Defining God

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  • Опубликовано: 18 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 21

  • @chrisfriesen7565
    @chrisfriesen7565 2 дня назад +1

    I love this. I wish I could articulate this as elegantly as you do. My wife no longer calls herself a Christian, and even though I still call myself a Christian I think it has been one of the healthiest things in the world for her, because the God she had been trying to serve was exactly like how you describe "a dictator in the sky." She once said that it felt as though God was playing "whack-a-mole" with her. I think when this way of thinking about God sinks in, it can be a real balm for the soul.

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  2 дня назад +1

      Yeah I'm of the opinion (and I touched on this in the teenage atheism video as well as a piece on my Substack) that atheism of a certain sort is necessary for healing. To be able to drop everything and free yourself, perhaps in an almost blasphemous way is sometimes needed just so you can then return to Love in your own time rather than being forced to endure guilt or shame at the hands of people claiming to represent it.

  • @Qefyan
    @Qefyan 18 часов назад

    as an atheist, I very much appreciate this video in particular, it reflects on how much we've misunderstood the notion of this absolute deity. this is by far the best video you've put out, to me the one where you said: "the best way to describe god is: nothing" is now my 2nd fav video. you've truly delved deep into the essence or notion of god, where you also said that atheism is just a form of rebellion against god and not about living our lives. I am rethinking my choices, if you ever read "His dark materials" trilogy, or watched the series, I think Philip Pullman have had a really good construction of this "screen", all life is given by dark matter or "dust" and it's attracted to people as they grow, probably fits perfectly with your understanding of what god should be, basically life.

  • @Rinzsuk
    @Rinzsuk 2 дня назад

    Really loved this one. I've always thought it was interesting how much the more popular discussions on religion seem to be about whether or not god exists as essentially a man in the sky

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  2 дня назад

      Indeed - and it seems so many people become atheists just for this reason. It's a big shame that people miss out on religious life because they think it's nothing more than devotion to a truculent cosmic tyrant.

  • @BopZ61191
    @BopZ61191 2 часа назад

    Your comment around the 14:00 minute reminds me of the concept of Asmaulhusna in Islam

  • @dazcaz8205
    @dazcaz8205 2 дня назад

    Yay man! Can't wait to watch this video!

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  2 дня назад +1

      Always happy to have you watching!

  • @TheRealValus
    @TheRealValus 3 часа назад

    "God is and is not." - Upanishads
    "As they approach me, so I receive them...
    Among the poets, I am Venus." ~ Krishna
    "Many are the names of God, and infinite the forms that lead us to know Him. In whatsoever name or form you desire to call Him, in that very form and name you will see Him... Kabir used to say, ‘The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother.’ God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee loves most. His love for the devotee knows no bounds. It is written in the Purana that God assumed the form of Rama for His heroic devotee, Hanuman... It's enough to have faith in one aspect of God. You have faith in God without form. That is very good. But never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false. Know for certain that God without form is real and that God with form is also real. Then hold fast to whichever faith appeals to you... He alone who, after reaching the Nitya, the Absolute, can dwell in the Līlā, the Relative, and again climb from the Līlā to the Nitya, has ripe knowledge and devotion. Sages like Narada cherished love of God after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman. This is called vijnāna... Mother, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana, Mother. Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my mother. A million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who want it. O Mother, let me remain in contact with men! Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want to enjoy Your sport in the world."
    ~ Sri Ramakrishna
    "A perfectly true thought, expressed in very sound terms, can satisfy the reason without giving any impression of the Beautiful; but in that case certainly there is something false in the statement. *It is essential that Truth be in Glory.* Splendor of style is not a luxury, but a necessity."
    - Léon Bloy
    "The holy light of faith is so pure that, compared with it, particular lights are but impurities; and even ideas of the saints, of the Blessed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments in the way of the sight of God in His purity."
    ~ J.J. Olier
    "Coming as it does from a devout Catholic of the Counter-Reformation, this statement may seem somewhat startling. But we must remember that Olier (who was a man of saintly life and one of the most influential religious teachers of the seventeeth century) is speaking here about a state of consciousness to which few ever come... In Olier's opinion, as in that of most directors of souls, whether Catholic or Indian, it was mere folly to recommend the worship of God-without-form to persons who are in a condition to understand only the personal and incarnate aspects of the divine Ground."
    ~ Aldous Huxley

  • @danielsykes7558
    @danielsykes7558 2 дня назад

    ✨✨✨

  • @danielsykes7558
    @danielsykes7558 2 дня назад

    12:30 realizing that "box" is kind-of a way to interpret a "graven image"
    Painting a sage or enlightened dictator on our chapel walls laid the groundwork for people like myself** but also many others to grow up and assert atheism. Because we don't believe in that man doing/saying/being what the description says.
    That box around what God is allowed to be could be interpreted as exactly what the monotheistic God was asking that we not do.
    ** I don't know if this matters to my point, but i was raised in a christian sub-sect that believed that 'Heavenly Father' was a Man with a body, who had made this galaxy & an infinite number, but whose spiritual *children* fashioned our world) ..

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  19 часов назад

      Exactly. Most theisms are sadly idolatrous.

