Everything, but it has agency and consciousness.
A definition of God ought to include the notion of maximal greatness. plato.stanford.edu/entries/concepts-god/ Otherwise, one would seem to be holding to be “God” that which is not.
Are you aware of what just happened over in Afghanastan? The Koran was burned by US soldiers , a complete act of stupidity. Now violence. You cannot destroy a religion without war of somesort. Beliefs are not something we give up lightly. Gods are a part of the person’s soul, a part of what makes them unique, what makes them get up in the morning. To try and remove it is viewed as an assault. You may as well stab or beat the person or e ven kill them outright. Gods are a part of a person just as family is. Preach peace not removal of gods, preach acceptance not falseness. accept that gods are real to the people in question and then work for peace.
actually i agree with you except for one thing…
we should not preach…we should be peaceful and accepting…do you show acceptance of my belief in a real god…
How can you teach without preach? One must speak to teach others even if its just a tiny kernel of an idea. Yes I accept your belief in a real God, I accept it as your belief and I respect it. That is your belief in a very sacred thing. But should it be mine? should you throw my beliefs in the trash and insult mine? For you that God exists for me maybe not. I actually am more closely bound to the idea of multiple entities having vested interests in this and other worlds. That makes the most logical sense to me.
teaching is tricky as you know…what do you think about teaching by attraction not persuasion???and how about teaching by discussion not lecture???
I think aseity should be an essential component of a definition of God. Aseity means self-subsisting. God should be independent of all other existence. The ground of being should be in God itself.
good post…helps to clarify…
would aseity mean first cause and supernatural?
would god be a singularity???
turtle–
Not necessarily. The notion of first cause turns out to be an artifact of our tendency to think in terms of causes that explains nothing. On one hand,supernatural pre-supposes knowledge of the limits of the natural which we don’t. On the other hand it implies miracles and magic which are incompatible with logic and empirical evidence. In short, it is an intellectual dead end.
Singularity is a physics concept. It would be misleading to apply it to the concept of God as anything more than an analogy. It doesn’t square with the traditional notion that God created the universe out of nothing. That idea is, of course. impossible to understand. The idea of a singularity does remind me of the theological idea that God must be utterly simple. But as for explaining how that could be…it doesn’t.
If it is to you, then I’d say that you’re in trouble. 
But then I might just say that a Reese’s peanut butter cup to me is beyond description but I could still somewhat describe it. 
Uh oh, that’s the god that many already believe in/see, turtle…the one which we call the ‘puppeteer’.
I rather like this below definition for god…although I’m agnostic… 
“God is the mysterium tremendum that appears and overthrows, but he is also the mystery of the self-evident, nearer to me than my I.”
Martin Buber
The above is the god that I may at times intuit/experience (while at the same time ??? dance around in my head). I have a suspicion that for you it is the same…but I may be wrong.
I think one suit does not fit all, yours will work for some, mine will wok for others. I have learned that many need preaching to learn. Also observe how people congregate in order to listen to one. If such a peaceful method so obviously works for great numbers why fix it or deny it?
Peaceful and accepting even if human beings are being harmed, turtle?
To many … drugs, sex, food, alcohol, the internet - in their unawareness, these addictions are their real god.
Do we simply show acceptance of these gods people hold to be real…peacefully and in an accepting way… or do we try to give them light, show them where their beliefs are in error? Not by preaching - not by persuading or manipulating or talking at them but by communing with them, trying to understand and by helping them to understand how their gods appeared and affect their lives…
Perhaps the only effective way to bring on the god who is real is by human presence. Is there a god who resides within waiting in the wings to be called forth?
why is a god that is not pleasant to some called false? Seems to me that a size 8 shoe just won’t fit everyone. Why not attain peace by accepting all beliefs in everyone’s religion and beliefs? Well unless they happen to have a God that wants them to kill others. that one should be removed.
when i say real god i am not talking about anything supernatural…
Well, I look on gravity or quantum physics or evolution as something supernatural.
Are you speaking of these sorts of things?
For me, a supposed real god would have to go way beyond the natural into the realm of the other. Or why bother using the word ‘god’…
one of the REAL things that we have forgotten-----
the part of our nature that wants to love others and live in peace…that seems to be part of human nature…we are needing to take control of that and
forge ahead…to look to some divine being looking out for us, we will not do the job…we do it or it has no chance of being done…we depend too much on a super personal god…i cannot believe that a jc god would be planning our downfall…i dont believe in a cruel god…we have a loving god inside of us we just dont know it…
Hey Kristy 
The god which speaks to us within may not be very pleasant IF we are to see the reality of our lives and transform them. That god may be a really loving one.
But if the gods which we believe in slowly and utterly destroy us - the gods of drugs, alcohol, sex, etcetera - which we worship despite how destructively suicidal they are - those gods are first to be called false if we are to eliminate them from our lives.
It seems to me that those gods are the size 4 shoes which many try to shove their size 9 feet into - those feet which must help keep us grounded as we walk our journey.
little reptile…
Yes, but you forgot the part of having the desire to ALSO be loved…that too is a part of our evolving nature.
Sometimes it is more difficult to allow ourselves to be loved in the right way. They go hand in hand - if we are incapable of reaching out for and surrendering to love, we are incapable of loving - in the correct way.
I wouldn’t use the phrase ‘take control’ here. The kind of love which the world needs does not control - it’s spirit lives freely and allows others freedom.
Agreed. We all have that inner child who needs to ‘grow up’!
But I don’t think that we fully understand that the only way to come to some kind of a god, whether truly real or simply as Something which we feel and relate to lovingly and meaningfully is by reaching out to one another. We can’t ‘know’ god if we don’t know our fellowman.
Little reptile, the god which we all tend to believe in is the god which is projected from our inside…outward.
Would a creator wish to destroy its creations? No, unless the god within did not see and know itself for what it is.
We tend to believe in a super personal god because what we see around us does not teach us that we are all - all that we have. But perhaps if we began to ‘see’ in this way, the god who really is (if there is one) would suddenly appear and there would be light greater than a zillion suns - but we would not be blinded nor burned. Okay, I’m finished rambling…