If God Were Real... | INFJ Forum

If God Were Real...

bickelz

bickelz

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Jan 1, 2011
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I'm going to get crap from people about the title but I needed something catchy.

If God (of any sort) revealed itself to humanity, showing without a shred of doubt that it exists, would you follow it without questioning it's motives?

Would it matter what doctrine it aligned with (i.e. Christianity or Islam is actually the most accurate)?

Discuss

I know with me, I don't think I would.
 
Oh, cool. Tell me some stories, then. <3
 
There will always be a shred of doubt. I would be more likely to suspect it is a trick by aliens than a genuine deity.
 
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bickelz said:
What?
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that, above, is my reaction.

I don't know whether if I'm following or not (mainly because if say, Judeo-Christianity God / Jesus / The Trifecta is the right one, then I've been following Them. But I have some problems with their doctrines so...), and especially without questioning motives. :) you know, false prophets and such. It can work with whatever religions it is, too; suppose if it's say, Amaterasu, who knows if it -is- her?

But I sure as hell won't let this chance escape. If this is -a- God, surely he has stories to tell.
I hope This God has some public face. (Facebook? Twitter? Youtube, with understanding that puny mortals won't get blinded / insane, Cthulhu-wise?)
 
I do follow "a God", however he be named ... I like to refer to him as "the Universe". I would question everything if he is not depicted as the Universe I have created in my own head.

Let's say everything written about him is wrong. Let's say he emerges as a giant praying mantis and he needs me to bring him as many humans as possible to devour their heads. Would I do it? Absolutely not. Would I perish for it? Absolutely, I'll take the risk in what lies in the great beyond b/c I was living up to my own ethics.
 
Sriracha said:
I'll take the risk in what lies in the great beyond b/c I was living up to my own ethics.
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Yes, this is a good point. The ideas of God we have now involves a great deal of mystery, but essentially we find a deep alignment with our most profound human yearnings, hopes, dreams, needs, essentially because we are made for connection to God, for participation in love that proceeds from everlasting. We are "of" God, of his very being, so believing is like finding home. Because this Divine Presence is so mysterious, ever-present, so infused in all-that-is, various belief systems reflect facets of this one core mystery, as well as ways to return to a place of relationship where we rightfully belong.

This movement towards God requires however, as far as I can tell, a degree of trust and humility on our part, and often we have a great deal of trouble with this. The reasons for this are not such a mystery.

For those who do, and have, chosen to truly draw near to God, there is much to indicate unimaginable good of the deepest kind comes of it. I think if we saw, or grasped (even a little) who and what we are relating to (in God) our reservations would melt away. Hoever, much obscures our vision....much in ourselves, much in our culture, and sometimes even much in religion. The latter is an irony in that the same thing that can generate real obstacles to us is also known to be a main avenue for entering into profound connection with the Divine Life. One has to work through lots of chatter to see away clearly, but the way is there.

My own experience of belief has been that when I decided to make a definite, heartfelt step in this direction, lots of the other intuitions, values, hopes that I held in my life began to tumble into place.....they suddenly gelled, emerged from a fog, became more vivid. In other words, belief in God (and that connection) made me (and is still making me) more who I truly am. I found there is absolutely nothing to fear, not even a little.
 
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bickelz said:
I'm going to get crap from people about the title but I needed something catchy.

If God (of any sort) revealed itself to humanity, showing without a shred of doubt that it exists, would you follow it without questioning it's motives?

Would it matter what doctrine it aligned with (i.e. Christianity or Islam is actually the most accurate)?

Discuss

I know with me, I don't think I would.
Click to expand...

God, by definition is a complete, perfect being - anything else would not be God. As such, His motives could not be selfish, because being perfect means that He is in no position to gain anything from anything/anyone under any circumstance. So any action in His part must in some way be a giving, not a taking.

Of course, anything that exists is something that takes is existence from God, but whether one wants this or that will depend on whether it will add to one's own perfection. God created viruses, but I don't want the flu. However, if God is revealing Himself, He is not simply offering some created thing, but instead is offering friendship/relationship with Himself directly.

