't meant the last two postings...meant the two before they posted while I was writing...(new at this and pads ain't best suited to keyboards....) Spot. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Amergin Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:05 PM To me the belief in God is how some people find comfort through their dark times....to me my comfort is the knowledge that things will work differently in the next life and the one after that...such as the love me and my ex share... Amergin |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Bill D Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:06 PM really silly question...(not that it isn't important, but HERE?...who can type a fair answer..) |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: CarolC Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:09 PM It might be worth keeping in mind that the original question asked what the word god means to us, rather than the concept the word may or may not represent. For me, the word 'god' is just that, a word, invented by people. The concept of divinity is an entirely different matter. Carol |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Sorcha Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:17 PM Let's not get ugly now........to me, "god" means somebody/something in Charge of Whatever...but, just because s/he is in charge, does not mean something is going to be done about it. Such as, Why do bad things happen to Good People? THE God has to be in Charge of EVERYTHING......quite a job if you ask me. That is why s/he has delegates........Dagda, Jesus, Bhudda, et. al. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Lox Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:17 PM "I do genuinely perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is, underlying all that change, a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing power, or spirit, is God, and since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, he alone is." (and now the good bit) "And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death, life persists. In the midst of untruth, thruth persists. In the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. He is love. He is the supreme good." (Mahatma Ghandi) Beautiful words at least (I don't know what to believe) lox |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Rick Fielding Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:21 PM Never had a problem with the concept of a "God" (after all who has a BETTER explanation for how everything started?) but like many, I have a problem with my fellow humans who claim to speak (or write books) FOR God. When some imply that a Diety supports (or doesn't) a political system or a football team, well, that just seems silly and self-serving to me. Like you Ed, sometimes I wish that history and logic DIDN'T get in the way, and I could simply believe. I know it helps a lot of people. Rick |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:44 PM "God" - to me means All That Is. All that is seen and all that is not. All thought, energy, form, and manifestation. All beings. All worlds. All potential. One could just as well call it Goddess, since it is clearly observable that the female principle is found throughout Nature. I do sometimes call it Goddess. One could also call it the Great Spirit...or one could call it Nature, Logic, Truth, Love, Divinity, Soul, Relativity or anything whatever...it is all of those things. It is the Tao, the sacred Way of things. The unenlightened man walks around in the midst of it, partaking of it in every moment, and sees it not. Then he invents a god which is separate from himself, a distant and demanding god, a cosmic bully, and he builds idols to this god, and writes holy books about it, and commits murder in its name. From that rise religions and religious orders. God is completely beyond religion and does not require anyone's worship. God simply is. And no one is cast out. "I am you and you are me and we are us and we are all together" to quote the Beatles. We are God. Period. And I like Gandhi's definition best of all. Beautiful. Gandhi knew what he was talking about. - LH |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Lox Date: 14 Jan 01 - 07:48 PM He also said that he reckoned that Christianity is the best religion, but that there are no Christians. lox |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: kendall Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:07 PM When we hear the word "God" most of us think of whatever we were trained to think. I believe that "God" is pure energy, and, that love is not only an emotion, but, is also energy. The fastest, strongest energy in the universe. It is a creative energy for the most part, but, can also destroy when necessary. It is very hard for me to believe that God actually speaks to anyone. All that twaddle comes from religeon. Now, every thing in the universe started in the same place as a part of the whole (including "God") and that includes us. The concept of god as a being, like us, is silly. There again, invented by people who need a "Boss". This is all my own opinion, and I am entitled to it. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:14 PM I'm with Gandhi. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: wysiwyg Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:18 PM I don't talk about God here anymore, but I am glad to do so at www.beliefnet.com, or in e-mail, and Ed I believe you have my address. Don't write, though, unless you really want to know what I think. Hi Richard!! ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Allan C. Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:22 PM I have seen god and he is us. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 14 Jan 01 - 08:23 PM My own feeling is that "god", whether we think of it as male or female (or, more sensibly, as both or neither) is a thing that we make in our own image to comfort ourselves. Perhaps what we should be doing is living our lives as if there were no god(s). That way we might stop using them as excuses for our own inadequacies or as reasons to pick fights. Malcolm |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Melani Date: 15 Jan 01 - 12:28 AM Everything. Little Hawk expressed it well. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: SeanM Date: 15 Jan 01 - 12:41 AM god (gd) n. (1)God A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions. The force, effect, or a manifestation or aspect of this being. (2)Christian Science. "Infinite Mind; Spirit; Soul; Principle; Life; Truth; Love" (Mary Baker Eddy). (3)A being of supernatural powers or attributes, believed in and worshiped by a people, especially a male deity thought to control some part of nature or reality. (4)An image of a supernatural being; an idol. (5)One that is worshiped, idealized, or followed: money was their god. (6)A very handsome man. (7)A powerful ruler or despot. That about does it for me. God's a word, no more, no less. Now if you want to talk about the ideas, prejudices and other aberrant behaviours caused by this word... now THAT is an entirely different thread, and one that I'll stand by Praise's statement - "I don't talk about god here" M [Middle English from Old English; see gheu()- in Indo-European Roots.] |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Jon Freeman Date: 15 Jan 01 - 12:49 AM I believe that God is the supreme all knowing, all seeing and all powerful being. I do not accept the comfort theories as I take no comfort in believing such a creature exits - in fact, there are many times when I think that I would find life easier if I believed there were just us. I also reject the easy way of explaining things as, for starters, it is far harder to try to balance science with God than to simply reject God. Jon
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Jon Freeman Date: 15 Jan 01 - 01:12 AM 'and one that I'll stand by Praise's statement - "I don't talk about god here"' I know I sometimes get angry with God and rant and rave about God but other than that, I try not to introduce the subject of God. I will however provide opinions based on my own beliefs where comments are made which I can only reply to from the viewpoint of my religion. It is true that such replies have the potential to attract hostile respones from certain directions but that doesn't worry me. A scenario which has caused me much ammusment over the years as well as dissapointment over the years is this: A group of friends are knocking religion, I come in with a religious viewpoint and try to discuss rationally and the group turn on me and accuse me of talking about religion. Seems that it is irrational of me to suggest that them starting the converasation by saying God doesn't exit, etc. was the starting point. I just give up these days but I have my own theories as to why such people want to shut me up and are so unreasonable. Jon |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Mrrzy Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:44 AM I wish I could take it as a metaphor, but the baggage is too heavy... |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: blt Date: 15 Jan 01 - 03:25 AM The word itself has a sound that I associate with creativity, or the creative soup all life slips in and out of. It's easier to believe in the concept of life than that of God (though maybe they're the same). Perhaps the only way I can make sense of this word is to think of God as a prism, breaking life energy into many colors. I missed all the earlier controversy, so am not clear why this is somewhat of a taboo topic in the forum, seems like God should be up for grabs just as much as everything else. If we can schmooze about love, why can't we schmooze about God? If God were a Mudcatter, what would God's name be? How would God define folk music? Would God have a band? Play solo? Does God have a pick-up or play through a mike? blt |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: SeanM Date: 15 Jan 01 - 03:52 AM blt... I would suggest PMing Katlaughing and Praise for info. Not that they're conflicting, but that they both can very lucidly (is that even a word? heck, at 7 beers, what isn't?) state the nature of the conflict. M |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Haruo Date: 15 Jan 01 - 03:56 AM What the word 'God' means to me varies a great deal depending on the context, the speaker, and what I think I know about the speaker's beliefs. I like the Gandhi quote. I am a Baptist heretic, convinced that what Gandhi was talking about is what Jesus was talking about, that God underlies all of us and all of it, but my personal experience of God has been personal (i.e. I have perceived what I think of as God in ways that imply to my mind personality, which is what one would expect in a Baptist). I think it is critically important that we discuss things like this, and that believers and unbelievers, theists and atheist, learn not merely to tolerate but to respect and appreciate each other; likewise that Christians appreciate Sikhs and Jews appreciate Santería, and