WHAT do you believe God is?

Question

You know, I've always wondered why God created us. I look at this world as a scholar, and it is perfect. As a human being, it couldn't be more disgusting. I won't bother mentioning what's wrong with the world, because that would be stating the obvious. But I digress, I personally believe God has no emotions. That's why he is so hard to understand. WE give him emotions. We wrote the Bible. I know God is out there. I know he is not a man or a woman. 'IT' is God. But why would 'he' create us and give us emotions and lame choices like 'believing in God'. Why does 'he' want us to worship 'him'? Isn't that a little self centered? But there I am, giving God emotion. Was God bored, lonely? Has God ever felt an emotion. I mean, I know he 'lived' through Jesus and all...I want what you truely think about my statements. Not some phrase pulled out of the Bible. God didn't write the Bible. Tell me, as his followers, or as a philosopher, what you think, God is.

So I come back a few hours later to check up on this question. It was a hard one for me. My favorite answers so far are from Mandi, El Borando, and Shanonanon. I am having difficulty choosing a best answer so I'll give it another day or two. Those three really hit some points I agree with. Thanks all, for sharing.

Answer 1

I can't believe some of the answers given so far that are simply NOT answers. God is God? Sorry that's personal? These mean nothing and are of no help. And, the question specifically asked for no phrases pulled from the Bible, and that has already been violated.

Belief in God is something that I struggle with. Do I believe? Sometimes. Do I think God is any one of the Gods that human kind has created via religion? No. Not any ONE - but all. All of the Gods that human kind have created contain an element of truth to whatever this thing that God may be to humans, whether it is a higher power, or a farce to comfort us in our belief that we are at the top of the Intelligence chain. We need that comfort, because without it, we must be held completely responsible for much of what happens on the Earth, since we control it so much.

But I digress ... Look at the religions out there. In fact, read The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and that will help a lot. Many religions share certain elements. Look at Buddah and Jesus and Muhammad and Confucious and many others ... you will find a lot of similarities in the stories and beliefs. This is what makes me think that we all believe in the same higher power, and it is our differing religious dogmas that separates us.

Yes, "Religion" separates us. This thing we call "God" would bring us TOGETHER if we would all simply agree to allow the freedom to believe in God to whatever degree large or small in our own individual ways.

Humans are seeking something, and whatever it is, it is the same all around, and expressed in different ways. There are studies that have shown that a story as classic as Cinderella can be found in original retellings across the world. Cultures untouched by modern civilization have been discovered, who tell remarkably the SAME story, all the way down to the slipper! How is this possible unless we share some deep yearning that is instinctual to our species? I think the same kind of thing can be said for this thing we call God.

So, WHAT is God? It is a singularly human need for something undefined and just out of our reach, harnessed to breed war and suffering, as well as to foster hope and joy. It has been manipulated and twisted and reformed in the name of itself to a point where the truth of it all has become so buried by human desire to control everything that it may never be found.

Lastly, and most personally, God is within. God is a feeling, a light, a darkness, a soul or a heartbeat. It is something in our guts or in our brains or in our left elbow, depending on the person. It is a spark from within and if you can find it, and listen to it, it will ring the same for whatever religion you follow. It is that spark that is at the heart of them all.

One final comment ... I think the reason we create religion is because to find that spark and hold it true requires a quality that few possess. So another reason they create religion is because it is outside of that... outside of us. It is easier to be outside than it is to be within, because within, there is truth ... and truth is often frightening.

Answer 2

In a scene from the movie "Rudy" one of the priests at Holy Cross university tells Rudy he knows 2 things for sure. #1. There is a God. #2. I am not him. I like the phrasing of your question because ask "what do YOU believe God is?"
I believe God is love at the highest level possible. We are created in God's image. We have a capacity for love. There is no more satisfying or at times painful emotion.
He is beyond our imagination. Very complex, yet very simple. An ability to inspire the lives of so many for so long with the words in the Bible and the life of Jesus Christ. Narrowing his requirements for our reconciliation to a simple belief in a public display of his love. (Jesus)
I believe God does have emotion. The Bible says he is slow to anger. That means he does get angry. He loves us so much he counts the hair on our head (in the womb). That's pretty detail-oriented. I often wonder about the good and bad things that happen during the course of our lives. Did God make them happen or allow them to happen? I believe I have a choice, so I think God loves and gives me a choice. It is up to me to do the right thing. He leads to me to the right thing. My sinful nature leads me away. He welcomes me back with love and forgiveness. I look forward to a better understanding some day.

