The Challenge Yet To Be Met
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Quote Plain and simple, it is our current perception of who God is, that is wrong.
You have not mentioned what is the right perception of God.?
As far as I can make out from your post , it is not plain or simple.
When did you come to your conclusion?
Or If you knew that all the time , why did you ask the question in the first place?
I am confused by your statement .
Peace.
It's plain and simple in that the common idea of an all knowing, all powerful God, completely separate from the universe, could never exist. The idea itself does not make sense. Creation to a being such as this would be pointless, meaningless. No creation whatsoever that this being would create, could ever be satisfying, because in that beings mind, everything has already played out.
And I never said I had the right perception. I just said that the Sufi, Gnostic, and Hindu perception of God would allow this all knowing trait. Because to them, we are an essence, an actual piece of God, we are God.
I came to this conclusion, in an effort to make sense of the Qur'an. Because without this, or another explanation, God of the Qur'an can not make sense.
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Thank you for your explanation.
Also I did not say you have the right perception, i asked is there one?
To me the God of the Qoran invites us to get closer and closer to knowing Him by
1- Believing He exists. ( He is the Creator of everything)?2- Imploring Him, trusting in Him to guide us towards certainty?
3- Believing His message, and studying it to try and make sense of our life and to try our best to live according to His instructions by following His path?
It is a difficult challenge. With pain ,there is gain.
Peace.
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Peace Bodhisvasti,
Thank you for your conclusion, your attempt to psychoanalyze God, and understand "his point"
has apparently led you back to your initial conclusion. You think that your definition of the
Islamic God (Allah) is sound without consulting the text that explains who he is is an error.
An understanding of the Quran would have helped you immensely. Instead you decided to rely
on humans with our limited understanding for the foundation of your conclusion and ended up like the
proverbial dog chasing his tail.You said Maybe. Could very well be so. And those verses are rather disappointing. It destroys the idea of the Quranic God, or at the least, makes it evil.
As I stated earlier it is your perception of God that is in error to you Allah is evil.
Even satan has not made such a statement! I wish you well on your journey.Peace O0
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Hawk. Some of us don't take things for granted. I am not psychoanalyzing God. You're God did not make sense in the perception that most Muslims have of Him. That is a fact, as I have shown you.
God knows all, past, present, and future. Everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, has already played out in Gods mind. This is nonsense. The idea makes creation pointless/meaningless to God.
It is the perception of God that I offered, that allows your Qur'an to make sense. Otherwise, everything has been destined, and can be equated to nothing more than a chain of cause and effect, a movie.
I have an understanding of the Qur'an, but unlike you, i'm guessing, I also have an understanding of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Pali Canon, the Tao Te ching, the Bible, the Gnostic Scriptures, the Adi Granth, and much, much more. My knowledge is not inclusive, or biased, and I never accept something immediately out of hope or faith, it must make sense.
Your problem is that you assume that we are so limited in our human knowledge and understanding, that we can't even question what is taught to us. You are very wrong, and as I have shown you, we are more then capable of understanding this, discussing it, and calling it on its nonsense.
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Thank you for your explanation.
Also I did not say you have the right perception, i asked is there one?
To me the God of the Qoran invites us to get closer and closer to knowing Him by
1- Believing He exists. ( He is the Creator of everything)?2- Imploring Him, trusting in Him to guide us towards certainty?
3- Believing His message, and studying it to try and make sense of our life and to try our best to live according to His instructions by following His path?
It is a difficult challenge. With pain ,there is gain.
Peace.
I understand what you mean. Like I had said from the beginning, I am not trying to attack your faith. I just want to question and better understand, as well as make others think about the things they believe in. I have a lot of respect for the Qur'an, in fact I read a Juz' of it every day.
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It's plain and simple in that the common idea of an all knowing, all powerful God, completely separate from the universe, could never exist. The idea itself does not make sense. Creation to a being such as this would be pointless, meaningless. No creation whatsoever that this being would create, could ever be satisfying, because in that beings mind, everything has already played out.
