God

Overview

Although there are many variations between religions (and even between different branches of the same religion) on the nature of God, it is generally agreed that God is a supernatural entity who created the universe.

Details which may vary from belief to belief include:

• God's mortality (is God still around?)
• God's omniscience (does God know everything, or are God's perceptions limited?)
• God's omnipresence (is God everywhere at once, or does God have a specific location?)
• God's omnipotence (can God do anything? If he can do "anything" can he violate the laws of logic as well as physics, e.g. "Can God make a stone so heavy that he can't lift it, and then lift it?")
• God's gender (is God a He, She, or It?)
• The nature of God's historical interaction with humans (which of the stories about God are true, which are true-in-spirit as parables, and which are myths or distortions? Does God have a personality, and if so what is it like?)
• The nature of God's current interaction with humans (is God "still speaking", as some churches believe? Can individuals talk directly to God?)
  • The importance of humans from God's perspective (Does he care about humanity? If so, does he care about us as individuals, or just as a species?)

The existence of God, by most definitions, is an unfalsifiable claim.

For those definitions which allow for the possibility of detecting the existence of God, proposals are needed for specific tests to perform.

Communication with God

It is frequently claimed that individuals are able to "talk to God" or hear "the voice of God". Some religions allow that this might happen, stating that "God is still speaking", while others state that God only occasionally communicates with humanity on particular momentous occasions (often described as "miraculous").

Issues with the "frequently communicating (FC) God" include:

• How can you tell that the voice is that of God rather than being some other part of yourself talking?
• How can you tell that the voice is that of God rather than being that of some other deity or powerful entity, possibly even an inimical one (e.g. Satan or one of the hypothetical competing Gods alluded to in item #1 of the Ten Commandments)?
• If another speaker-with-God claims that what God has told them blatantly contradicts what God has told you, how do you resolve the contradiction?
  • Do you assume that the other person is lying? (Why?)
  • Do you assume that the other person is being deceived? (Why? If so, by whom?)
  • How can you be sure that the other person is not telling the truth?
  • How can you be sure that there is not another God speaking to some people (regardless of who is talking to the "real" God)?
  • How can you be sure that God is not in fact talking to both of you but, for unknown reasons of his own, is lying to one of you?
• If two people both claim to be in communication with God but the things they each say God has told them are mutually contradictory, how should an objective third party resolve the contradiction? (i.e. who should they believe, and why?)

Examples of speakers-to-God contradicting religious doctrine

• The Conversations with God books include a number of points which blatantly contradict the word of God as believed by many religions (and of course, many of the words of God as believed by many religions blatantly contradict each other)

Notes

A small sample of FC believers I spoke with stated that they can "just tell", or that they have spoken at length with the voice in question and feel quite certain that it is in fact God, but gave no further details. --Woozle 10:15, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia
• Conservapedia
• dKosopedia (site down 2008-01-07, can't determine if article exists)
• SourceWatch: no article as of 2008-01-07

Related Pages

• Atheism is the disbelief in the likelihood of the existence of God
• Arguments for the existence of God
• Believers in God often claim that morality requires God
• The North Carolina state constitution disqualifies "any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God" from holding government office.

Discussion Links

• If God cares about our salvation wouldn't he use a better sign then a 2000 year old book written by men? at Yahoo! Answers

Humor

• 2001-09-26 God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

Offbeat

• 2007-09-17 (Omaha, Nebraska) State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits. 'The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent." .. It says God has caused, "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."'