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Re: Re: What makes God God? Or unmakes God?
I don't necessarily agree with omniscience conflicting with free will. But then I believe there is a difference between free will and free agency, and free will isn't necessarily a concept I believe in (dependent on the definition and meaning of "free will".)
I do agree that from Fist's post, God is responsible for sin. If sin is going against God's will, and God is responsible for it, God has either undone himself or is insane, by Fist's post.
If you mean "God" in the broadest sense...
As far as we're concerned: what makes God God is, and forever will be, the mysterium tremendum. God is literally unimaginable. That's what makes this God God.
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Re: Re: What makes God God? Or unmakes God?
If you are referencing the Christian God (an assumption I take from the phrase "this God") then I believe that John 4:22 refutes the idea that the Christian God is mysterium tremendum. Also, your statement leads to the fact that if an aspect of God is no longer an awesome mystery, that aspect is no longer God, if an aspect of God is no longer God, God is no longer God because he is no longer everything he was and is thus less than God.
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So, even you subscribe to the beliefs that you attack? The idea of God being a mystery was a result of Greek philosophy altering the original Christian teachings, it is an assumption originating in the incorrect Trinitarian Doctrine, and came about much later than even Paul who you also attack.
I wasn't sure what you had meant by God. That's why I wrote "in the broadest sense."
If you're still referring to the Christian God, your logic works for me. But if you refer to God as understood by (eg) the perennial philosophy: because this God is unimaginable, this God is ineffable. Words help to talk about this God, but ultimately, logic leads to paradox. One may accept paradox as proof this God does not exist, or one can see paradox as the limit of logic when applied to the unimaginable.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: What makes God God? Or unmakes God?
The thread is for any god believed to exist, prior to your post, the discussion had been on the Christian one. So, I apologize for my wrong assumption.
I have difficulty believing in an unimaginable deity, and would see the paradox as evidence of the absence of a God.
It also (supposedly) comes from meditation ("Enlightenment"), a technique going back thousands of years. It is a common idea? experience? in every mystical school of thought, Eastern or Western.
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Last edited by Mindship on Feb 11th, 2007 at 12:45 AM
Gender: Male Location: Drifting off around the bend
Yes, it probably also had roots in mysticism. I am unaware of documented material as to solidly supporting such though, the Christian concept of God being a mystery is documented solidly enough to state that the idea came from Greek philosophy.
Though I do believe that there are some truths in the bible about what god is, just that it has been so dissected that it almost isn't worth the time to figure out what is true and what is not.....I speak very much to god in my own way and I am happy with my view.
An example would be nirvikalpa samadhi, mentioned in the Indian/Hindu Vedas. This is the state of unknowable / unimaginable "nothingness" which is the source of all things.
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There where roots in the jewish mysticism(qabbalah), the greeks and hinduism. Those cultures were all interconected.
I agree with the interpretation of God being a mystery and undefinable. It is an elelegant answer, something undefinable is beyond everything, and is omnipotent. The problem is epistemological, you have to adopt a new epistemologic way to think.
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Last edited by Atlantis001 on Feb 12th, 2007 at 03:11 PM