Answer 3

I believe in God. He's like anything else, you've got to experience Him to develop your own reality of what He is. Here's how I do it: think of how you met your best friend, that's God. Think about the steps involved with coagulating blood, that's God. Picture driving down the freeway and saying, "I need a Walgreens" and then in a half mile, seeing a sign for one at the next exit, that's God (this happened to my friend and I about a month ago - very good example). The beauty of it all is, it takes two to tango, He's there all the time, it's when you notice Him when you experience Him. In a couple of days when you choose who has the best answer to your question, was it Yahoo! that gave you your choice, or God? Did God give you your voice? Does God give you an ability to understand the blah blah blah people say with their voice? It's your choice.

Answer 4

well after much thought i do not believe in him. i am atheist. but i did consider him for a long time and this is what i came up with.
1) a time independent being who's only purpose is to guard the earth from final destruction
2) a evil devil like being who wrote the bible to keep us away from the truth that heaven is hell and hell is heaven
3) a dictator
4) a dimensional singularity
5) a being who sacrificed himself to create a universe
6) a guidebook for followers
7) and finally a way to describe things we could not yet comprehend. an idea that has no real basis and was put into writing. a figment of the human mind made to keep man from going crazy only making him crazier.

Answer 5

Energy, the Universe. He is all things, and in all things. No he is not self centered. I am not sure that he really wants us to "worship" him. He wants us to love him. Give him thanks. But you have to keep in mind that man wrote the bible not God himself. So I feel that the bible was written by man in order to control us humans with fear. God created us so we could grow and evolve into good people, and have a fulfilling spiritual life here on earth and also the hereafter. I totally believe in reincarnation, I wouldn't only want one chance to get it right, would you? I don't believe in hell, nor Satan. I believe in an all loving God. Who supports us in our short comings, and asks us to do it over to "fix" next life time.

Answer 6

I think that God is everything and there is nothing that God is not. He/she/it created us in order to experience itself. He/She cannot experience itself save through us. I believe he does not require anything from us because he/she/it needs nothing. If he/she/it is in fact everything, then he/she/it experiences everything. This is a version of God I read about in a book called "Conversations with God" and it makes more sense than the biblical version of a vengeful and judgmental god who loves us conditionally. So, until someone comes up with something better, I'll stick to accepting the "Conversations" version, although I am still an agnostic.

Answer 7

"Yes, God needs man. Condemned to eternal solitude, He made man only to use him as a toy, to amuse himself. That’s what philosophers and poets have refused to admit: In the beginning there was neither the Word nor Love, but laughter, the roaring, eternal laughter whose echoes are more deceitful than the mirages of the desert."

--Passage from The Accident, by Elie Wiesel

I think that sums it up. God needs man; man needs God. Without God we are nothing, without man, God is nothing.

Answer 8

God is Spirit. To know what God is really like, look at Jesus Christ. He was the visible manifestation of God.

First of all, we know that there is ONLY ONE GOD (Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Timothy 2:5, Isaiah 44:6).

Yet there is a plurality to God:
- "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26)
- "God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us" (Genesis 3:22).

Some would say that God could be speaking to the angels in these verses, but that's simply not correct. God was speaking to co-creator(s) in these verses. The Bible tells us that Jesus - not angels - created all things:

- "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:3
- "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him," Colossians 1:15-19.
- "but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." Hebrews 1:2

The Bible refers to each person of the triune God uniquely. There is God the Father ("Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead--", Galatians 1:1), God the Son (see John 1:1-18 and 5:18), and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, 3:11, 12:32, John 14:26).

In Luke 3:22, we find the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove upon Jesus, while God the Father spoke from Heaven. Three persons - but still just One God.

In John 14:10, Jesus said, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."

Answer 9

Imaginary

Answer 10

Umm nicely i trust interior the darkish God and Goddess, they dont quite care if I make blunders....as long as I dont reason damage to nature, which i'd under no circumstances do because i'm vegetarian and that i love the Earth =)