Do you belive that God exists in trees, rocks, water? Is that Pantheism?

Question

Does God have a face to you? Is it he or she, or it? Or, like the AA belief in a "higher power" is God a force outside ourselves, benevelent and wise, indefinable, that controls? Or, are we just humans at sea, alone with no light to guide? What makes some of us have a conscience? Why don't some people? What is Grace?

Answer 1

Everyone understands there is a higher power. They may not believe in a 'god' per se. I view the example as that basically is the foundation of pantheism.I do not believe God has a face, or that mankind can interpret Gods' meaning. I do understand that most religions are a way to control anarchy, it makes perfect sense. Just remember that with all rumors lies a bit of truth. The Bible is full of real circumstances. You may choose to think it is the word of God, and my argument would be why do believe the men that wrote the Bible are any more trustworthy than the Priests, Preachers, Reverends, Popes and Prophets of today? I think that we all must find the truth in the world, the truth that makes ourselves feel we do the right things. Good luck!

Answer 2

Bad combination: I've been drinking and I'm about to try to explain my concept of God. Oy.

Okay. I believe that nothing is "supernatural." God is natural, therefore bound by natural law - the laws of physics, biology, etc.

We are made of mostly empty space. Solidity is an illusion. We are made of atoms vibrating and doing their atom-thing. So my question is "what fills the empty space?" I thin God fills it.

So HOW does God fill an "empty space" and still remain a physical being? I believe God is a subatomic network of sorts. This would explain everything from ESP and "ghost" sightings to twinned photons (light particles formed in the same instant that travel off in opposite directions but still react to each other - thus suggesting that however they are "communicating" is traveling at twice the speed of light).

As for the question of conscience, I tend to look at this God-network as a unifying force - something that unites the entire universe as a single entity. I use the metaphor of a human body. If the God-network is the brain, the rest of the universe is the body. I might be a heart cell, you might be a liver cell, and seung-hui cho over there might be a cancer cell. or maybe he's an antibody, killing cancer cells. Not that the victims were "evil", but maybe the whole was somehow served by their loss. maybe seung-hui was a fgingernail to some itchy skin cells. my point is that we don't know. we don't know what our purposes are or how the god-network might chose to initiate contact with us. It might reach us through a bible or koran or through a televangelist or a sunset. but what ever it does, I probably don't have the wide perspective to understand it.

so.. um... yeah. god is in the rocks and trees. or, more specifically, in the empty space of the rocks and trees.

Answer 3

I believe that spirit and energy live in trees, rocks, water. Some people call that spirit God. Therefore, for me, "god" has many faces. I don't think there is some controlling force exactly, but more like a force that works in all of us. As for needing a guide, we are the guide. Hopefully, as people experience life they learn ...and in time grow to be kind, graceful etc... grow a conscience. Some people take a long time to grow one...perhaps more than one lifetime. Grace is living in a state of love.

Answer 4

Christian theism says that God is omnipresent (present everywhere) but that he is distinct in essence from his creation. Animistic religions believe inanimate objects can have spirits that may be considered gods. Pantheism asserts that all is god and god is all. Some pantheists accept distinct manifestations of this "god" such as the Hindu avatars.

God is personal. An impersonal force could not cause persons.

He is sovereign but this is a complex subject and the free will of man is not negated by this.

All people have a conscience but some have "callouses" on theirs from continued abuse (the Bible calls these consciences "seared").

Grace is the undeserved favorable activity of God. The most important manifestation of grace is the free salvation God offers to those who have faith in Christ as their savior.

Answer 5

God’s word tells us that He is self-existing and ever-existing. In eternity past God was there. At a certain point he made a decision to create man. God’s desire was to have this man express Him in His image and represent Him with His authority earth (Gen 1:26-28) The bible tell us in the very first page of Genesis that God’s creation of man was different from His creation of all other things. He created man in His own image. Let us illustrate this matter by using a glove. A person’s hand cannot fit into a handkerchief because it does not have the image or form of the hand. Because the glove is in the image, the likeness, and the form of a hand, it is able to contain the hand. A glove is made in the form of a hand for the purpose of containing the hand. In the same way, the human life was created according to the image of God so that God could dispense Himself as the divine life into the human life. Man was created not only to express God but also to be God’s representative authority. The unique way for man to express God and represent God is to receive God as his life that man may become a counterpart of God. Man was created with the capacity to receive and contain God’s divine life. All of man’s human virtues, such as love, honor, and goodness, were created by God so that man may have God’s live and live out the divine attributes

Answer 6

Wow, that's a lot of good questions!

I think that the influence of the gods can be seen in tree, rocks water nature etc etc etc. I wouldn't call that itself pantheistic but I'm happy to live in that corner.

I believe in my patron goddess and her pantheon as my symbols of Deity but I wouldn't presume to say that it's "the one right way" or anything of that. For me Deity is the higher power who intervenes directly only on occasion but it watching out for us. Deity has an inherent michevious side and maybe a non-good side too. I do not believe that Deity controls us.

As for a conscience I think that everyone has one and that some people choose not to acknoweldge it. With training one could probably learn to ignore it completely.

To me grace is the compassion and desire to become more than we are now.

Answer 7

You are correct Pantheism. I know Jesus as a friend. I have a relationship with Him. It is by His grace that I am saved. His love for me (and anyone else who will believe) is why He died on the cross. All have a conscience, but sin helps suppress it, so some no longer hear it or pay attention to it.

Answer 8

Pantheism (Greek: πάν ( 'pan' ) = all and θεός ( 'theos' ) = God) literally means "God is All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent abstract God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence, and the universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of an abstract 'god'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism

Answer 9

1. Yes Jesus. One of his forms is human.
2. Jesus is a He. God the Father is a he. I believe the Holy Spirit is a genderless person.
3. Not "or" more like "and" Yup Yup Yup
4. If you refuse to believe then yes you will eventually be alone with no light.
5. The conviction of the Holy Spirit.
6. Blaspheme and building up a tolerance to the Holy Spirit.
7. Grace is "G"ods "R"iches "A"t "C"hrist "E"xpense

Answer 10

I do believe that God exists in everything. God is not only create and also he become what he creates. There is nothing which is not God. Some may call God is energy. But I like to personify God as the one who has supreme kindness and love.