Philosophical attributes of God

Is God a person? Does He/She/It exist? More questions about God…

I’m not personally invested in believing in a personal God. For me God is something impersonal, all encompassing and in everything, not male, not female, more of an IT. But what do YOU think? On this page I have gathered the best answers people gave to such questions over the years. At the bottom you can add your own opinion.

This is a religious debate with room for all points of view. In the context of this debate I do not think it matters much what religion one subscribes to as religious philosophers of say Christianity, Islam and Judaism pretty much agree that god is ineffable anyhow. In other words: though this has hardly been translated into popular conceptions of religion, on purely philosophical grounds God is not necessarily male.

After all: what would it mean for God to be male? To think of Him as having a certain appendage for instance is hardly part of the monotheistic religious tradition. While such images do occur in Hinduism, we are, in that tradition met with female images of the divine almost equally.

Do you believe in God? – Any God? or none at all…

Yes, there is something divine…

Yeah, I know there is. I don’t go to mass and I’ve never really read the bible but, I know. Every time I look at the stars, hear the right song at the perfect moment or see my Sarah smile, I see a piece, an atom of God, shining through all the gloom. It may sound corny or stupid to some but that doesn’t matter, I’m happy with what I believe. 🙂

P.S. I always refer to ‘him’ as ‘him/he’, even though I believe God is more abstract, maybe just light and love.

I Believe in The Source that created all beyond Matter, Time, and Space. We can call this Source God, Alah, Ra, The Great Spirit, The Higher Being, etc. It is the same Creator or Creation, or “Source.” He is alive, and purposely created our Universe. From where everything came to be, even humans. And We are All ONE… In the Source. We can connect to this source on Earth through Enlightenment. He can manifest in any form of human of any race, or in animals. You can also simply call it the Divine. I personally believe that weather you believe in a God or not, we already believe in Love, and can define God as Love itself… Love is God, God is Love. Different Word, same meaning. I don’t believe God is a Man Standing in the Sky, or a Single Being. I believe He is BEING itself… All that was, is, and is yet to come. Although I personally don’t think he is a “man” or “single human” in space, He Can Be. Nothing is Impossible to him. But regardless of what we believe, LOVE is the the it. Unconditional Love is what he cares for. Weather we believe in God (Love) or not. We would be happier if we all Loved Unconditionally. So Love unconditionally. No need to believe in a God. Simply Believe in Love. No, not believe, Simply BECOME LOVE ITSELF…

Jesus Ramon Pina~~

I know there is a God, but I don’t know if God is He or She, or even if there are more than one, Gods. I “think” based on my personal experience, relationship with God, and the many religions I’ve studies and participated in, that the latter is the answer, THEY, more than one God. It’s a great big universe out there.

God cannot be a person to retain the characteristics of God…omnipresent, omniscient, etc. My God (Omniverse) is all encompassing but also throughout. God or the Source becomes highly personal because it is a part of each of us. It surrounds, runs throughout….some say god experiences humanity through our eyes. God is inside each molecule and cell of your physical system as well as all aspects. Always as close as your own blood, thoughts, and breath.

God is not a man or a woman. There is no need for an all powerful being to limit itself as one entity let alone one gender. I don’t believe in a Zeus or Magician God…i.e. The Christian God. There is and has to be a Source of some kind….it is the all encompassing energetic system that some call the Zero Point Field or the Quantum Field Theory or the Planck level. It is beyond that. It is what the physicist Amit Goswami, Ph.D. calls “quantum consciousness” a non-duality.

No, there is no God of any kind

I’m with the Greeks – belief is an inferior form of knowledge – but I think faith is something different, more like a form of extreme optimism rather than an inflexible metaphysical position. But that doesn’t mean that I believe that there isn’t a God anymore than belive there is. And I also passionately believe than through philosophy and practical experimentation such as prayer and meditation you can be spiritual without sacrificing reason or skepticism.

Well, since the beginning of humanity god has just been what we fill in the gaps of our own lack of knowledge. Zeus filled the gap of “what causes lightning”, for instance. But as science advanced more and more gaps are being filled by natural explanations, leaving god unemployed.

I once believed that a Deist god that created life and the universe existed, but it didn’t care or meddle with our puny human lives. However, as I said before, the origin of life and the universe are probably explained by natural causes we don’t yet understand. Also, I have no scientific evidence to believe in a Deist or Pantheist or Panentheist god so… that leaves me at the default position: Atheism.

What’s the most important thing about God? – What’s the essence of this religious debate?

  • 39% His relationship with me/humanity
  • 14% His ability to create
  • 25% His Love for mankind
  • 21% His promise for salvation in the future

28 people voted in this poll.

