Has there got to be just only one God?

a reply to: TzarChasm

I have more spirituality in my pinky toe than monotheism has in its whole career.

Your statement is quite irrefutable because it’s untestable.

a reply to: Pachomius

There's as much evidence for every other god to exist. So yeah if you believe in 1 god you might as well believe in all the others.

a reply to: Pachomius

The reason why I am now into several Gods instead of just only one is: because the idea of several Gods is more workable in the objective reality that is outside and independent of our mind.

So back to this; I've looked up a couple of scenarios that support the idea that we need several gods working together to survive.

What Would Happen If the Sun Disappeared?

With no sunlight, photosynthesis would stop, but that would only kill some of the plants—there are some larger trees that can survive for decades without it.
...
Within a few days, however, the temperatures would begin to drop, and any humans left on the planet's surface would die soon after. Within two months, the ocean's surface would freeze over, but it would take another thousand years for our seas to freeze solid. By then, however, the atmosphere would collapse, radiation would seep in, and Earth would be an inhospitable wasteland drifting aimlessly through space.

What if the Oceans Disappeared?

The sun would continue to pound the equator, turning it into a furnace with no relief from circulating ocean currents. Meanwhile greenhouse gases from the world's fires would trap the sun's energy close to the ground. Some difference in temperature between night and day would create high- and low-pressure systems and produce wind, but the average temperature on Earth would be 153 degrees Fahrenheit, making surface life impossible for even the hardiest desert animals
...
Things would get worse. On the planet's surface, all plant life is gone. As the world burned, the atmosphere would become less and less oxygenated, perhaps becoming unbreathable for humans, even if they could somehow tolerate the extreme surface temperatures. The land would fry.

What if Atmosphere disappeared? That's rather obvious. It wouldn't take any time for people to realize that they couldn't breathe. Then all the harmful rays that the atmosphere blocks out would further ravage the poor planet.

What if Earth was suddenly gone? All the scattered biological life continuing to travel in the orbit around the Sun. Eventually the forces of gravity would pull it all together to make a new smaller planet of dead organic material with no Ocean and no Atmosphere.

I am very much comforted to know that the existence of my gods is not effected by the opinions of the monotheists.

originally posted by: Itisnowagain
a reply to: whereislogic
God exists by not existing.

I find contradictions or contradictory views hard to believe as being the truth of the matter. I'm also wary of them because of the warnings in the Bible concerning them (as quoted before).

God is the invisible God.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

That is what the Bible teaches (edit: if you interpret "Christ" to be referring to Jesus Christ, which I'm doing throughout this response, cause that's what I'm used to, and I'm not going to change my response now that I've realized you weren't, at least not everywhere in your comment), although Jesus Christ didn't stop being the image of the invisible God now that he has returned to heaven as a spirit being, invisible to human eyes. So you can leave out the word "visible" there in the 2nd sentence, as the Bible does when it's talking about the subject at Col 1:15.

Christ is another term for the anointed one...

Ever wondered who anointed him (Jesus Christ)? Hebrews 1:9 says: “You [the Son, see verse 8] loved righteousness, and you hated lawlessness. That is why God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation more than your companions.”

“Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you executed on a stake.” (Acts 2:36)

Jesus Christ is 1 person/individual. Not negated by the fact that there have been other anointed ones in the past.

This title from the Greek Khri·stosʹ is equivalent to the Hebrew Ma·shiʹach, “Messiah; Anointed One.” (Compare Mt 2:4, ftn.) “Christ” is not a mere appellative added to distinguish the Lord Jesus from others of the same name; it is an official title.​—See JESUS CHRIST; MESSIAH.
...
Other Uses of the Term “Christ.” The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures uses the same Greek word khri·stosʹ more than 40 times, frequently as a title of anointed priests, kings, and prophets. Aaron the high priest was “the anointed one,” commissioned and “appointed in behalf of men over the things pertaining to God.” (Le 4:3, 5, 16; 8:12; Heb 5:1) Expressing his judgment on the house of Eli, Jehovah promised to raise up a faithful priest who would walk before God’s anointed one (khri·stosʹ) for all time.​—1Sa 2:35.

The kings shared this same honored title because of their relationship to Jehovah in their kingly office. So Samuel spoke of Saul as khri·stosʹ at 1 Samuel 12:3, in the Greek Septuagint. “It is unthinkable, on my part,” exclaimed David, “to thrust my hand out against [Saul] the anointed [LXX, khri·stonʹ] of Jehovah!” ...

... A more unusual example is where the term is applied to the Persian king Cyrus. Before his birth, the prophecy of Isaiah (45:1-3) declared: “This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one [LXX, khri·stoiʹ], to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of.” Cyrus was never literally anointed with holy oil as were the kings of Israel, but as in other instances in the Bible, the expression “anointed one” is a titled form of address given to him because of his commission and appointment from God.​—See ANOINTED, ANOINTING.