The only basis for friendship is some commonality: you can't have real friendship with animals, because they lack an intellect we can relate with. Similarily, in offering some sort of friendship, God is also offering some commonality: that is some share in His infinite perfection, eternal life. Given that these these things can only perfect us, and not diminish us, if God revealed Himself definitively - I would follow Him.

[I believe that He has definitively already revealed Himself].

As, for which religion? As stated: a revelation of self, implies an offer of personal relationship/friendship. This requires some commonality, or a share in the divine life. As far as I know, the only religion that I know of that cultivates/recognises this necessity is Christianity. Christians call the participation in the divine life: grace. So, I'm a Christian.
 
bickelz said:
I'm going to get crap from people about the title but I needed something catchy.

If God (of any sort) revealed itself to humanity, showing without a shred of doubt that it exists, would you follow it without questioning it's motives?

Would it matter what doctrine it aligned with (i.e. Christianity or Islam is actually the most accurate)?

Discuss

I know with me, I don't think I would.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't. I WOULD question it's motives, and more importantly, I would ask it why, it was some grand being, would it want us to be made in the first place if all we can do is be slaves towards it.
 
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So, only Auron was able to answer the question. I didn't ask what religion you believe in, I asked if God, whoever it may be, presented itself in the physical form to you, would you follow it if it promised heaven or another like form of afterlife. Remember, this is a hypothetical question.

The other part of my question was... if this God presented itself to you, would it matter which doctrine it most likely aligned with in your decision? Aka-> If you were a born again christian and god presented himself to you in the physical and said Islam was correct, would you follow Islam?
 
Which are you questioning, I wonder?

Faith?
Or gullibility?
^~^
 
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bickelz said:
Remember, this is a hypothetical question.
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It may be a bit too hypothetical for some of us, I think. Why? Because our experience of God precludes this hypothetical scenario...it's as if we are no longer talking about God in this case.

I'm all for flights of fancy, but God is so seriously mysterious by nature (in a good way) that piling another fabricated layer, just for the fun of it, seems too much a stretch to enter into meaningfully.

My opinion...
 
Majesty said:
"If God is real"
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I do find it very helpful to take a step back (sometimes many steps) from the cultural assumptions we carry concerning God. A good many of these come to us via religious culture that is articulated at such a findamental level that we take them on as "rules" and not as "doorways." Over-simplification would represent a more cartoonish religious stance that we all know it is out there and adhered to, both among those believe as well as those who don't.

Stepping back sometimes allows us to re-engage the jargon, look beneath, above and all around it....suddenly it becomes something very different altogether, something very rich. We come full circle to where the terms, idea, and concepts do not stand for their limited, over-simplified, and cartoonish quasi-meaning, but for their deep, cosmic, heart-truth. Same word...entirely differnt experience.

I am all for deconstructing, I do it all the time.
 
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Majesty said:
"If God is real" is in between, so it's just perfect :3
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It doesn't say "If God is real" though, it says "If God were real" O_O although technically that's grammatically incorrect and should be "If God was real" or "If Gods were real" that phrase implies a lack, "If you were here" insinuates that you're not here.

Personally I don't really care as I'm mostly agnostic and essentially Zen Buddhist just pointing out why there might be some contention.
 
The verifiable existence of God would open a lot of questions about the various religions, but one thing I don't think it proves is that what the bible (or any holy book for that matter) says about him/her/it is true. It would be nice if it was true that there was some kind of objective morality and God was such a just being, but just because he exists does not prove anything other than his presumed existence.
I wouldn't follow blindly, per se, but in the face of the power that God would have to have to be God, I wouldn't have much choice. That kind of makes the above paragraph a moot point, but I thought it was an interesting avenue to explore.
 
bickelz said:
If God (of any sort) revealed itself to humanity, showing without a shred of doubt that it exists, would you follow it without questioning it's motives?

Would it matter what doctrine it aligned with (i.e. Christianity or Islam is actually the most accurate)?

Discuss
Click to expand...
Do you identify with humanity or yourself? If it revealed itself to YOU, would you follow it without questioning its motives? (lol it is motives)

Many people (myself included) have already seen God (whatever it is). Why havent you seen it?
 
So, the question is whether we're willing to accept the truth or doubt it even if we're shown proof of its existence?
 
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