AboutBlanchjoe Expertise Is there a God? What is religion? What is evil? What is Good? What is Sin? Who wrote the Bible? Is there a heaven? Is there a Hell? Why do we exist? What is Spirituality? What is Love?
Experience I have studied Comparative Religions for 25 years. I have been a formal student of Adi Da Samraj. My current area of study are the complete aspects of the Devotee/Guru relationship.
Question Hello. In my philosophy class, we are talking about God's omnipotence. My teacher explained that God's power is limited in a way that he can do anything, including physical impossiblilities, but cannot perform logically impossible things suck as create a "round square" or a "married bachellor". Is it possible that God can do these things, but human's just cannot comprehend them?
Thanks
Answer Interesting Question.
First it is important to recognize that any discussion of any Belief Methodology inherently contains within it what are called Logic Loops, or Logical Inconsistencies.
A classic logical inconsistency is the question, “…what is more North than the North Pole…?, when of course there is nothing more north. The question on surface appears to be whole and appropriate, but in reality it is nonsense.
So too are discussions about God and the nature of God.
What logical inconsistencies emerge are completely dependent upon “WHAT” one Believes God to be, ..or not be.
For example if you believe God is Fire, than how can Water destroy God when it is not God?,, etc, etc. etc.
If you assume God cannot perform logical inconsistencies, then you have already assumed a belief or a definition about God, ….yes?
Whatever assumptions you make (or whatever beliefs you have) about God will always have some logical loop within it.
Who or what is God is the beginning of any real spiritual inquiry.
True spiritual inquiry requires significant effort outside of what is commonly just mere dogma or belief, and this is frightening to some because one has no assumed beliefs, no uninspected dogma to point to, or rely upon.
First God is not distinguished over and against the conventional or ordinary play of experience.
God IS the play of conventional or ordinary play experience.
Meaning that there is “only” this play of experience, or in other words God is the conventional or ordinary, . . .God is not the extra-ordinary.
There is no special thing that is God over and against other things, nor is there any special place where God exists or does not exist over and against any other place.
The Divine is (as it is)Being-(at this moment)Here-(in this place)Now.
It is not God who is lost; it is we refuse to see that which exists around us.
When the individual becomes aware of The Divine via the process of attention, then God is patently and manifestly obvious, . . . I know this to be true via my own experience.
What is the Essence of God?
Differing religious dogmas define God in surprising similar ways, i.e., that God is an individuated ( singular ) egoicly conscious being who has a will, desires, and emotions ( an UberMan ) and who is omnipotent ( all powerful ) and who is responsible for the creation of all things ( the creator deity ).
This is due primarily to the fact that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are all related historically in their monotheistic dogma and as such have similar visions of how The Divine exists.
However even though the Buddhist, and Hindu sects are portrayed as representing a form of Polytheism ( many Gods and Goddesses ) it is recognized in serious study that these apparent deities are only manifestations of a greater, supreme, and singular deity of which the many Gods and Goddesses are “aspects” in living form.
Some methodologies define God as a non-singular, non-egoic, non-individuated all pervading Pantheistic presence that supports and maintains all apparent arising and disappearing forms.
Where dogmas differ amongst themselves is in their particulars as to how and why God created all things, the ways and means in which God performed these means, and most importantly how man should relate to such a God.
Does God exist? Why did God create everything? Does God exist separate from what he created? What is God? Where is God?
People in general think very little or very deeply about God and generally have little interest in a real consideration on the nature of The Divine, however before one can approach such questions, it is important first to understand the assumptions “about” God that such questions are based in.
The easiest answers to any such inquiry is something like, "…God is Love...", or "…God is Jesus, Allah, or Buddha…" or, “…God is Spirit…”, or “…God is in us all...”, or “…God is everything…”, . . .and of course all may be True.
But such responses are usually communicated by individuals who have No existing and moment to moment living connection to The Divine Person, and so the communication of such statements have all the flavor of soap.
And any response to such inquiries is utterly dependent upon the cultural, dogmatic, and personal estimations of the individual answering.
However, I thrill to the felt consideration of the nature of The Divine regardless of the motivation [smile], and yours is as about as good as they come, so I freely admit that it excites me.
Firstly, I do not truly KNOW what or who God “Is”.