So, how do YOU see God? – What’s your religious view on God?

God is a concept by which we measure our pain. As the late great J. Lennon said. Or if u like, if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. So boys and girls grow up, there is no self to withstand death ur all just shadows that briefly appear then are NO more. So get over yourselves. Who the hell wants to live forever anyway?

I see god as a concept humanity invented to explain that which we do not understand, like “How did life emerge?”, “How did the universe come to be, and WHY” and “What happens to our consciousness after we die?”

God is just a concept. An idea. And also an idea that will die once science can tell us how did life and the universe definitely originated, and what happens after we die (hint: nothingness).

This could be a matter of semantics to most people. If one defines God as the energy driving the universe, then that should be enough of a common denominator to satisfy scientists, philosophers, and religious followers alike. No individual school of thought has yet come up with complete definitions for abstract concepts like creation, infinity, the universe, the meaning of human sentience, afterlife, etc. Having said that, I am quite accepting of ideas which resulting from logical empiricism, and am less accepting of ideas which have evolved as doctrine from historical tradition which often have little in the way of tangible substantiation. Keeping an open mind is everything when dealing with this subject.

I think God is the Universal intelligence of which we are all a part.

“God” is a limiting name that conjures images of Zeus. I called God, the Universe but even that was limited. I then started to call the Source, “Omniverse.” it is pure consciousness, the highest, most powerful energy frequency. All of existence is comprised of energy. All of existence is proof or evidence of the Source. The Omniverse does not have any anthropomorphic characteristics. If it did, it would no longer be the Source.

God Almighty termed Brahman in Hinduism… is one and only one! It is also termed Karta, Sanatana Purusha, Bhagwan, Parmatman and Ishwar in Hinduism! As per Hinduism only God Almighty exists in cosmic system… rest all is illusion (veil of Maya)! God Almighty is beyond comprehension of most human beings… the combined power of all purified souls atmans in cosmos at a given moment of time!

Only when human beings gained enlightenment… concept of God Almighty became clear in totality… never before! As per Hinduism God is Nirakaar in form (having no form)! Religionists in Hinduism worship and pray to God… but to see and meet God in this very life we have to travel path of spirituality… path of jnana yoga (absolute wisdom)! 700 shlokas verses contained in Bhagavad Gita suffice for human beings reaching stage of enlightenment and finally God!

I see god as the idealized and perfected state of the universe, the ultimate goal and fulfillment of all things. Therefore although from the trans-temporal spiritual universe god exists and has always existed (at the start of the universe as the ‘final cause’, just as the tree is the final cause which guides and regulates the development of a seed – see Categories of Causation for more on final cause), from the material universe god exists only as a potential, a desire and a direction of evolution which is inherent in all things and which can be embraced and expressed or ignored and defiled.

I do not believe in the personified image of God as some kind of entity or being.

At least that’s what think sometimes. Other times I think he’s just a good excuse for a fight!

On the Gender of God

Does God have a sexual identity?

Each of the arguments in this page could equally well be made for a female or impersonal God.

Personally I tend to believe that if there is a personal God who lives up to all the qualities mentioned in this lens, She must be female or gender-neutral. After all: giving birth is a female attribute. The female needs the male to do it – so God could also be gender-neutral: be both at once.

  • 7% God is male
  • 7% God is female
  • 87% God is something else (hermaphrodite, beyond sex, something)

46 people have voted in this poll.

Attributes of God – the official list (sort of)

The standard Christian religious view of God

Usually God is seen in the Christian tradition (as well as the Muslim one) as having the following attributes – which are basically ways of saying God is Perfect.

  • All knowing = omniscient
  • All powerful
  • Independent of His creatures
  • Infinity
  • Simplicity (not composed of several parts, can’t be divided up)
  • All wise
  • All Good
  • Loving
  • Morally perfect
  • Righteousness: abides by the perfect laws he created
  • faithfulness: He keeps His promises
  • sovereignty: sovereign will and sovereign power

Source of all these

Does God have a body? Does He know what it feels like to touch someone?

  • 35% No, that’s a way too materialistic way to look at God.
  • 41% No, God doesn’t have a body, but he feels what we feel, so He knows what it feels like to touch someone.
  • 12% Yes, God has a body and knows what it feels like to touch someone.
  • 12% No, God doesn’t have a body, and NO, He doesn’t know what it feels like to touch someone.

17 people voted in this poll.

Does God belong to a specific religion?

  • 7% Yes, Christianity
  • 0% Yes, Judaism
  • 0% Yes, Islam
  • 0% Yes, another religion
  • 56% No, God is the source of everything, including all religions
  • 37% No, God is just God

27 people have voted in this poll.
God is a person?

