Are we God(s)?

One can call it whatever one wishes. However, being brought up in this country I really have no other thing "closer" to relate to?

By the way, Spamman I used Jesus as an example not as saying everything must go through him. Quit looking for a way of discounting anyone's thought but your own and something may be learned.

I listen to anyone, anything on these type subjects with an OPEN mind. If one has already drawn a conclusion within before seeking knowledge one becomes stagnant, might as well open a can of beer, and watch roller derby. What a way to live?

I don't ever recall using the word "magic". That is something that is done with slight of hand, and illusion.

"The sign said the writings of the prophets are on the subway walls."

[edit on 19-5-2005 by madmanacrosswater]

Originally posted by madmanacrosswater
One can call it whatever one wishes. However, being brought up in this country I really have no other thing "closer" to relate to?

I'm very reluctent to call it 'god' for several reasons:

The thinking old guy in the sky image [excludes an entire gender] who does things on a whim like a spoilt brat. The term 'god' has been monopolised.
A 'superior' and therefore seperate elevated entity we're suppose to be subordinate to and fear.. I believe this energy is like [or is a form of?] light.. it's the same stuff whether it be from a sun or a candle's flame.
An entity that predates and creates the universe [which is impossible].
A sentient entity.. which I do not believe it is [though I do not discount the possibilty of etheral beings existing but they would be just another life form].

Another reason I dislike the term is because it has historically disuaded people from searching for knowledge because they assume god is the final answer.

[edit on 19-5-2005 by riley]

I understand your position completely. The concept of GOD has been overplayed greatly. Just look at what is getting ready to happen in the Senate.

I voted for Bill Frist when he first ran for Senator. I figured he being a surgeon and speaking with a moderate tone he would be all right. Now, he is leading the fight that if "You don't think my way your doomed down the highway." What an idiot I was!!!

Just wonder how many in the GOP are "awake" enough to realize the "power play". We will soon find out.

we will become gods when we can make humans. though black holes and big bangs maybe the begining but we could never be gods because we cant make humans from multicellular organisms.

Originally posted by neoskar
we will become gods when we can make humans. though black holes and big bangs maybe the begining but we could never be gods because we cant make humans from multicellular organisms.

Then I'm already a god. I've made 3 of them (with a little teamwork).

jesus-tap-dancing-christ...why does everything revolve around a book, plagerized (badly I might add) from old Sumerian and Babylonian texts. Morans.

We are not Gods and we cant attain that status (mormons think we can (I think, according to a friend who was baptized by them, correct me if this is wrong))

God is like the horizon. The more we travel to it its still out of reach
All religions are made by enities that pose as God. The one true God lets this happen for some reason

Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592).

Well in actual fact the original sin was an original blessing because if you were always in paradise you would not know what is, therefore it would not be paradise because you would not know anything else. What they gave us is a choice, the power to choose between right and wrong. FREE WILL.

I believe that it is our responsibility to allow God to work through us.
In the Bible, Genesis Chapter 3, Satan actually convinces Eve to eat the fruit by telling her that she can be God-like:

"4 And the serpent said to the woman, Ye will not certainly die; 5 but God knows that in the day ye eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as God, knowing good and evil. "

I believe that the world is going through a spiritual awakening in which many people, like yourself, are realizing that God and the Power of God can be found within us. This is also stated in the Bible, Luke Chapter 17:

"20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. "

But many people are making the mistake of taking credit for God's Power. Many people will set themselves up as gods and that will be their demise. They will use God's Power within them for their own selfish desires. As it is written in Matthew 24:24:

"24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. "

In fact, Belshazzar in the Bible took credit for what God was doing in his life and, as a result, God took his life away from him. You can find this in the infamous story of the writing on the wall in Daniel Chapter 5:

The Bible also states that we are capable of moving mountains if we have the faith of mustard seed, Matthew 17:20:

"15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." 17 And Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Never take credit for God's power. God is within us so we must give glory to God for what happens in our lives. God created us and God can destroy us. We are His vessels, His temples. The whole entire human existence and universe were created for the purpose of glorifying God. God is all there is. God is everything.