“What is God”?, or "…Who do I think God is…", implies a certain series of assumptions within the question itself, so let me begin there.
The largest assumption is within the wording of such a question, meaning that God is a “Who”, or that The Divine Person is an independent singular and distinct form or an entity, or a "thing" that is outside of our current experience or awareness.
That God is a “something” that one must make observations about, such as the study of a tree, or who is, or what “is” Donald Duck.
To ask such a question implies a distinction about The Divine that may be untrue even from the beginning, a presupposition that has not been properly inspected, or understood.
In other words, to ask who is, or what is God, does God talk to anyone implies that one is not in connection to God already, otherwise such a question would not be necessary.
This is similar to asking what is or who is “My Hand”. It is only silly because it is assumed that each of us already has a connection, and a relationship with their hand.
And so from a certain perspective, “…who is, or what is God…”, is just as nonsensical, because God may be just as “obvious” if The Divine was perceived as a real, living, radiant, and all pervading presence.
Indeed the more appropriate question is not “what is, or who is God”, instead what the question should be what is the process or action that apparently individuated conscious beings perform that creates the felt sense of separation from The Divine.
A process of separation to the extent that God appears to be absent, or not even exist at all.
A process of separation wherein there exists a “God” who talks to an “us” or a “me”, when the experience of a “God” as a separate being from a “me” may not be the Truth, but only a perception based within a very limited position or view.
Spinoza said once that logically if God is to be God, God "must" be infinite, for only God can be infinite, yet God must manifest the condition of infinity in "all" of his, her, or it's characteristics.
This meant that “all” characteristics, any characteristics one can think of, must be part of God, or otherwise whatever is being conceived of is only some subset of God, and not God, because “God” must be by definition infinite.
For example God must be infinite in all characteristics, means that God is infinitely good, and infinitely kind, infinitely sexy, infinitely evil, and infinitely ignorant, etc.
Yet this question was not about defining God, per se, but more an Einstienian like thought experiment designed to awaken the reader to the idea that "we" do not know, we do not really “know” what, or who, God "is".
Needless to say, the Judaic and Christian fathers of the time did not appreciate this, for it is part of their cannon and dogma that God is a separate and distinct entity, much like our own egoic and individuated selves.
ALL of life is a profound and deep Mystery.
We have acquired an immense knowledge of how things interact, what they appear to be, and how the co-mingle, but in the final analysis, we do not "know" what anything really "is".
It is a strange and wonderful Mystery that anything is, or that you and I are!
God is that Mystery.
The Divine Person is that which exists where “you” are, and where “you” are not, the Divine exists where you appear, and where you disappear.
Lift up your hand and notice that it serves you by obeying your wish, just as the chair beneath you serves you by supporting the weight of your form from the floor, just as the floor supports the chair, and your form.
Each without complaint, without wavering, without second thoughts for themselves or their own happiness, indeed one could say that it “is” their happiness to serve, or “love” you to their eventual deaths.
This is Love being expressed profoundly, yet how many are aware of it.
It has been said that to even ask "….what is God, or where is God, or who is God…" means that the questioner is ignorant of the Truth, and the Truth is that God exists as intimately to us in this moment as any lover, as deeply any parent, or child.
This “is” the relationship that is beating our hearts at this moment, this is the process that is the lover that supports and maintains all things, even our very breaths.
This Mystery "is" what the Heart of All desires more than anything, more than life itself.
This one IS The Great Attractor, who "is" all life and all Love, it IS all that you have ever desired or loved in any “thing”, “person” or “place”, and it is more than that.
I cry for want of The Beloved One who is “my” Heart.
I weep in longing for That-Which-Has-No-Name, and that Which-Is-Beyond-All-Price.
I cry for my Beloved-One who exists as my very form, and who IS all things.
I weep for want of my Beloved-One who appears when I cease searching, and who disappears when I seek.
Because God is the ordinary, no one is interested in Truth. Because God is the Truth, He is of interest to no one. Because God is so ordinary, He is of interest to everyone. Because no one understands the ordinary, God is not understood. Because there is only the Truth, God is the Beloved of all. Because you feel The Divine, you find it necessary to touch His hand. Because you love The Divine, you find it possible to touch His ears. God smiles at you. You notice a sudden "Brightness". Everything has already died. This is the other world.
