You know what.. It’s Monday and my productivity tends to be lower on Mondays anyway so I’ll just do it now.
Let me start by saying I’m a very "liberal" Christian of sorts. I tend to curse, I hardly ever go to church at Sundays cause I’m going out the night before, I see the bible as a collection of stories not to take literally (exceptions aside) etc.
This doesn’t mean I don’t do anything with my believe. I’m part of the Youth Organization Protestant Church Netherland, or at least an organisation related to that, with which we organize activities for the youth, including film marathons, musical activities and the Christmas nightservice for the ?congregation? of the city. Besides that I attend a monthly discussion group of sorts with whom we talk about God, Religion etc. and I did Confirmation, confirming you believe before the congregation, last Pentecost (the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples)
Well now you know with what type of Christian you’re dealing with
let me start.
Well, there's your (my) problem. I have indeed heard a lot of different definitions of God. This would mean either a. There are many different Gods and each Christian definition describes one of them, or b. there is only one God, so only one definition to describe it.
That there are many different definitions has, I think, one reason: God is complicated (even more so that women
) plain and simple (Paradox
)
For me God is omnipotent, he’s everywhere and ‘sees all’. God is both a being and a feeling.
He doesn't, directly, interfere in daily life. He offers support and inspires to do the "right" thing.
Most of all. God is a Believe.
He can't be proven but neither can he be disproven.
Yours may be the right one, but that would mean all the others are false.
Please, never say that my definition is the right one. My definition is only the right one for me (and people who agree with it)
If your definition differs from the definition another Christian might give, how is my atheistic take on them different from your take on the other Christian's definition of God?
It isn’t. The main difference between Atheisms and Christianity (and other religions) is that Christians believe in God and Atheists believe in nothing.
I have more in common, in how I live my life and wish to live it, with certain Atheists I know than certain Christians (I don't know).
edit: To clarify, I was looking for a universally accepted definition of God. Or even a universally accepted definition of the Christian God.
Difficult. As I said God is complicated making a universal accepted definition of God very hard.
The thing all (at least most) of the definitions have in common is that God is a omnipotent being.
Final word: I deleted large parts of what I had written since it became more a piece about my believes than it was about a definition. I deleted this for the following reasons:
First: My believe is very personal for me and it is not something I share easily. I only share things without asking with certain people because they know me.
If people ask about it I keep it more superficial at first.
Second: I strongly dislike evangelism. I don’t spread my believes to get people to believe the same and I feel that a piece that goes very deep into my believes is almost instantly evangelistic. Especially when people “only” ask for an definition.
That being said I’m always prepared to share my believes to people who are truly interested. If you are you only have to ask and I will try to answer.
And to show a bit more of my Christian mentality I would like to end with the following quote:
"Jesus was Gods only son but we are all his children. So in the eyes of God we’re all a bunch of girls" – Bo Burnham (comedian)
Please do not put this in a sig since I’m having it on my sig-list
(EDIT: just in case it doesn't show. I am a strong believer
)