  • @dazcaz8205
    @dazcaz8205 2 дня назад

    I am gay. My pastor said I'm sex obsessed because I said I'm not willing to go my whole life without having a boyfriend (by choice anyway)
    What's your opinion on homosexuality in relation to God?

    • @danielsykes7558
      @danielsykes7558 2 дня назад +1

      I don't know what he'll say, but I feel like he'll start by emphasizing having compassion for yourself & allowing yourself to be, and allowing yourself to marvel at the opportunity you have to live your life.
      Maybe his identity segment will hint at these kinds of things as well. I don't know if that's about individuality or diversity or morality, but maybe it'll cue in for the answers you need right now.
      I'd personally refer you to articles discussing (in this case Christianity), potential progressive interpretations of Scripture. Like about hospitality as the moral of the condemnation of Sodom & Gomorrah, or about Jesus as the fulfillment of the Hebrew covenant, or about allegorical rather than literal interpretations of the Bible.
      This isn't my area of expertise, but in many ways I've been where you are now.
      Have a safe journey 🙏🏼🫂

    • @dazcaz8205
      @dazcaz8205 2 дня назад

      @danielsykes7558 thanks man 🙏

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  День назад +2

      @@dazcaz8205 I’m encouraged by the comment just below! Yes, you should always begin with acceptance, allowing your emotions to speak as they need, and feeling compassion for yourself especially in light of when others have been unkind. Irrespective of where anyone lands on the issue, love is always primary.
      It’s funny - I had a bit of a lightbulb moment when I was thinking about this, which has convinced me that one day I think I’ll write a book on it. I have the whole argument structure laid out in my head. Here’s a tiny summary;
      1) Christian tradition is unintelligible and self-destructive when we believe it to be a mere compendium of immutable facts; doctrines that fell neatly from the sky into the lap of the church, which have since been perfectly preserved in an untouched bubble whilst the rest of the secular world changed around it. Any honest appraisal of church history reveals that Christians have always disagreed on even foundational doctrine. If a modern Christian encountered a Christian from the first century (perhaps a generation removed from Jesus himself) he would consider her to be a heretic/heathen because she didn’t believe in the Nicaean Trinity or Chalcedonian Incarnation. These were later developments that represented a dynamic, moving truth: a revelation that occurred over time, and did not just tweak but sometimes entirely contradicted previous belief. As John Henry Newman has tried, this prompts us to conceive of a legitimate form of ‘movement’ to understand how doctrine changes through the ages.
      2) I’m not convinced by those progressive attempts to claim that those typically cited verses in the Bible can be read in such a way as to make them charitable to homosexuality, or that it was translated to introduce those elements. Although there’s always ideological overreach (Sodom and Gomorrah is about hospitality not homosexuality), there is stuff in Paul that I think tells us means he would be disapproving today. So I wouldn’t align myself with that form of progressivism simply because I think it lacks standing.
      3) However, the reason I gave 1) as a preamble is because I believe we can simply understand the issue as one ethical blind spot on which the church is yet to mature. Those changes in the past were not purely doctrinal but ethical too: nowhere in the NT do we see a call for the abolition of slavery; in Eph. 6:5 and 1 Tim. 6:1 you have positive reinforcements if slavery. It’s only 300 years later with Gregory of Nyssa that Christians start to consider institutional slavery incompatible with their religion. So this would be a parallel example of an ethical realisation that took centuries to develop, and did so ostensibly in spite of evidence for it in the NT. Indeed the transatlantic abolition debate saw people on both sides of the debate making extremely biblically sensitive arguments. If you want to make Christianity a pro-slavery religion, there is plenty scriptural material to make your argument. But the fact that we know this is evil, and have come to a better ethical attitude, is indicative of knowing the Good, God, better, seeing his revelation more clearly in a way that accords dignity and compassion to all people. That would really be my thesis, then: that Christian homophobia is simply a long hangover from a particular prejudice of the earliest believers that it is now our moral duty to dispense of, and that we can see this dispensation not as a contradiction or damaging of the religion so much as a legitimate and authentic development in its comprehension of revelation, a sign of knowing God’s ubiquitous love more clearly, a little less clouded by the benighted haze of human bigotry. Again, sorry for being so brief but hopefully that gives you a good idea of my position.
      And I’ve heard the whole ‘gay people should just be celibate’ argument and it seems markedly insensitive. The kind of nonsense straight people would never accept if it were applied to them. I’m proud of your courage in having to put up with these kinds of attitudes thus far. It’s just sadly a blind spot that needs some real cultural and ethical revision I think.

    • @dazcaz8205
      @dazcaz8205 День назад

      @admoni. cheers man, that made for an excellent read.

  • @FelyKotagbia
    @FelyKotagbia 2 дня назад

    God is a person 3 in 1 trinity God the father God the son & God the Holy Spirit so i think your question is who is God not what is God

    • @admoni.
      @admoni.  День назад

      @@FelyKotagbia Indeed - there’s a ‘personal’ valence that I signalled I’ll need a different video to go over. But the metaphysics still hold here.

  • @patrickkramer5353
    @patrickkramer5353 16 часов назад

    god is an invention made by humans!