|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:39 pm
As an Atheist myself, deities are not 'real' to me in the truest sense of the word. However, as they activly influence the lives of humans more than any human ever could, they become real. People rarely give the same exact definition of a deity, because (seeing as how most deities are rarely/never seen by modern humans and cannot exist for us concretly) they are real only through how they affect you. Each person is affected differently, so it varies.
I personaly see deities as different sets of specific morales that everyone should atleast study and try to learn from regardless of whether they believe it.
...Unfourtunatly, the people who need a lesson in morality tend to be the people who think they can't learn from religion without being converted, but that is a whole different dissusion. xd
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:30 pm
I don't really think a deity needs to be concious that it has created a universe/part of a universe. I think all that a "god" needs to be able to do is create information and perhaps change it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 3:47 pm
A God is a man's way of explaining things he can't yet explain. In that sense, the "soul" may even be a God, as a religious physicist (cannot remember his name) couldn't find a way to make religion apart of mathematical truths, so he invented the soul.
For me, I see God in a similar way to Santa: A good story to tell children; an exaggerated myth; something to quit believing in after nine or ten.
I couldn't tell you what a "deity" is to me, in the sense you want, because I can't fathom what Christians/theists of all sorts see, because it's too... Erm, asinine, I suppose, for me to grasp.
If there were a deity, he couldn't be infinite, as nothing infinite would sustain itself. He couldn't be a he or a she, because something perfect isn't only half of a whole. He wouldn't have created humanity, because he wouldn't have needed to share his love, for he would be perfect, and complete. He also wouldn't drown people, condone murder, rape, slavery, pillaging, and cruel and unusual punishment. Also, he wouldn't have a poop fetish.
"I will destroy your seed and spread dung upon your faces."-Mala 2:3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:43 am
Starlock One of the things that endlessly bothers me about the term "atheist" is a technicality that makes it an essentially meaningless term. Atheism we can casually define as lack of belief or active disbelief in deities. However, this only begs another question: What is a deity? What are its characteristics? What makes something a deity and what makes something NOT a deity? Global ideologies (religions or philosophies) answer this question in very different ways, so by telling me you're atheist, you essentially are telling me... nothing! Unless of course I make some assumptions based on the more common ways of seeing the divine in whatever country you happen to be culturally immersed in. So here's my challenge. How do YOU define the divine? What SPECIFIC kind of divine-concept or concepts do you lack belief in? Supernatural ones? Transcendent ones? What? If you're confused as to why this is such an issue for me, consider how I view the divine. I'll mark something as divine it if it beautiful, sacred, special, or magical/awe inspiring in some way. I find this to be a characteristic of the entire universe, so you could call me a pantheist. I see the divine as synonymous with the universe. So when an atheist says to me "I don't believe in the divine" to someone like me, that is like saying "I don't believe there is anything beautiful, special, or sacred about the entire universe; in fact, I don't believe the universe even exists!" Obviously pretty absurd, and obviously not what you guys mean, huh? well, atheism is a rejection of others claims of what a deity is. so to ask this question really just doesn't make seance. Also, to say the "the divine as synonymous with the universe" is like saying "everything that exist is my god" which is just as silly as saying you don't believe the universe exist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 4:28 pm
Starlock What is a deity? What are its characteristics? What makes something a deity and what makes something NOT a deity? The deity that is most often discussed/most popular is the Christian/Catholic/Jewish/Islamic/etc god, so I stem my idea of what a God is considered to be on how people represent Him. All-knowing, omnipotent being that is in everything and is infinite, something that defies creation yet creates everything. He is in Himself a contradiction: Just but cruel, loving yet jealous, creates a place of forever torment yet states that he loves all his children and would never want you to go there... So if I were to believe in one, what would my expectations be? Perhaps concepts like good lives for good people, ACTUAL karma, and prayer having a better odds than not praying. If this God exists he's a maniacal dillweed. There are other God concepts that are less dispiriting, but it still means an inactive god. Or aliens. Whether or not one or many exist is trivial. There is no tangible or empirical evidence of one. I'm under the belief that God is early science, a hypothesis that the unexplained arrived because of magic. We are slowly moving away from that. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 10:50 am
I think to answer your questions while also explaining the sensibility to the term and why people categorize themselves will be a bit simple...
The way I see a deity or god portrayed is usually in the very easy, common thought that most people see it as:
A great force that has self-awareness.
Why exactly does a force which made everything need to have the ability of self-awareness, an understanding of life and itself? A form of understanding nothing else but it has?
That's usually the reason behind it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
