How do we talk about God without resorting to religion?

@edgarblythe,

A 'force' without a personality . . . Could it be considered a god?
Here is where the idea in the OP breaks down, I think. Neil even assigns upper case letters to his hypothetical.

Perhaps the assignment of masculinty to the concept of God (upper case) is more to allow us understanding of how God may accomplish his purpose. For example, God is often referred to as having 'mighty arms' or 'wings'. It is hard to imagine the Bible writers not understanding their anthropomorphisms as being other than symbolic.

So, assigning the gender designation 'He' may simply be an extension of our historical understanding of the role of men in a family unit.

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@neologist,

The only "purpose" as we know it is human purpose. We project and call it "God."

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@edgarblythe,

Understood.
When we presume a purpose, we presume God.

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But you can find no god purpose and superimpose human purpose.

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@Neil Griffiths,

Quote:

How do we talk about God without resorting to religion?

If you believe in God, and you believe in the things that you say about God then those things are religion.

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@edgarblythe,

I think I agree. Should we presume God has our purpose we are in deep . . .
Wait!
That's what we have done . . .

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@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

If you believe in God, and you believe in the things that you say about God then those things are religion.

An unavoidable conclusion, I'd say.

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@Neil Griffiths,

Neil Griffiths wrote:

At some point, all great theologians find they have to leave scripture behind, and sooner or later they say something that is not compatible with the religion that are part of ... .

I'm not sure you can.

In regard to the canonical Christian scriptures, there is little in the way of theology, so Church theologians applied Greek philosophical methodologies to the Scriptures. Hellenic Jewish theologians did the same with the Tanakh.

Inevitably paradoxes arose in regard to the different ideas about God, not to mention contradictions within the various canonical scriptures themselves.

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@edgarblythe,

I agree, but I'm just conforming to a Western tradition. I've wrestled with 'it' and 'they' - and the issues of God's personhood and unknowability is actually made more complex and mysterious by gender pronouns than to trying to set up new language rules. 'She' would of course be more accurate, whatever description one wanted to give of God's role in the world.

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@Neil Griffiths,

Is it possible to define person without the presumption of purpose?
Even if that purpose were were non involvement?

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@Neil Griffiths,

Neil Griffiths wrote:

There is an old saying 'You can't be in a religion of one'.

I prefer this old saying.

Quote:

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn’t matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

Hindu teaching

http://www.elise.com/quotes/there_are_hundreds_of_paths_up_the_mountain

when I first learned it 40+ years ago it made a lot of sense to me

it makes even more sense to me now

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How do we talk about God without resorting to talking about religion? How do we talk about hookers without resorting to talking about sex for money?

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@Chumly,

Really? But I get your point.

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@Neil Griffiths,

There is no true religion on Earth right now, the truth has been twisted, hidden and changed. All religions have a portion of the truth. God will not judge until all know the truth after Jesus and his army come and govern to teach the truth because God is not a false judge so He will make sure all know!

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@Prayforlucifer,

You're partly wrong.

You wanna know the reason people aren't turning to God?

Either they dont fear him, or they don't believe in him.

Tribulation will show that if you were listening to and following God's word then you would have been sealed and safe from his wrath.

MANY will turn to him for safety, and the unbelievers will believe.

When Christ comes back, its the end. He will gather the saved and punish the unsaved. He isn't coming to govern us.

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@Neil Griffiths,

You may be searching for deism. They seek divinity or God without any influence from institutional religious doctrine. I think some monotheist ideas may have come from the so-called polarity concept of "Mother Earth" and "Father Sky" (Heavenly Father) The supposed parents of all creation, male and female. Hence, there is only one supreme Father. But the true quest has always been to know the spirit/psychology of God rather than his physique.

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@Neil Griffiths,

"Religion" is one's (or a group) worship of who they think is God.
The churches do not listen to their Bibles.

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@theMadOne,

In that you don't believe in either and have no detailed information on either, where did you pick up your "knowledge".

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

Calling god by gender exposes the anthropomorphism that compels god belief.

I've often wondered why a unique god would be assigned a gender. I mean, why a particular gender when there is no opposite gender to relate to.

I do realized this is a somewhat (seven years) belated response.

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@roger,

But still appropriate.

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How do we talk about God without resorting to religion?

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