Wiccans appreciate Islam, and so on. At the moment I'm reading Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (in English — I haven't been able to locate a copy in Latin, alas) and I must agree with Jon Freeman that there's nothing in there to support the comfort theories. But there is in my personal experience of God, indeed, I intuit from my experience that (ultimately) all's right with the world, i.e. All's Well That Ends Well, as the canon has it. My "My Burning Bush" sermon is, I think, my most cogent attempt to explain what God means to me, if anyone's interested. It's not replicable; I don't offer it in an effort to proselytize or convert anyone to anything, just to (hopefully) let people get to know me a bit better, and possibly understand. Those who have had similar experiences may find a resonance. I am interested, too, in hearing from people (email me!) who have had what they believe to have been equivalent experiences and who are convinced that "God" was not involved. Liland |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: GUEST,God Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:02 AM Hmmm, I find this thread to be very interesting. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: SeanM Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:16 AM Ummm... God, I know I've doubted, and I know that I've been public about it... but if you're gonna come down to the Mudcat, then why the heck wouldn't you show up for my 12th birthday? It wasn't much to ask... Damn pony. I said I wanted God, but all I got was a stinkin' pony... hee hee hee hee hee... M |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: CarolC Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:22 AM I really appreciate the tone of this thread, overall. There are a lot of very thoughtful, and even moving, posts here. It's nice to see people being able to discuss something as potentially inflamatory as this one like adults and thoughtful human beings. Thanks. Carol
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Dave the Gnome Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:22 AM Good thread - I am not going to give you my ideas but I disagree with the 'don't talk about it here' lobby. This is a cafe. A place where friends and like minded people meet. We should be able to discuss the most controversial of topics without falling out. Surely that it is what makes it so much fun. Isn't it? Cheers Dave the Gnome |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Haruo Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:32 AM Among other things, 'God' always reminds me of one of my AA old-timers, now deceased (though God is alive, magic is afoot etc.), who customarily introduced himself, when called on in meetings, "I am a loving God as I understand Her, and I understand Her to be Consciousness, Beingness, or Spirit; She is traveling in the body of a fat paranoid-schizophrenic diabetic arthritic cancer-ridden alcoholic by the name of Jerry Stonebender." (After which intro he would proceed to be diffuse.) Great guy in many ways; glad he wasn't my Father, though... Liland |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Ringer Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:42 AM Ghandi could have equally said: And is this power benevolent or malevolent? But he didn't. Rather, he concluded that He is love. He is the supreme good. Why?
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Haruo Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:53 AM (Replying to Bald Eagle) Optimism. Hope. Feeling the touch of the Spirit. Or in the alternative, to mess with folks' heads and encourage his followers to work harder. Liland |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: TonyK Date: 15 Jan 01 - 01:18 PM I think the god as I used to understand him was a creation of someone long ago just as the ancient gods of Rome and Greece, etc. I like the concepts of 'Great Mystery' that is attributed to Native Americans, and "God beyond the word god", attributed to a theologian I studied in school and can't remember his name. Maybe Whitehead, maybe Tillich. I suppose blind faith works for some but it caused me a lot of problems. It didn't fit for me and it took a long time for me to realize that I'm not completely blind (or maybe I am). In any case, I'm doing the best I can and trying to be open minded about it. I agree it is a positive reflection on this group that we are able to discuss this. I'm reading "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn and find it fascinating. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: mousethief Date: 15 Jan 01 - 01:25 PM What I believe in God is summed up, if a bit pithily, in the Nicene Creed. Alex |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Bill D Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:08 PM "....then one old greybeard of a god stood up and proclaimed, "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me."