Are we Gods? If in the sense that God is an abstraction created to subdue accountability of our unsuccessfullness, then yes, we are Gods. Gods in the sense that we may shape the world to our whim, the, yes, here too, are we Gods. We have not only theorized and concluded aspects of the universe and our existence once thought to be accountable to Gods accord, but we have dramaticly changed it; we can change the climate of our atmosphere, the longevity of our children, and watch the beginings of the Universe. Certainly, no scriptural god of the ancients had such grande powers.

To say we pale in comparison to a transcedent diety found encompassed in ancient scripture is defeatist and ignorant.

Luxifero.

The genesis doesn't say that Satan lies, if I'm not mistaking ?


The issue of god or not, if we are part of it or not,
depends on the kantian concept of wrether we believe
that god is within, or outside, the universe.


If it is outside, and the universe is a process
started by him, that is separated from him.
Than it is impossible for us to be part of,
though we could be made at his image.

(don t forget that he is still able to see everything
of that universe)


If it is within, it is likely that it would be the universe
itself, and we are part of that universe.


Could it be both ?

I read very good arguments
proposing that scriptures
wouldn't go along with this concept.
I need to check my readings as
I'm responding on the sly.


Or maybe I'm confused
with the argument that proposed
that since the Universe is timely
and finite, than that would
contradict an infinite god,
which would have to live outside.


That would make us his toy.

Cedric

Yes, I think we all are god(s). I am not a Christian, this is my first post, but I felt compelled to respond...
Being a spiritual being that I believe is a part of a whole makes all of us so.
Having said that, I would point out Psalms 82:6 "You are all gods, children of the most high..." and Jesus said via John 14:12 that those who believe can do all he did and more ...very godlike imho
I added the bible refs because many people seem to hold the bible up as valid, and not because I personally think it is the only or sole (or even credible in some ways) religious text available. I find many, many writings equally important...I consider myself a spiritual person not held by one system of belief, but think that most beliefs have many things in common.

quote///
"In His unbounded love,
God became what we are that He might make us what He is" (Saint Irenaeus, died 202).

To acquire the likeness is to be deified, it is to become a ‘second god,’ a ‘god by grace.’ "I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High" (Psalm 81:6). (In quotations from the Psalms, the numbering of the Septuagint is followed. Some versions of the Bible reckon this Psalm as 82.).


The image denotes the powers with which every man is endowed by God from the first moment of his existence; the likeness is not an endowment which man possesses from the start, but a goal at which he must aim, something which he can only acquire by degrees. However sinful a man may be, he never loses the image; but the likeness depends upon our moral choice, upon our ‘virtue,’ and so it is destroyed by sin.

‘Partakers of the Divine Nature’......................

The aim of the Christian life, which Seraphim described as the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God, can equally well be defined in terms of deification.
Basil described man as a creature who has received the order to become a god; and Athanasius, as we know, said that God became man that man might become god.
‘In my kingdom, said Christ, I shall be God with you as gods’ (Canon for Matins of Holy Thursday, Ode 4, Troparion 3). Such, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, is the final goal at which every Christian must aim: to become god, to attain theosis, ‘deification’ or ‘divinization.’ For Orthodoxy man’s salvation and redemption mean his deification.

Behind the doctrine of deification there lies the idea of man made according to the image and likeness of God the Holy Trinity.
‘May they all be one,’ Christ prayed at the Last Supper; "As Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, so also may they be in us" (John 17:21).

www.fatheralexander.org...

For the Lord first said: "Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness..." [Gen. 1:26]. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" [Gen. 3:7].

The Lord created man by a special act: He first created the body, and then breathed into it the "breath of life," i.e. he instilled in it as it were a portion of His Divine Essence. That is why in the Psalm [Ps. 82:6 KJV/81:6 Septuagint], the Prophet David has God say about people: "I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High." The Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ Himself confirmed the Truth of those words to the Jews who
were prepared to stone Him to death, accusing Him of making Himself equal to God by calling God his Father.
The Lord replied to them thus: "Is it not written in your law, I said, 'Ye are gods' and the scripture cannot be broken?" [John 10:34-35]. Thus, man is the image of invisible God, and has within him a "tiny piece" of Divinity.

www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws...