And I never said I had the right perception. I just said that the Sufi, Gnostic, and Hindu perception of God would allow this all knowing trait. Because to them, we are an essence, an actual piece of God, we are God.
You're right..
A God/Deity which is "Completely Separate From The Universe" is actually yet another legacy from paganistic mindset. Paganism rule the western world (middle east included) for many centuries and it's influence can be strongly felt up until now.In the pagan universe / way of thinking, God or Deities have 'human like' characteristic. As such they have dwelling place or a home. Thus the God(s) or deity/deities lives in the "God Realm". The name varies ranging from Assguard errgh.. I mean Asgards, Aaru, Heaven (Hoffon) etc..
That's why for them, it 'make sense' for God to 'descend' to earth, or visit earth (usually only for short stay) to perform something and then 'ascended' back to His home.
Thus the whole conception of "God totally separate from this Universe" was born...
God / Gods is 'over there' (usually above) living in 'their realm' and not here which is 'our realm'.And back in the middle ages those who dare to think the above conception is false are deemed as 'heretics' and must be put to death... voodoo voodoo voodoo
This line of thinking is ever present now.. even on this forum....
Salam / Peace
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I agree, Jafar. We look for God all the time, but always with this pagan-like perception of Him. But that idea is so unrealistic and nonsensical, it simply can't be.
Thank you for the input, I think that explains a lot as to why we constantly see God in this specific way.
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I agree, Jafar. We look for God all the time, but always with this pagan-like perception of Him. But that idea is so unrealistic and nonsensical, it simply can't be.
Thank you for the input, I think that explains a lot as to why we constantly see God in this specific way.
And it was designed 'on purpose'.
As God/Gods/Goddesses need to be 'far away' and 'out of reach' in order to entice the needs for mediator / agent on earth (read Priest) and other artifacts (read holy books, statue, holy stone etc..) or even 'holy places' which also 'mediate' the interaction between man (or woman) and God/Gods/Goddesses.Thus the notion of "God's book", "God's prophet", "God's Home", "God's stone", "God's statue" become common and make sense to them..
IF..
Everyone can reach God (as God is ever present and all-knowing etc..) then there will be no need for any mediator as mentioned above.. thus it will be a 'bad business' for the entire religion industry, and the whole religion industry will crumble down to ashes..
Thus.. they impose harsh penalty (e.g. death penalty through stoning or burning) for those who dare to think in 'unpaganistic' way of thinking.Salam / Peace
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Please explain the following, quote
It is the perception of God that I offered, that allows your Qur'an to make sense. Otherwise, everything has been destined, and can be equated to nothing more than a chain of cause and effect, a movie.
I have tried to find what perception you offered and where but could not find it?
Peace Jafar.
Quote And back in the middle ages those who dare to think the above conception is false are deemed as 'heretics' and must be put to death...
What is the true conception? Does that make God still knowing everything? Do we need a message from God? Do we need messengers? Is instinct enough?
While you are saying " conception of a separate deity is false", you have not explained your perception clearly.?
Peace.
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What is the true conception? Does that make God still knowing everything? Do we need a message from God? Do we need messengers? Is instinct enough?
Why ask me? Why ask others?
Given you can reach and ask God directly..
While you are saying " conception of a separate deity is false", you have not explained your perception clearly.?
Peace.Sometime 'truth' need to be discovered by yourselves..
Salam / Peace
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Logic, I named off three different ones that have similar perceptions.
Many Hindus believe that Brahman is the source of all, and that we are nothing but a piece of Him, not all Hindus are polytheistic, many are Monotheistic, in this sense. Some of the Gnostics believe that by obtaining Gnosis, they can unite with God, their essence that is, after the physical body dies. And the Sufi have very similar writings as well.
I have given you what you need. It doesn't take much to look these things up online. A true truth seeker does not seek the truth in just one book, in just one teaching.
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Does that answer the " Predestination" question?
Does God still know the future?
Have you got your answer from the other " perception"? What is it?
That is what I was asking.
Peace.
