or God is like love... I assume you don't mean he's a subjective idea that only exists in your mind.... So what do you mean?
2007-10-26 03:23:42 · 30 answers · asked by Eleventy 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
ouch, I thought we were friends....
2007-10-26 03:27:30 · update #1
LOL @ Bebe's answer. That's how they feel about you, Eleventy, you sneaky atheist guy.
2007-10-26 03:27:12 · answer #1 · answered by Linz ♥ VT 4 · 5⤊ 5⤋
you know that calm quiet that you enjoy when you first wake up? or the serenity of sprinklers spinning around coupled with the squeels of the kids jumping through them? or the feeling of relief when you get home from work and lock your front door? or the little smile that crosses your face as you look at old photographs? or the feeling you have on payday when you look at your atm balance? or the peace you are experiencing right now as you surf the net (even with that nagging feeling that come with wasting time or looking at things youre not supposed to)? In all those things, God's presence which is Love...is evident. Whatever you deem peaceful, serene, happy, amusing, and even the things that seem absolutely chaotic and depraved that still have some semblance of hope for tomorrow or a 'this too shall pass' frame of mind to be clung to...is what God is Love...means to me. And all that, is without even getting into His Grace and Mercy in the Bible...
2007-10-26 10:40:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are mistaken to assume that.
God IS the 'subjective ideal' - WHAT you love - that only exists in your mind. The 'perfect goodness' that is abstract and unique to each person.
BUT, use of the word, God, also describes the POWER of creation/causality that is interent in that subjective ideal.
When you become unconflicted about it - it manifests in your experience of reality. You have become the CREATOR of it - the subjective ideal that you alone love.
2007-10-26 14:25:19 · answer #3 · answered by MysticMaze 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
So if God is love, then what is love?
Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride; Love's ways are ever fair, it takes no thought for itself; it is not quickly made angry, it takes no account of evil; It takes no pleasure in wrongdoing, but has joy in what is true; Love has the power of undergoing all things, having faith in all things, hoping all things. Though the prophet's word may come to an end, tongues come to nothing, and knowledge have no more value, love has no end. For our knowledge is only in part, and the prophet's word gives only a part of what is true: But when that which is complete is come, then that which is in part will be no longer necessary. When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child. For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me. But now we still have faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13: 4-13)
I hope that helps
2007-10-26 10:44:12 · answer #4 · answered by arewethereyet 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LOVE:
a (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.: the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration. this is one out of many meanings but they all mean pretty much the same thing how does it exist in your own mind as a subjective idea? When this is what it means
2007-10-26 10:31:58 · answer #5 · answered by mariposa 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"When subjectivity, inwardness is the truth, the truth becomes objectively a paradox; and the fact that truth is objectively a paradox shows in its turn that subjectivity is the truth…. The paradoxical character of the truth is its objective uncertainty. This uncertainty is the expression for passionate inwardness, and this passion is precisely the truth."
Not a religious answer nor an atheist ... there just is no answer to explain this question in the human language.
2007-10-26 10:32:11 · answer #6 · answered by Lord of the Rings 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that the nature of God is love.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
You cannot have true love for the unlovely, unless you have first received the love of God.
grace2u
2007-10-26 10:39:59 · answer #7 · answered by Theophilus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any idea of God that a human has is by nature a subjective idea in his mind.
God is eternal and humans are mortal and finite. What is important to remember is that our ideas about God and His love are subjective, but that the objective reality is there, and something we inch closer and closer to if we are living our lives the way Jesus taught us -- by loving each other and loving God.
2007-10-26 10:30:39 · answer #8 · answered by Acorn 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself. The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:18: “God is love.” God does not merely love; He is love itself. Everything God does flows from His love. But it is important to remember that God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental love such as we often hear portrayed. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (us!), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to do so, and He must be true to His nature and character.
2007-10-26 10:35:46 · answer #9 · answered by Freedom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my opinion... When I say that God is love, what I mean is this - I've read Jesus's teachings and they (for the most part) reflect a selfless expression of compassion for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. If Jesus is the embodiment of God, then the selfless expressions of compassion are the love I'm referring to.
When I perform a "Godly" act, thought, or say something in a Godly way, I am doing so with my heart in a loving way. When I say that God is love, I believe that we should be reacting to those around us in a way that exudes love to ourselves and to others....
For example, If I am wronged by someone (my ex comes to mind here) I have 2 choices - I can choose to react in a vengeful way - with vengence towards him (an act designed to hurt him) or vengeful towards myself (allowing myself to be hurt and angered by it) OR I can choose to react with Love - Accepting him for where he is without judgement and releasing the anger I feel, filling myself with an inner peace... I don't forgive him because there is nothing to forgive if I don't judge his actions as wrong. Being able to CHOOSE to react from a loving place gives me power over my emotions and helps me to maintain a positive outlook on life.
That doesn't mean I'm a doormat giveing selflessly to everyone... Sometimes, saying "no" is in your highest good as well...
To answer your question...is he "a subjective idea that only exists in your mind" I can see how that might be true...perhaps it is only in my mind...but it makes for a peaceful mind and that is enough for me.
2007-10-26 10:33:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."
The way that God is described here, as "love", is something that frankly we as humans cannot fathom. As much as we think we know about what we call love means nothing in comparison to how God loves us.
2007-10-26 10:30:42 · answer #11 · answered by lady_phoenix39 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