If there is a source to everything, it could be a person: a creator, an artist, something like that. If God is a person, that implies choice, consciousness, awareness perhaps.

But that source could also be impersonal, beyond the limitations that personality bring. Can God be a person without having a body? Does God have a body?Perhaps the ultimate source of all being is beyond the conceptions of ‘person’ or ‘impersonal’?

Philosophy of Religion, John Hick – referred to so often in my philosophy of religion class, I have to read it.

The eternity of God – does IT know what time it is?

God is eternal and changeless. So say the classic philosophers of religion. But if He is, is he IN TIME, responding to our needs? Or is She perhaps BEYOND time, timeless, perfect ‘from a distance’?

Does God know what time it is?

Yes, She knows everything.

She is beyond time but She is everything. Hence She knows everything.

No, She is beyond time.

God Almighty is beyond capture of time! A cluster of pure primordial energy manifest all over cosmos… God Almighty manifests in human beings as our soul atman… the spirit within! The measure of time is primarily governed by speed of light! Higher than speed of light exist thought waves that travel at much higher speeds than speed of light!

Seekers of spirituality… seekers of God reach God Almighty by establishing absolute control over thought waves! When human beings reached stage of Nirvikalpa Samadhi… the stage of nothingness… one is said to have gained enlightenment… reached God! The measure of time is necessitated by human beings to live physical manifest phase of life in a meaningful manner!

Beyond that… there is no other requirement of time! For a soul atman… our true inner self… the spirit within… measure of time has no value… no meaning! In its lifetime every soul atman covers a journey of 8.4 million manifestations that requires an earthly journey of 96.4 million years of which 12.4 million years are covered in human form!

Time is just a manifestation of humanities physical brain cycle. Once the body stops time as we know it ceases to exist.

The Goodness of God – what about evil?

Goodness is one of the most important attributes of God. Only a perfectly Good God is worth worshiping, after all…

Well, that’s not true in all religions. Powerful gods who aren’t Good can also be worshiped, to increase the chances of them doing good…

Still, the God of Christianity, Islam and Judaism is assumed to be Good. Perfect. All powerful.

This leads to the classic question: what about evil? How can an all powerful God allow evil? This ties in with the freedom of choice debate: perhaps a Good God would give us freedom of choice, accepting the existence of evil as a side-effect…

How can an all powerful God allow evil?

I don’t know, it’s a real problem for me.

This is the biggest problem with the 3 “main religions” of the world. In terms of Christianity and Judaism, the modern day followers of these religions always seem to be idealizing their God and not seeing his “faults.” Within the opening chapters of Genesis (of the Old Testament) God himself makes it know that he is both good and evil, light and darkness. Yet, in light of this followers of these religions still act as if God is only good. There is a dualism between God and Satan that needs to be knocked down, and inadvertently combine both of these entities into one. Why? If God is all powerful, he must have created those who existed around him before humanity (including Satan). If he created a being such as Satan, than God must inadvertently take on all the traits capable of such a being (in order to be an all knowing, all everything God). If God created evil (perhaps in the most innate form as Satan), than God must inadvertently be a creation of himself reincarnated as an evil being in order to contrast his “good” side from “evil” side.

For me this issue is one of the reasons I don’t believe in a God that’s all powerful and the essence of Good. Evil is clearly, in our daily lives, a matter of people mistreating people. There is no evidence that there is a God interfering, and there is a lot of evidence that interference might just be a GOOD idea.

God has a good reason for allowing evil

What you think evil maybe not evil for others. Its a perception. And it is necessary for the balance of universe. If you need to experience good you should know what evil is. Evil is there just to remind you how great being good is.

There is no such thing as evil or good. simply darker energies than others. God is made of both but has balanced them perfectly. He allows evil (darkness) because he allows freedom. Otherwise we would not be free. And we need both to be complete human beings. Like the Earth needs a night time to rest and night creatures to come out during night, and a day time for day creatures to come out and play. There is Rain and Sun. There is Yin and Yang. Male and Female. Hate and Love. But they are all one. Learn to balance them and you find perfection.

God created man to live for himself and think for himself, otherwise we would all be slaves. Evil is not praised and is probably the work of the devil. If we did not have evil we would have nothing to compare good with. God offers us the right to have our evils forgiven in exchange for our undying love for him.

If misfortune befalls you while you dream who is responsible?

You (the dreamer) or God?

If God did not allow evil, then this would be heaven. I think God wants us to learn how to live with evil around us, but be strong enough to deny it’s hold on us. I hate it, it really blows, and sometimes I think life is SO unfair! But I think God is trying to teach us something, we just have to learn what that is.

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