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If we assume that we are all an essence of God, a piece of Him. That the spiritual goal of life is to return to God through purification of ourselves. Then yes, this would in a way answer the predestination questioning, but we would still need answers, as to how we, as God, know the future. And then Satan would be looked at as the Demi-Urge, or the materialistic world, that holds us back from achieving this goal. And still yet, we would need to know what we, as a piece of God, would achieve from returning to our true selves, to Heaven, to our whole self who would be God.
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And just to throw this out there. The Qur'an does refer to God as "We" quite often.
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Peace Bodhisvasti.
Thank you for that.
I will add some questions to yours
Who are the Angels? The animals? Other creations?
Who has sent the message? And The prophets /messengers?
Who is controlling and ruling all the dominions?
Peace,
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I would say that looking at it from a Gnostic view, it would go like this...
God is the Monad.
Angels are Aeons, emanations of God.
Satan is the Demi-Urge.
The Djinn are the Archons.
The Qur'an would be the direct word from the Monad itself, or through the Aeon Gabriel.
Heaven would be the Pleroma, the spiritual universe, the abode of God and of the totality of the divine powers and emanations.
Humans, unlike animals, I would say, through evolution, are now ready to unite with God, to add to the Pleroma, which creates and sustains the universe. I suppose you could say the meaning to creation would be to realize God, and add to the Pleroma.
A lot of this is conjecture, and if you were to read the beliefs of some Gnostic sects, it wouldn't fit right, as God of the Bible was viewed as the Demi-Urge.
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I think the key answer to the author of the question is the terminology used.
I'm talking about time Past, present and future. and also space.
If we're talking about GOD then these parameters are not included in his domain.
For GOD there is no such a thing as time, space, past present and future.
These all relate to us as a mean of thinking and making decision.
I'm not good with analogies, and many of them some times tends to miss-represent the real issue.I believe the example that we experience to a certain extent is during sleep without a conscious dream.
You have raised a good question, and there isn't a straight answer that include GOD, with time and space.
With GOD there is no before and no after..Best regards.
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I would say that looking at it from a Gnostic view, it would go like this...
God is the Monad.
Angels are Aeons, emanations of God.
Satan is the Demi-Urge.
The Djinn are the Archons.
The Qur'an would be the direct word from the Monad itself, or through the Aeon Gabriel.
Heaven would be the Pleroma, the spiritual universe, the abode of God and of the totality of the divine powers and emanations.
Humans, unlike animals, I would say, through evolution, are now ready to unite with God, to add to the Pleroma, which creates and sustains the universe. I suppose you could say the meaning to creation would be to realize God, and add to the Pleroma.
A lot of this is conjecture, and if you were to read the beliefs of some Gnostic sects, it wouldn't fit right, as God of the Bible was viewed as the Demi-Urge.Peace Bodhisvasti,
Your confusion is understandable, with all the varying definitions of God whispering to you,
you have not been able to make up your mind. Your analogies, comparisons of various religions
has not brought you certainty but doubt. There is only one religion and that is submission
according to Quran but if your journey leads you in another direction that is ok also.Peace O0
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Foralgerian, no matter how you see it, whether God is or isn't outside of time, it still doesn't explain the meaning/point of a creation that has already played out in this Gods mind. It equates creation to a movie.
Hawkninetynine, my varying defininitions of God, my anologies, and my comparisons to other religions has not brought me doubt, but made me a better truth seeker. I want the truth, I want rationality, I want explanations. If your idea of an all-knowing God can't be explained in the traditional sense He is viewed in, then He must be viewed in a whole other way.
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Hawkninetynine, my varying defininitions of God
There is only One.
Hawkninetynine, my comparisons to other religions has not brought me doubt,
lol Isn't doubt exactly what you are expressing?
Hawkninetynine, but made me a better truth seeker.
One's truth seeker is another's folly.
I want the truth, I want rationality, I want explanations.
If you want the truth about Islam then you must read the Quran
If your idea of an all-knowing God can't be explained in the traditional sense He is viewed in, then He must be viewed in a whole other way.
Who's tradition?
Peace O0