The concept of God is ambiguous. Some think of God as a man in the clouds with a beard ( a rather infantile conception ). Others view God as a mere metaphor for the Universe. And then there are those that view God as being the ultimate, undifferentiated reality.
The most mature conception of God, in my opinion, is the latter. God as the ultimate, the undifferentiated, the Absolute ( Near Absolute? ). In the school of Advaita Vedanta, God or " Brahman " is viewed as such.
The Singularity ( Big Bang ) is the theorized initial state of the universe, a state of, essentially, Absolute order. So what happened? Did God commit suicide? Will God return to order? Or will God forever unravel into eternal chaos?
How about any god as just a more evolved species that continues to evolve? A being that is beyond a need for a physical body, pure sentient energy.
Would not such a being strive to influence species from many planets to evolve so? The individual would be secondary to the species under such a project. Religious texts apply to ancient humans more than present humans.
So you decide to call this idea “god”. So what? What work does this theory do? What’s the point.
Can we all go home now and get on with our lives? What difference does it make, and who cares?
Does it make any difference to call “everything” god? Can god answer back?
Do you think this contributes to anything whatever?
Doesn’t evolution and the heat death of the Universe just go on regardless; determined; unintentional; unlimited; careless; indifferent?
Do you want me to number the questions, or will you refuse to answer them like all Theists?
You asked me the same question, essentially, just in various forms, multiple times.
It can make a difference depending upon the individual. If you are one who disdains any form of spirituality, then this idea of ‘God’ is immaterial, nothing. If you are one seeking a mature, practical form of spirituality, then it’s useful - it can alter your perceptions - make you feel more in tune with nature and the cosmos.
A god ≡ who/whatever incontestably determines what can or cannot exist concerning a particular situation. The God ≡ Who/Whatever incontestably determines All that can or cannot exist concerning any situation.
Any other concept of God is subservient the THE God.
The concept of god is not merely ambiguous, it is the ultimate ambiguity infinitely more impervious to any kind of rationalization than any Grand Unified Field theory which may also never be discovered only hypothesized but with reason.
So I’m with Lev on this one. Who cares and get on with it. One doesn’t give life value by constantly speculating until doomsday (when you won’t know more than when you started) on some subsumed undifferentiated entity which is only premised in our minds and then speculated upon.
Even if we did manage to correctly encode and explain the very fundamentals for the whole of existence we’d still be asking the same nonsensical questions. “Nonsensical” because what resides in pure speculation and no where else can never have a resolution except to throw it into the waste paper basket.
This subject, just as that of the Unified Field Theory and the Grand Unified Theory are for analytical, thinking people. Such theories are pointless to the general masses just as are other scientific theories. Who cares why they detect CBR? Who really cares what happened 14.7 billion years ago? Who cares what really causes cancer?
Those subjects are only important to people who have a chance to use them in some practical way. And unfortunately, that doesn’t include 99.9% of the population.
But there is still a good reason to come to know the truth of it. By finally getting it straight in your mind, you know better who to vote for, who is lying (intentionally or not). And when it comes to intentionally organizing ones life, one can better deal with the chaos if he understands certain basic, not too terribly complicated fundamental behaviors of all things (ref: GUT).
The real issue in religion isn’t really who is right or wrong as much as to whom to yield authority. The Catholic Church would rather you yield authority to them. The new Secular religion would rather you yield authority only to them. Thus there is a competition for belief as to who is “really right” even though in reality, none of them are. So people are left in conflict, still struggling and dying in the same ole ways.
After I first discovered the real meaning and existence of “God”, my very next question was, “Okay, now what?” Knowing that God exists, buys you almost nothing these days because no one is really representing that God anyway. Some come much closer than others, but how can you personally tell one from the other? You personally can’t simply because a big part of the game is to keep people confused so that certain other people can take advantage of their confusion and get literally rich as well as wealthy.
But still, what else do you have to do if not busy conducting what you think is already the “right thing to do”? You consider the possibilities of what might be right or how wrong your current actions might be. But of course, 99.9% will still get that wrong.
Wisdom is far more relevant, although related, than knowledge. Knowing that there is a God is not in itself wisdom. But finding out what can be done with such knowledge leads to wisdom.
So the question then arises, what is the purpose or function of wisdom?
Ultimately every word is a name for something and all named things function to a purpose and have specific characteristics.
What are the characteristics of wisdom (defining features) and what is the function (purpose) of wisdom?
What is wisdom without purpose (if such a thing can exist)?
You asked the same question, in essence, various times in multiple forms. Not all information has practical applications, but we are philosophers, are we not? There are myriads of things in philosophy that could be considered pointless to discuss, yet we discuss them anyways, e.g., Parallel universe theory, aliens existing on other planets, etc.
But I do believe there is some practical application to my topic; this theistic framework, for me and many others, makes us feel more in tune with nature and the cosmos. It has a sort of capability to heighten your awareness, thus giving rise to novelty of thought.
Interesting! But where would the energy have come from to finally create a Unified Theory and why if we now have one, the so-called holy grail of particle physics and cosmology, haven’t we heard of it being the greatest discovery of all time!