God and Humans

(The Color Blue and Non-Definitions)

Hugo

Here is something for you to ponder.....research all of the Blue colored deities throughout history.

Corneilius

If god is merely a definition for varied perspectives to agree on, then the universe is in trouble! My personal belief is that the great spirit will and does communicate with its human subjects without any medium. but not all are able to read the signs.

John Dishwasher

I'm not really trying to create a definition that everyone can agree on. That's too limiting. What I'm trying to do is point out that we all start toward these definitions from the same place, and that we are all seeking the same destination, and--most interestingly--that the "starting place" and the "destination" are the same thing. This makes the act of defining kind of absurd. It's really a non-definition that the essay suggests. That's why I think an atheist can read this essay and cite it as proof for no god, and a believer can read this essay and cite it as proof of a god.

Hugo

....if the deities are Invisible, how do people know they are blue colored?

Thyun

No.

Science = testable evidence based observations. As of yet there is no testable evidence for any deity of any religion.

John Dishwasher

Granted, and it will probably always be so. However, there is concrete research going on about where in the brain these "feelings" people have are located. So though science will probably never provide evidence for the existence of the "images" or "personalities" that people worship, it is already showing, in a way, why people do so.

Aeita

while i agree with this (didn't CNN have article in 2006 about this?), that doesn't mean that we as atheists will ascribe to a definition of god.

John Dishwasher

Oh, quite the contrary. And thanks for pointing this out. As I said in another group last night the very act of "defining" a "god" for atheists is actually absurd. For to define something one has to acknowledge its existence. And if you don't acknowledge it exists, then there is nothing to define. What I'm trying to actually do in the essay is come up with a sort of "non-definition" that both atheists and believers can accept. The "definition" only succeeds, I think, for both believers and atheists because it defines what it is that all humans need, and then says you can accept this inescapable need as the definition of "god" if you want, or you can accept it simply as a human need, if you want. What you call it is really beside the point.

Hugo

Krishna was Blue.

Aeita

can you create a definition that doesn't rely upon us having "souls" or some kind of collective consciousness?

John Dishwasher

Well, you know, what I'm trying to do is get away from a definition altogether. Like I said in my response to your comment from last night I'm going for a sort of "non-definition." And I've done that in the essay by looking at not what we call or do not call this god that does or does not exist, but by trying to identify a common human need that we all respond to. Some people, when they respond to the need, call it "God." Others, when they respond to the need, do not put it in religous terms at all. What I'm saying is that it doesn't matter what language you build around the need. All that matters is that we all feel the need and we all respond to it. This is a way, I think, that atheists and believers can "agree" about "god--" by simply seeing it is sourced at a common need, and setting aside the language we use to describe it.

Aeita

i don't know if there's such thing as a common need outside of the basics of food/water/shelter/reproduction...

Praun Praun

Defining the infinate does seem a difficult task.Though I'm sure the expert thinkers are more than willing to take a stab at it.

John Dishwasher

Mine is not really an attempt to define the infinite, but to show how we all react to the infinite similarly. What confuses mutual understanding is that we give our similar reactions different names.

Hugo

Krishna was Blue!

John Dishwasher

Yeah. I have a feeling you noticed the "avatars" were blue. I didn't think of it while I was watching the movie, but later I was like: Hey, those "avatars" were the same color as the "avatar" Krishna. I wonder if anyone ever asked Cameron about that. That's a pretty clear reference. But then maybe he just really likes the color blue. His movie the abyss had a lot of blue in it. And also Titanic.

Hugo

I know a total whacko nutjob who asserts that all the blue deities are actually aliens from an actual planet named Heaven. She thinks this is REAL.