[from earlier where I skipped something]

The coming of the Christ, the one whom Jehovah would anoint with his spirit to be the Messianic King, had been foretold centuries before Jesus’ birth. (Da 9:25, 26) However, at his birth, Jesus was not yet the Anointed One or Christ. In foretelling his birth, the angel instructed Joseph: “You must call his name Jesus.” (Mt 1:21) But when the shepherds near Bethlehem were given the angelic announcement, in anticipation of Jesus’ future role they were told: “There was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” that is, “who is to be Christ the Lord.”​—Lu 2:11, ftn.

The personal name of Jesus followed by the title Christ may call attention to the person himself and that he is the one who became the Anointed One of Jehovah. This occurred when he reached about 30 years of age, was baptized in water, and was anointed with Jehovah’s spirit visibly observed in the form of a dove descending upon him. (Mt 3:13-17) This is the point Peter made at Pentecost: “God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus,” evidently recalling the expression he had heard from the lips of Jesus, who first used the term “Jesus Christ.” (Ac 2:36-38; Joh 17:3) This expression “Jesus Christ” is also used in the opening words of the Christian Greek Scriptures.​—Mt 1:1.
...

Source: Christ (Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1)

a reply to: whereislogic
Christ is the image of God.......the image appears as all appearing people, plants, houses, words, sounds...... nothing can appear outside the image......all one in Christ.

Here is a metaphor:
God is the screen on which the image appears........the screen is constant (never comes, never goes).
The image is also constant.....but changing and moving....the things which appear are not made of anything other than the screen.

When the never moving screen is discovered the phrase:
Be still and know I am God
- will make sense.

If the actual image that is ever present is noticed and stuck to...being a follower of what's actually occuring .....the actual movie in the immediacy, what is already:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

- then the ever present stillness that is the backdrop to all experience may be unveiled.

Here a gift 🎁
Screen and Movie - Sri Ramana Maharshi
sriramanamaharishi.com...

originally posted by: Pachomius
Thanks everyone for your contributions to the thread.

Now, what do you all say, shouldn't we work together as to concur on what is God?

From my part, I would submit that God has permanent existence from Himself, and is the cause of things which are transient, i.e. with a beginning and an ending.

So, what do you all here say, Are there or aren't there more than one permanent and self-existent entities which are the causes of everything that is not permanent nor self-existent, but transient?

a reply to: Pachomius

Has there got to be just only one God?

I think writing that as "Does there have to be only one God?" or "Could there be more than one God?" would be better, in my opinion.

In any case, it's an interesting question, because throughout this planet's pityful and weird history of handful of humans trying to survive in the hostile, toxic, ridiculous world of half-animals, apes, demons and morons, there have been many 'deities' and 'Gods' and such figures that people have worshipped. Sometimes this worship has been silly, sometimes the Gods have been imaginary, sometimes the tiny brains' capability to understand vast things, concepts and higher entities and hierarchies has not been enough to comprehend the truth, so it has been distorted, colored, discolored and mutated quite a lot in myriad of ways until what we see now is the end result of all that chaos and mess. So many religions, the practicers of every single one 100% convinced theirs is the only true one, and so on.

There are also legends and myths, stories and hints towards larger beings, both physically and spiritually, that have either existed or not during this wild history. If you compare the old Roman Gods to the Greek Gods, if you ponder about Zeus, Thor, Apollo and all those other things, you can realize sometimes people even referred to the same entity using different names to do so.

All this leads to the conclusion that were there's that much smoke, must be at least a little bit of fire.

My take on it is that historically, as Terra was much 'looser' (higher frequency, not as material, not as tightly-packed, so it was closer to the etheric and astral planes, so things like giants and flying dragons would've been possible, as well as seeing 'forest spirits' like sprites, elves and fairies would've been everyday life for people close to nature, and so on), all kinds of 'fantastic' things were taking place that modern, more 'intelligent' (but less spiritual, and also, spiritually more closed ever since their intelligence started opening up - it's hard for psyche to handle both lower spiritual abilities and growing intelligence at the same time, so to defend itself, it had to do something) would barely snicker at anymore.

This means, that even beings people call 'Gods' have existed, and continue to exist somewhere, in some way, in some frequency, dimension, and so on. But even 'Gods' evolve, so they wouldn't be the same as they were a long time ago. Everything and everyone changes when enough time passes.

The thing that's so hard for a primitive Terran half-animal mind to understand, is that the Universe can simultaneously be 'only one God and multiple Gods', because it has been divided into an enormous amount of different frequencies, all of which are capable of housing and forming an enormous amount of different lifeforms, entities and spiritual cultivation capabilities, systems, levels and so on.

This means that even though there HAVE been 'Gods', many of them, they haven't been 'The God', any more than you or me are. We both are part of the All-Powerful One, but the thing is, so is every other entity in existence. There are many entities, so some lower entities call the higher entities 'Gods', and in some ways, are correct in doing so, but the problem is that people of this planet have a need - and always have, I think - to label and stigmatize things, to categorize and segment, to hierachize and.. well, you get the idea.