...and all of the other gods died laughing" paraphrase from "Also Sprach Zarathustra"...Nietzsche which proves NOTHING about God or religion, but does show some understanding of human nature and how strange narrow views of religion can be... |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Little Hawk Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:15 PM Bald Eagle - Gandhi said it the way he did because... pessimism is its own punishment, as is negative thinking. Extreme pessimism is a form of insanity in which only human beings indulge. You won't see animals doing that. It leads nowhere except to misunderstanding, depression, hatred, suicide, murder and death. Gandhi saw the bright side because that is what you do when you're enlightened. Enlightenment leads people forward to positive accomplishment. The pessimist thinks of himself as a realist...but we are all absolutely free to make reality what we will at any time. Therefore, the pessimist's reality is the reality he chose. Dumb choice. The pessimist is someone who would rather be right than be happy. It's an ego defence. He figures he's smarter than the people who aren't as pessimistic as he is. Talk about small comfort. Suppose he is "right", and nothing works out and everybody dies...the people who didn't see it his way still had a better time getting there, didn't they, so who is the dummy? The character who best sums up this method of dealing with reality is Eeyore, the grouchy and miserable stuffed donkey in the Pooh books. He would definitely rather be right than be happy. Eeyore ain't too enlightened. The reason that things and situations we call "evil" or "unpleasant" exist is because if they didn't, we would have no way of being conscious of their alternatives...what is "good" and what is "pleasant". We are creatures who perceive by comparison. We have to experience both head and cold before we understand the concept of temperature at all. Then, having understood the concept, we use free will to choose that part of it which seems preferable. That's part of the path to knowledge and enlightenment. The pessimist likes to focus on the dark side...because it seems romantic, dramatic, and fatalistic...and it makes him feel "cool"...but in the end it does not serve him well. You don't have to be "religious" or believe in God to see the merit in being a positive thinker. - LH |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Midchuck Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:26 PM Frederick Brown wrote a one-page sci-fi story. To paraphrase, in the far future a linkage was arranged between all the massive supercomputers on all the planets in the universe, to provide enough computing power to deal with the really hard questions. On the day that the linkup was to go into effect, the Chief Scientist threw the master switch, and then posed the machine the ultimate, up-till-then unanswerable question: Is there a God? The machine answered instantly: "There is now." The Chief Scientist made a desperate dive for the switch, but a bolt of lightning, from a cloudless sky, killed him, and fused the switch shut. Brown wrote that in the 1950s. Be afraid. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Clinton Hammond2 Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:53 PM When I use the word god, or more likley the word "Gahd", it's most often just the beginning of a string of curses... Post Hammer Vs. Thumb language and such... ;-) |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: little john cameron Date: 15 Jan 01 - 03:16 PM http://www.grailmessage.com/welcome1.htm |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Little Hawk Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:53 PM Great science fiction story, Midchuck! I wonder what the computer decided to do next? It's lonely at the top. - LH |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: GUEST,God Date: 15 Jan 01 - 04:56 PM You have that right, Little Hawk. |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: GUEST,Kernow Jon Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:38 PM I'm with Alex on this one |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Ebbie Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:44 PM I know there is 'magic' out there, I know that there are things that I can see if I but accept it, I know that as time goes on I will know more… But I'm not actually 'new age' whatever that means to us, so I constantly reinvent the wheel and therein lies madness. And yet I know there is more, a great deal more, than the physical. I call this 'God' because it makes a lot more sense to me to believe that there is an architect than that there is no creator, that things somehow assembled by themselves like a time-lapse film of an explosion, run backward. That I do not believe. Left to themselves, things become more elemental, not more complex. Why should the universe be different? One of the things I want to be aware of and guard against is my tendency to be shown a truth and to recognize it, even discuss it- and then go on saying and believing it!- that I'm not certain whether there is a God or life after death. (And I'm perfectly capable of that contradictory behavior!) Just how much evidence do I need? But it is a fascinating process, isn't it. Eb
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: GUEST Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:54 PM I'm also with Alex, Anglican to the bone... Mike |
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: Zebedee Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:55 PM This thread has been really interesting to me thanks for all your contributions. I'll continue to read your thoughts with interested. Also glad that 'GUEST ernest c' has been proved wrong with his prediction of a devisive thread that will lead to arguement and bad feeling. Thanks everyone Ed
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Subject: RE: What does the word 'God' mean to you? From: mousethief Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:57 PM Huzzah for a 50-post "God" thread with no flaming! |
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