Faces of God

[fluffy]

For those of you who have a belief in a higher power of some sort, what form does it take? Long white beard, chorus of angels, a big "G" on his sweatshirt? Or is it something a little more, shall we say, Obiwan Kenobi-ish?

[Mr. Personality]

Trying to put a face to God is pointless and circumvents any actual belief. Why does God or a Higher Power need to look like anything? The closest we, as people, could ever come to putting a face to God (be he real or not) is a mere representation of what we think. When Christianity took off into the form of the Catholic Church, God was a scare tactic for less the desirable people to acheive their own gains. Wise, strong, old man with a long beard and concerned look on his face said "Authority figure." Now, depending on who you ask, he could still be that same old man, or he could be a young hip dude or a beautiful woman or a flying spaghetti monster, but it's all the same, just a human representation of what we can't understand.

[Born_again]

I wouldn't say that people of faith don't have their personal image of god. As a child, my mental image of god was basically a big fluffy cloud that he was hiding in. I imagined that beams of light(his radiance?) would glow from the cloud. I think it must of been impressed upon me not to imagine him in human form by someone, as I remember feeling guilty if I imagined him looking like the Jesus statue above Rio de Janeiro.
I'm guessing that if the cloud ever parted to reveal his visage, it would probably look like the following.... or summink.

[fluffy]

The thread title "Faces of God" was not literal in meaning, it was an invitation to share your concept of a higher power if you have one.

Personally I find it hard to talk about this sort of thing, as my current belief set is more rooted in feelings than any hard and fast facts, feelings that are hard to put into words. I can't get on board with the idea that there is a conscious intelligence of some higher form, although that concept is not uncommon, but the purpose of this thread is not to judge others for their beliefs, but to share some of our own.

More later.

[Nebula]

God looks like a lemon meringue pie.

[fluffy]

God looks like a lemon meringue pie.

Is he flaky?

[Born_again]

I'm sorry Fluffy, but from the title and your opening post there was no other way in which I, or Mr. Personality could have interpreted it. Besides, I was looking forward to hearing how people envisage their personal gods, and that's why I contributed. It's a curiosity I've had for some time.
Btw, my post was a true account of my minds-eye image of the god I used to harbour.

[Nom_de_Plume]

Mine looks like this

[Mr. Personality]

I get it now.

My God doesn't exist. My God is the collective will of the people who, through every way they can find to go against it, say hurting others is wrong, loving one another is right. That collective will that has allowed us to get along well enough for long enough to achieve all that we have as a species and family. That collective will itself is a powerful force that lends to the furthering of our societies until we forget about it and have to start all over again. That force that keeps us all together on some level is my God.

[hellomynameis]

I do not have a personal belief in a higher power.

But if I imagined one it would be: Impossible to tell what form it would take, potentially any form it wanted to take at the time? Would exist outside the universe/time but could interact with the universe in anyway it wanted at any time it wanted without having to obey the laws of nature. Any interaction that broke a law would only cause reactions if ‘God’ wanted them too, I.E god could break the sound barrier without causing a sonic boom or he could reduce entropy without time moving backwards.

However, the problem, to me at least, is if you accept your personal view of a higher power you would have to give equal credence to all other possible versions of a higher power, being that there is no proof pointing to only or the other being correct. I guess if faith and perception couldn’t be misplaced, wrong or outright invalid then you could have a single unique ‘God’.

So,
There could be godling’s that suck power off human belief/prayer in/to them, making all religions just parasitic PR campaigns, or worse, soul harvesting. Is there an argument against this, besides the atheistic?

I dunno…

[weavesilk]

Some of you might enjoy watching Larry King tonight with Bill Maher. He talks about his new movie/doc coming out Oct. 'Religilous'. Will offend some but should make you laugh.

[Nebula]

"Religilous" is Bill Maher's thing? Is that what you mean? ('Cause if that's what you mean then it's for sure going to be a hoot.)

[weavesilk]

Yes, Religilous is a movie/doc. made by Bill Maher. It looks funny as H, but as I said will definitely offend some. Larry King is a repeat tonight (from Tues.) and it's Bill Maher talking about politics and religion. It's on at 9 pm and again at midnight I believe. They do show some clips of 'Religilous'
If you don't have a chance to watch it, go on www.cnn/larryking and down the left side there's a video of Bill Maher on L.K. it's about 22 min. long & worth the watch.
I'm a big Bill Maher fan and am so damn ticked off that we can't get his show on HBO in Canada - Real Time With Bill Maher. Damn CRTC won't allow HBO.

[weavesilk]

oops. It's www.cnn.com/larryking

[RacerChic]

I get it now.

My God doesn't exist. My God is the collective will of the people who, through every way they can find to go against it, say hurting others is wrong, loving one another is right. That collective will that has allowed us to get along well enough for long enough to achieve all that we have as a species and family. That collective will itself is a powerful force that lends to the furthering of our societies until we forget about it and have to start all over again. That force that keeps us all together on some level is my God.

VERY WELL PUT!