People want to catalog and label everything like a butterfly collector, and then they can look at their butterfly wall proudly and think they know everything.

They give something a label and call it a day, thinking this means they know what it is and everything there is to know about it. They think they understand something by labeling it.

When you take ALL this into account, it's pretty clear what the answer to the question is; the Universe is a vast, enormous, wonderful place, an array of enormous amount of colors, textures, entities, frequencies, beings, and feelings - small, antlike people just like to label everything and think that way they know something is. So if an Extra-Terrestrial visitor from a higher world materializes in the front of their eyes, to help some Cosmic Messenger fulfill their destiny, and then dematerialize out of sight, people start calling those beings 'angels' and call it a day, without understanding at all where they come from or what they do, and most importantly, what these beings fundamentally are.

This kind of stuff explains why there have been so many Gods, and why at the same time, there's REALLY only one 'Omnipresent Being' that created everything else by forming it out of itself.

a reply to: Shoujikina

When someone talks about 'gospel of Jesus Christ', these people probably don't even know what 'Christ' means as a word. They don't research, they just take in, passively, like watching a television, except that religion is not as entertaining.

The special thing about The Oiled One is two-fold;

1) He came to this planet to bring us a Cosmic Message, to tell us how we can turn around the dangerous path we started to tread on, to turn this planet to a paradise, where everyone would be happy

2) He is responsible for this solar system, and people living on other planets and baseships in this solar system, also recognize The Oiled One as their master, how could it be otherwise? He was such a high-level being because truth needed to remain pure, and impure or lower soul would've made a mess out of it and distorted the message. This is why Virgin Maria didn't need to have intercourse to give birth to him - she was only a vessel for artificial insemination, because a being with that high frequency woudl've destroyed a regular human body, so the seed needed to be of much higher caliber, and was brought from a higher being.

Don't listen to people blindly preaching dead phrases that even the priests don't even understand these days. 'To lose a life to win a life', for example, priests preach a lot without understanding it at all. Yet it's very simple; it means you have to lose a selfish, egotistical, animalistic, hedonistic life to gain a TRUE life, a spiritual one, where you love and serve others without worry and have faith that you will be taken care of, because your Father-Creator (not the dude that seeded your body, mind you) KNOWS what you need.

Have faith, but also, research and dont just blindly regurgitate dead words some idiot priests don't even understand, preached to you.

a reply to: Pachomius

Well, if you call God the supreme being let us assume there are more than one gods. Then which one is the supreme being? Either they are both the same being, or one is greater. Neither does God being the supreme being preclude the plurality of persons. For a God would need someone to love (Father and Son) and that Love (Holy Spirit) between them is also needed in God, otherwise this God would be dependent on being loved by creatures.

Think about it like this...

If you have a club, and it costs $50 dollars to join, and all of a sudden (50) other clubs pop up and they all cost $45 dollars to join while having the same facilities, then it only makes sense to say your club the "only" real club and all the others are phonies.

It's kind of like buying beer. You can go to the store and buy generic beer in a white can with black lettering which says "Beer", OR you can go down and buy a "delicious" can of the King of Beers, Budweiser. They both suck (on Biblical proportions), but only one is the "King of Beers".

a reply to: Pachomius

The answer to gOd
Is in the word

Some people make it a point to call someone or something else god, politics, mom or dad, brother or sister, to get it or them out of their lives or "way" just to be able to function as they need to on the regular.

I've seen and heard the practice many times but have never tried it myself. I just figure all those concepts and people have their own lives and remain as insignificant as a drop of water where there is more of it. Fire where there is more to burn, fuel before fire goes out, earth when others don't have anything else to stand on, sky when minds are small and not expansive enough, space when there is a lack of all of those, moving away like air when cpr or kissing is uncalled for.

Maybe some considering the elements in such a manner can see them in their own bodies and spread their "ashes" as I have. The dead cling to life so strongly sometimes they forget they even had one to go back too and get lost.

Untangle the tangle is like a tar baby trap when some master or mistress of the "house" has renamed everything in it other than what it really is playing "god" or "goddess" the house builder takes awhile to see. Making god or goddess a tree... Who did this to you? Making their mom or dad a ficus... Who did this to you? Making politics an ass and an elephant that can't make more of each other together but tries to turn us all into one or the other... unlike yin and yang becoming grey...Who did this to you? Making their brother and sister into toads or pets... Who did this to you?

Everyday this happens all over the world; a big tangled mess... it takes a long time to untangle it. Imagine "creation" or the beginning or a beginning back from "nothing" to something in the blink of an eye. "Let there be light" could be a cute way of asking someone how slow do you blink?

Who knows who knows

a reply to: Pachomius

God has friends at his level. One would hate to think he is alone, with only his creations to interact with.