Does God Look Human?

Society Religion & Philosophy
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In a recent poll, people magazine reported that 55 percent of its readers stated they thought that God looked human, 27 percent said “not at all” ; only 18 percent admitted that they “didnt know.”

Our Traditional Conceptions of God

God as Transcendent

Much of our traditional conceptions of God emphasizes God as a transcendent —that is, beyond the ordinary world of human experience, outside of ourselves and distinct from the world HE created.

God as Immanent

Other people dont believe that God is transcendent at all.They hold, rather, that He is an immanent God, a God not outside of us or distinct from the universe.

God as Totally Immanent: Pantheism

This belief is that God is everything , identical to the universe itself.

God as Transcendent Creator: Deism

The French philosopher Voltaire defended a conception of God as a necessary hypothesis for physics.

God as the Unknown Object of Faith

This belief is that One could not know that God actually existed, but one had to act as if one were absolutely certain of his existence.( Kierkegaard).

God as a Moral Being

In this belief it isnt important whether God created the universe etc, but that its the moral features of God, his care for justice, His concern for us, that make religion so important in many peoples lives.

(Alright Iv summarized the important concepts of God at the request of a friend.Would be happy to outline details if anybody is interested.This is a philosophical doscussion, so please dont confuse it with religion.Tired of typing :frowning: , hope the explanations arent too short.)

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whatever God does look like.. what difference would it make? would it compel people afterall to believe in a stronger force than themselves?

PS: thanks for summarizing the whole article.. I've really lost the patience to read long articles.

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SKN actually its not an article.Its a branch of philosophy.This was a request from somebody.And from a philosophical point of view, the study of God, how he looks, and what he is---- is very important.There are different beliefs of God, and it doesnt always compel people to believe that He does indeed exist.People are always trying to prove that He does, while others try to prove that He doesnt.

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one image of god that i certainly not adhere to is that he is a man with a long white beard looking over us as we live our lifes. Instead, i'm inclined towards Kierkegaard's view that we cannot know how god looks like -why shud want we want to either?- but in the end it's our actions based on intentions that count.

one concept of God that isn't mentioned is of Nietzsche's: He came to the conclusion, seeing the scientific and philosophical development of that era, that God is dead, .....and the only thing that counts is the human will/soul. It is interesting to point out that in the coming years, in light of genetic advances, we will reach a stage where we can say 'our soul is dead'. I wonder what lies beyond that...

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Nes, what do you mean we'll reach a stage where we'll be able to say that our souls are dead?

What I find more intriguing is why people believe in God.I mean what compels them to do so.

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I m to tired to reply :D
will give some thoughts and reply tomorrow evening INshaAllah

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allah ezo-wajal doesn't have a physical body they r made of noor {may allah forgive me if i am wrong}

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:salam:

:bism:

**Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things. **

Al-Quran: Al-Nour (The Light)> [24:35]

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Muslim_Queen: *
Nes, what do you mean we'll reach a stage where we'll be able to say that our souls are dead?
[/quote]

with the advances in science, will there still be room for 'free will'. Or will we end up saying "it's in our genes" or "this is how I have been brought up, it's out of my control". I read a very interesting article about how in the mechanical/industrial era the advances ensured that religous moral was lost, and now with the automatic/technological era we will end up losing our own identity and hence will be seen as 'biophysical machines'

[quote]
What I find more intriguing is why people believe in God.I mean what compels them to do so.
[/QUOTE]

I think this answer you can answer for yourself......from your point of view it would be interesting: why people do NOT believe in God? Wat compesl them to not do so

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I like the way God's attributes are expressed in the Nahjul Balagha;

Sermon 1,

Thus whoever attaches attributes to Allah recognises His like, and who recognises His like regards Him two; and who regards Him two recognises parts for Him; and who recognises parts for Him mistook Him; and who mistook Him pointed at Him; and who pointed at Him admitted limitations for Him; and who admitted limitations for Him numbered Him.

Whoever said in what is He, held that He is contained; and whoever said on what is He held, He is not on something else. He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything but not in physical nearness. He is different from everything but not in physical separation. He acts but without connotation of movements and instruments. He sees even when there is none to be looked at from among His creation. He is only One, such that there is none with whom He may keep company or whom He may miss in his absence.

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Dont know and i think it is better if i say nothing lol

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Can you please translate this in english???

I think god is made of some matter thats beyond our puny human brain’s imagination.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by I'm Kool: *

Can you please translate this in english???

[/QUOTE]
Can you please learn some english???

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Well sorry if my vocabulary doesn't include words such as "Doth" and "parables". Im not gonna use dictionary.com just for this.

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Nietzsche in my personal opinion is not that great a theorist or philosopher. Rather his theories can be simply explained away with a simple notion that human knowledge is finite and thus most of his conclusions can be wrong. But I will open a thread on that later on.

As for translating English:

Doth = is old English for does
Parables = is another word for variables.

I doubt you would find the first one on dictionary.com

Again going back to Nescio's post, I find the concept of attributing behavior to our genetic structure and our up-bringing displacement of responsibility. It also leads to a lot of racial arguments and issues of superiority.

Personal opinion on topic, i believe Allah/God is an entity very much like the "Q" from Star Trek: a being that can take any size, shape or form.

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It is interesting that most discussions about god, including those that attribute formlessness to god, refer to god as him or he. I suppose, we are just conditioned to think in this fashion.

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God is everything

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by NeSCio: *

with the advances in science, will there still be room for 'free will'. Or will we end up saying "it's in our genes" or "this is how I have been brought up, it's out of my control". I read a very interesting article about how in the mechanical/industrial era the advances ensured that religous moral was lost, and now with the automatic/technological era we will end up losing our own identity and hence will be seen as 'biophysical machines'

I think this answer you can answer for yourself......from your point of view it would be interesting: why people do NOT believe in God? Wat compesl them to not do so
[/QUOTE]

Actually Nes, despite our technological advances, man is still very much into the belief of a God.Humans can never become 'biophysical machines' , because we feel. We have emotions that drive us, esp when it comes to believing in a God.Because science cant exaplin how we came to be ,or what will happen after we die, humans turn to God.The belief in God will never be lost, no matter how advanced our society might become.

I think those who deny that God exists , only do it because they are angry at life.They want God to 'fix' everything when something goes wrong.Some of them want 'scientific' proof.

I'm Kool--- God and his attributes are so Great...very hard for humans to comprehend .

cscraja-- The reason for that is also very hard to understand.My father did explain it to me, but I doubt if I will ever be able to remember exactly how he explained it.But 'He' is the superior of the two : He and She.It was something along those lines.We have to address God in the Highest possible title.

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Just found an interesting article.

In the lives of devout Muslims, a day never passes by without them using the Arabic phrase, Insha-Allah (God So Willing), at the end of the conversation when they refer to future events. Without an understanding of the meaning of this Arabic phrase, God’s relationship with His creatures, the concept of creation, and the role of free will cannot bring into human comprehension. It is also not possible to counter materialists with a rational internally consistent argument against their exclusion of God in the evolution of life and the universe. Materialist scientists argue that biological evolution is an "inherently mindless purposeless process.[1] They preach that impersonal laws rule the universe and atoms are at work in the operation of life.

Check IslamiCity - The Global Muslim eCommunity for the whole article.

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but this is the cop out to avoid science and education.