What is your concept of God?

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Originally Posted by NikolaiI

God is the source of everything. God is Krishna, God is Buddha, God is Pure Land. God is all that is holy and true.

People say, "Why doesn't God appear to me this instant, and accede my demands, punish me for my blasphemy, and prove His existence?" But this is a wrong attitude. We must be qualified to see God. Even in this world, if we want to speak to the President, we are not able to unless we are qualified. If I call the White House and demand to speak to him, requesting him to prove his existence to me, I would be disregarded. So why should God, who is the Lord of the Universe, heed all my demands?

But we see the President every day on the news. We know he exists through empirical cognition.

That said, the "invisible God" argument that atheists use is quite silly really because there are many things that we take for granted in everyday speech that are nothing more than floating abstractions.

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Still, we shouldn't speak of God or the soul if we haven't experienced them. Only a few times in my life have I experienced revelation of divine consciousness, and yet those I know were the only real moments of my existence. God is Buddha, enthroned on a Lotus, surrounded by limitless pure love. The source of everything is this, and it is infinite. Since the source of everything is this, it is within everything, even every cell - so within every cell is infinite space, infinite Pure Lands, and the very source of those Pure Lands is a Lotus, and the Lotus may be said be emanating from God. The nature of this - God, Krishna, Buddha - is infinite bliss, peace and knowledge. It is beyond all description, it is not found in logical arguments. Another way it may be understood is simply "Love," or "Pure Love," or "Spirit."

You know, I probably understand you more than any of the other religous members here because I have experienced this absolute bliss and joy that you speak of through the process of meditation. I have even considered becoming a Buhddist. But to surrender myself to an entire system is too hard for me, for I believe in faith, I have none because I can't help but stand outside the system and look in, rather than be in it.

We all have faith in one way or another, though not entirely in a religous sense.

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Originally Posted by Miss Juventus

All of these are answers! Why can't God have an origin? because God himself is the origin!

The only problem is (as I argued above) is that there is no origin. Our concept of God rests on a word, words refer to each other endlessly without any origin of meaning whatsoever. We hardly ever realize that almost the entire basis of our reality rests on words.

The generally idea which is becoming popular among society, which is trending towards atheism, is this; that God must do everything. God must absolutely force me to believe in Him, otherwise I won't. Well, actually God is doing everything, proving absolutely everything for you, but He won't force you.

True humility is knowing we are absolutely dependent on God. We like to say we are independent, we like our independence. But we are not independent in the slightest - we are dependent upon many things, the most immediate of which are air, water, food, and everything in a more extended way too. And all of those things are provided by the Supreme Lord, in perfect quantity for every living entity. God provides for the birds and the animals, for an elephant who requires so much food, so why do we think God would not provide for us? He does, but still we refuse to acknowledge Him.

Updating my comments to say that I am now an evangelical Christian despite having been an atheist so long ago. I now find hope in Jesus Christ, the Lord of Creation.