God.

[Bellabie]

You know, I've been thinking, a lot, lately, about what God means to me. I've defined God to be "something we attempt to achieve, but never will." It is an asymptote to balance, in my mind. I think that God is infinite, and, thus, God is both positive and negative, but the sum of these things is not zero, it is Justice. God is the Justice that we wish to bring forth, but are incapable. Justice, I define, as giving each her due, by which I think is greatly related to Newton's third law, "every action has an equal and opposite reaction." The reason that I believe that God/Justice is unattainable is because those equal, opposite reactions do not come in immediacy, and without encompassing infinity.
In response to the idea that infinity is merely a concept to explain things, this mustn't be. (I hitherto have only heard opposition expressed as in reference to the universe, forgive me if there is something overlooked.) If one says that the universe is not infinite because of its constant expansion, one is then faced with their own definition. Anything that grows without ever stopping (forever, that is) is going to continue to press on, yes? That is, by definition, what it means to constantly expand. If this is so, there are two things: If it continually expands, there is something infinitely large into which it does so, and, if it never stops, time, then, regardless of perception, must, also, be infinite.
b  

[Zhadgon]

Interesting but i don´t believe in God sorry but if the universe is infinite like the numbers then is a matter of fact that will be forever but then you can´t call God to the universe neither to the numbers and then you say about justice well in some cases the persons never get what they diserve it could be good or bad and never get what they do and last but not least if you say about a life after death you will recieve what you have done, well i´m not sure about that no one has come after death and say something about it. Finally the only thing that matter is for every human need to be happy or at least good with himself (i never say that to be happy you will do good or bad things it´s only the point of view of each person).
.n_n.  

[Bellabie]

Ah, dear friend, but by my definition, people do not get what they deserve, at all. It is a general movement towards a balance. There starts as one negative, so a positive comes, but of different proportions which allows there to remain an imbalance. The universe is not infinite, at any one moment, it is agreed that the universe is constantly expanding which means that, at each time, there are boundaries. I don't believe in an afterlife, that requires a direct outcome. As mentioned, above, the balance is an asymptote because there will always be a hairsbreadth imbalance, unless everything is included. Everything summed together equals Justice, and, by my definition, God.
b  

[LanceCalvis]

If everything is god then wouldn't this rule out the possibility of interaction with our world. By interaction I mean any sort of change influenced by his decisions. A perfect justice as you speak of. Actually is obtainable but only for a limited time. But to do so, all parties would have to ignore there individual egos. It would also involve each person following there conscious. There is still a strong possibility that even if all of the above listed are used. That a perfect justice will not be achieve. But if you add in equality to the equation. Then it becomes possible to have true justice. The word equality isn't up to each persons definition. Equality means both parties come to a mutual understanding and split the land fifty fifty. This justice isn't just confined to just land either. Instead of land it could be something. As simple as just being completely non intrusive and equal with the ones around you.

To Zhadgon's comment about no one ever coming back to speak of there former life. There actually are documented cases of people knowing things that they otherwise wouldn't know. Unless they were in fact another person at another time. I've mentioned this to a few people. And there counter argument. Always involves the possibility and this is a big if. That they found out this information from word of mouth. Or some other source of information. As far as your final statement goes. A person that performs negative actions. Will have there life degraded even if karma doesn't exist. People react negatively to negative actions. And this would make there life overall less than it would be. Than it would be if they only performed mostly good actions. Even a morally irresponsible person is made to pay for there negative actions. And if karma is factored into the equation. They are actually reaping more than they sow in the long run.  

[dronze]

Bellabie

Justice, I define, as giving each her due, by which I think is greatly related to Newton's third law, "every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Whilst I do see the merits of hoping that societal ideals and physics having the same alignment, I think that you're trying to oversimplify the human mind and the inherant issues of trying to get a tiered, pack animal mentality to actually work without childhood indoctrination and ignorance of the outside world... Besides, the "evils" of the world are what create progress. War is technology's biggest contributor. If it weren't for the atomic bomb, we might not even be sitting here having this conversation. (wondering how I mean that? Computers haven't changed conceptually since the development of the UNIVAC and ENIAC computers, used to run the original complex calculations required for the manhattan project... seriously, check it out.)

Quote:

In response to the idea that infinity is merely a concept to explain things, this mustn't be. (I hitherto have only heard opposition expressed as in reference to the universe, forgive me if there is something overlooked.) If one says that the universe is not infinite because of its constant expansion, one is then faced with their own definition.

Your definition of infinity is close, but not quite on the mark. Infinity is a mathematical means of expression for explaining a variable value that doesn't have a maximum value. The universe is finite, and, from recent observations, actually SLOWING in it's growth. It's far larger than our minds can truly comprehend, but isn't that why man created G*d to begin with, to explain what we con't concievably prove or don't have the information to explain something at the moment? Every culture throughout human history has had some kind of creation myth, and they can't ALL be right, if any of them even are.

One can say the the nihlist (sp?)/athiest point of view leads to a lack of morality and ethics because the view is that if there is nothing after we die, then what does right now matter? The logical response to that argument is that right now is all that matters, and being a decent human being for the sake of being a decent human being is far nobler than doing good for others for a gold star and a room in the clouds amongst the angels with a pile of virgins. That's like me saying you can either be a good person of your own accord, or you can be a good person because I'm offering you a wheelbarrow full of money... which person is truly worthy of admiration?

Though I think I may have gotten off track... Justice, in a capitalist sense of the term, means that you deserve everything you work for, positive or negative... the only difference here is that people are willing to stab other people over a pair of shoes or a woman, and the consequences of that are, indeed, justice, as twisted and screwed up as that may seem.  

[ShinBob]

Well their had to be a topic on God didn't they? It's extended discussion.

Where do I start? God to me doesn't really mean a great deal. To certain people, God fills them with hope, fury, all sorts of emotions however to me it just seems like a sort of escape. Like a drug!

What I mean is, he's* the main instigator of war, politics and ethnics. If he wasn't there, would we still fight, would all politics and ethnics join together, who knows because he's always been there. Yet the only time he seems to bring joy or hope is when we are faced with high emotion.We thank god if something good happens or we pray if were faced with death. High times.

And yes I do talk bollox! As your about to find out.

What if I told you that their isn't a god? But we are really just a smaller thing of another living thing. Atoms! Strange how the look like solar systems.  

[Kikki_Babii]

To me, God is like that one person in your life who, no matter how hard you try and how well you do, always expects more of you. It's the one person in your life who will always look at you after you just won a prize and are bouncing off the walls and say, "Is that all? Can't you do better?"

God is a forced idea. How many christians do you know that were not raised that way. Anyone else who hears of the religion has to actually contemplate it, because it's so demanding. Everyday I struggle to live up to my parents' Christian expectations, and I will never force that on my children. Ever.