A Working Definition of God

quote:

---

But the point in response to brennakimi was that since I am believing an established body of teaching about God, not an idea about God that I dreamed up on my own, and that since that teaching includes that He is a God who communicates with his followers and desires that His followers may know him, it is not arrogant of me to claim to know him.

---

Do you think your environment had anything to do with that? When did you decide that you were hearing the Word of God?I assume it was a very young age, as most Christians do. It seems that rather than coming to a point and finding God, most Christians are raised with a knowledge of God from a young age. Through their parents, media, or what have you.If you were raised in Japan, would we be having an entirely different conversation right now? Would God have found you regardless? I doubt such a God would be bound by geography.My point is, if God is God, why is he bound by geography and human society? Shouldn't he be finding people and touching their lives regardless of other Christian interaction?Where is the lone African tribesman that God speaks to in the middle of nowhere?It's always Christians in Christian-based societies.

You said "...not an idea about God that I dreamed up on my own..." and I'm suggesting that you did not dream it up on your own. Rather, the society, your surroundings, teachings, etc. have implanted a view of the Word of God before you decided that you were actually hearing the Word of God and had a personal connection with Him.Your definition of who/what God is would be dependent on what area of the planet you were raised in and what the culture was like. Otherwise, we would not see the kind of geographic boundaries in religion that we see.Certainly God is able to speak to anyone anywhere on the planet.

quote:

---

we can interpret ad infinitim without ever having to touch down to reality.

---

And that's your opinion of... science?!If that's not a spot on definition of religion and coming up with a definition of God, I don't know what is.

Let's grant this concept of God (for the moment). Now you might still think that to answer whether God exists, we should get clearer on what we mean by exists. First, let's note the difference between existing in reality and existing "in the understanding" or "in the mind."Obviously, the issue before us is not whether God exists in the mind...whether some people have an idea of God. Many people do (or seem to). The question is whether the concept they have--the idea that they associate with the term "God"--is real in the world external to the mind.The OP is looking for a definition of God in the external world. "God is love" doesn't help us because love only exists in the mind. We can't observe "love energy" flying through the air attracting people.

quote:

---

Science is TOO LATE, the bible is the truth of the ages, that tells us the truth millenia before naturalistic input.

---

That doesn't really make any sense (to me, anyway). Are you saying that in your world the first theory is right? Does that also make the Earth flat and the Sun revolving around us? Not only biblical but also hundreds of scientific theories are hypothesized and proven wrong by new more accurate science. To say that because the bible was written before modern science started exploring these questions and therefore it is right... does that make sense to you?

Keep in mind that existence is not a property of something that can be used to describe it.The "definitions" given so far are problematic because of this. If we assume that God does exist, and I don't believe this thread is necessarily suggesting that it does not, that does not further any resolutions toward a definition.Debating the existence of God in this thread isn't really necessary since it doesn't contribute to the goal, in my opinion.