Creature
or
Creator?

Abbot Alexander Mileant
quote///
the Lord Jesus Christ referred to Himself as being eternal.
For instance when the Jews asked Him "who art Thou?",
Jesus replied "Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning" (John 8:25).
Shortly after this He added: "Verily, verily I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58).
Here it must be noted that Jesus had not said "I was," as would have been grammatically correct in the context, but rather used the present tense "I am," or more exactly,
"I am He who is." The deep meaning of these words becomes clear when one considers the Hebrew original meaning.
When Moses asked God's name at the burning bush, the Lord answered: "I am He who is" (YHWH).
The very name "He who is" (YHWH) indicates the distinguishing characteristic of God.
He is the One who always exists; He is the Eternal One.
In referring to Himself as "He who is" (YHWH), Jesus Christ used the Hebrew name for God.
It should be remembered that the name YHWH was held in such esteem by the Jews that they used it only on the most important and solemn occasions, while in ordinary speech they used the names Lord, Creator, Most High, the Blessed One, and so forth.

www.fatheralexander.org...

Are we gods?

IX helen

Originally posted by helen670

The image denotes the powers with which every man is endowed by God from the first moment of his existence; the likeness is not an endowment which man possesses from the start, but a goal at which he must aim, something which he can only acquire by degrees. However sinful a man may be, he never loses the image; but the likeness depends upon our moral choice, upon our ‘virtue,’ and so it is destroyed by sin.

‘Partakers of the Divine Nature’......................

The aim of the Christian life, which Seraphim described as the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God, can equally well be defined in terms of deification.
Basil described man as a creature who has received the order to become a god; and Athanasius, as we know, said that God became man that man might become god.
‘In my kingdom, said Christ, I shall be God with you as gods’ (Canon for Matins of Holy Thursday, Ode 4, Troparion 3). Such, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, is the final goal at which every Christian must aim: to become god, to attain theosis, ‘deification’ or ‘divinization.’ For Orthodoxy man’s salvation and redemption mean his deification.

Behind the doctrine of deification there lies the idea of man made according to the image and likeness of God the Holy Trinity.
‘May they all be one,’ Christ prayed at the Last Supper; "As Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, so also may they be in us" (John 17:21).

www.fatheralexander.org...

For the Lord first said: "Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness..." [Gen. 1:26]. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" [Gen. 3:7].


IX helen

And as such (as I read it) it means we are gods, and it depends on how you view sin and 'original sin.'

Depends on your defintion of "god"...i am a god to a certain; god over certain parts of my reality...i even had the power to click "post reply"...amazing

"“Know you not that you are elohim?"

However, THE God, I am not...If I was, i wouldnt be at work right now

Originally posted by KSoze
However, THE God, I am not...If I was, i wouldnt be at work right now

Are you at work now? ooooooh....

No, you aren't--only me.

I can tell you that I am not a God. My X wife made sure that I understood that point. So from where I sit I guess it depends on if your married or not. Now that I’m single (hay wait a minute here. Note that single has the happy word sing in it. Very interesting!) Anyway being single has given me some God like abilities. For example; I can lie on the couch with a large pizza on my chest, two litters of coke on the floor and watch comedy central until I pass out. With no one is bitching at me. If that isn’t God like I give up!

Originally posted by brain page
I can tell you that I am not a God. My X wife made sure that I understood that point.

There are Gods and there are Goddesses...the difference between them is rank. (no, not the socks)

While a man is alive in the world, he'd be wise to be on his best behaviour, because Mother Nature rules there.

The attempt by men to wrest power from women through religious doctrines, even though it has seemed to work for over 2 millenia, has failed. The fish (Pisces) is dying.

As in the symbol for Aquarius, a woman pouring water (read wisdom) from a pitcher (ancient retained wisdom), She is on the rise and the sooner we recognize that fact, the easier it is going to be on us (men).

We are all as is everything a part of GOD. He/she/it runs through us, and everything animate or inanimate in this universe.