Challenging question:

It's easier for me to answer what God is not. I can't speak for all INFJs [too much pressure] but I agree with you. God is not some angry old white guy who punishes people and seems to be in a lousy mood most of the time ["Get off my cloud!"]. It hasn't been so long ago that I quit going to Mass and quit teaching catechism. Church/temple should be a sanctuary and a place of peace. Instead it became a source of great stress for me. Now I participate in a weekly Buddhist meditation although I'm not a Buddhist. I don't have a problem with anyone's religion -- or lack of religion. Whatever makes a person a better person is great. Religion isn't the real problem in the world. Radicalism is.

Back to the question: I still can't describe God. I'm not sure that I have the right to describe God really. But when I taught catechism, I taught the new converts that whatever faith they were leaving was in essence the same faith they were entering. All religions, when stripped down to the essentials speak of the same things: unconditional love, "what goes around comes around," consciousness and compassion.

Recently, I read an article that one famous INFJ who, despite being a Baptist minister, questioned and doubted basic Christian teachings early in his religious education. Yet he knew how to harness the essentials to appeal to people regardless of varied beliefs and practices. Article about Dr Martin Luther King Jr here:
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

I consider myself spiritual rather than religious. To believe we, as humans, are almighty is megalomania to me. There is something about churches that unconsciously draws me. Maybe it is just my curiosity that drives me but I always have to have a look inside. Standing in the entrance the scent of history from the wooden benches instantaneously triggers something in me. I notice the worn stone floor with traces of the blessed and mourning ones. I walk the same path, look up and my eyes catch the small boats hanging from the ceiling. I look down and try to make out the scripting about the souls put to rest hundreds of years ago right underneath my feet. Something makes me lower my voice into a whisper. Respect for something whether that being a source of energy, an artefact of history, or the collective mind in that very moment.

i love to philosophize about things like this...

sublimeallusion.wordpress.com/200...men/

I studied other religions long, long ago, but still retain my original beliefs. I do believe in God and a place referred to as heaven. I do not, however, believe in literal translations of the Old Testament, especially after researching it. Although many people poopoo religion, I can see its place and why it formed, the structure that was needed way back when. My view is more universal now. You won't find me looking down on anyone who believes differently from myself, for I believe we are all linked / connected.... and are on our own paths. Even though I belong to a religion, I am marrying into an atheist family. Doesn't bother me at all. And I hope they aren't bothered by me. :o)

While I don't consider myself "religious" at all, I am extremely spiritual. Religion/Spirituality fascinates me, and I love learning about other people's beliefs.

Do I believe in God? Absolutely. Do I believe in any particular "brand" of God? Not really, at least not in the sense that most do. I don't go regularly, but when I do I go to a Baptist church, not because our beliefs line up necessarily, but more because that's what I grew up with and that's what I'm comfortable with. I believe that God is bigger and more complicated than we realize and understand... maybe even more than we can possibly understand. Like the Hindu story about the blind men and the elephant, people tend to assume that the part of God that they encounter is the entirety of God. Talk about megalomania ;) Then, of course, they have wars with the people who dare suggest God is any different from they way they imagined. (sigh) I don't think religion is the problem, though. I agree that dogmatic radicalism is.

As someone else in this thread hinted at, I have a real hard time believing anything because someone else tells me to. I have a hard time accepting things based on "authority", and I'm deeply suspicious of anyone who claims to speak for God. Instead, I have to figure things out for myself (or at least have them explained to me in a way I can understand), and I can only believe the things that make some kind of sense to me. That also means that my beliefs change over time, since my understanding changes.

This is an excerpt from the book "Journey Of Souls" - Michael Newton, which I found really interesting and exciting:


I was now approaching the final phase of my session with Case 23. It was
necessary to apply additional deepening techniques because I wanted Thece to
reach into the highest recesses of her superconscious mind to talk with me
about space-time and the source.

Dr. N: Thece, we are coming to the end of our time together and I want you to
turn your mind once again to the source-creator. (pause) Will you do that for
me?

S: Yes.

Dr. N: You said the ultimate objective of souls was to seek unification with the
supreme source of creative energy-do you remember?

S:... The act of conjunction, yes.

Dr. N: Tell me, does the source dwell in some special central space in the spirit
world?

S: The source is the spirit world.

Dr. N: Then why do souls speak of reaching a core of spiritual life?

S: When we are young spirits we sense power around us everywhere and yet
we feel we ... are on the edge of it. As we grow older there is an awareness of
a concentrated power, but it is the same feeling.

Dr. N: Even though you have called this the place of the Old Ones?

S: Yes, they are part of the concentrated power of the source which sustains
us as souls.

Dr. N: Well, lumping this power together as one energy source, can you
describe the creator in more human terms?

S: As the ultimate selfless being which we strive to be.

Dr. N: If the source represents all the spirit world, how does this mental place
differ from physical universes with stars, planets, and living things?

S: Universes are created-to live and die-for the use of the source. The place of
spirits ... is the source.

Dr. N: We seem to live in a universe which is expanding and may contract
again and eventually die. Since we live in a space with time limitations, how
can the spirit world itself be timeless?

S: Because here we live in non-space which is timeless ... except in certain
zones.

Dr. N: Please explain what these zones are.

S: They are ... interconnecting doors ... openings for us to pass through into a
physical universe of time.

Dr. N: How can time-doors exist in non-space?

S: The openings exist as thresholds between realities.

Dr. N: Well, if the spirit world is non-dimensional, what kind of reality is that?

S: A constant reality state, as opposed to the shifting realities of dimensional
worlds which are material and changing.

Dr. N: Do past, present, and future have any relevance for souls living in the
spirit world?

S: Only as a means of understanding succession in physical form. Living here
... there is a ... changelessness ... for those of us not crossing thresholds into
a universe of substance and time.

Note: A major application of time thresholds used by souls will be examined in
the upcoming chapter on life selection.

Dr. N: You speak of universes in the plural. Are these other physical universes
besides the one which contains Earth?

S: (vaguely) There are ... differing realities to suit the source.

Dr. N: Are you saying souls can enter various rooms of different physical
realities from spiritual doorways?

S: (nods) Yes, they can-and do.

Before concluding the session with this highly advanced subject, I should add
that most people who are in deep hypnosis are able to see beyond an Earth
reality of three-dimensional space, into alternate realities of timelessness. In
the subconscious state, my subjects experience a chronology of time with their
past and present lives which resembles what they perceive when conscious.
There is a change when I take them into superconsciousness and the spirit
world. Here they see the now of time as one homogeneous unit of past,
present, and future. Seconds in the spirit world seem to represent years on
Earth. When their sessions are over, clients will often express surprise at how
time in the spirit world is unified.

(...)

I had been questioning Thece for quite a while and I could see she was
growing tired. Few subjects can sustain this level of spiritual receptivity for
very long. I decided to end the session with a few questions about the genesis
of all creation.

Dr. N: Thece, I want to close by asking you more about the source. You have
been a soul for a long time, so how do you see yourself relating to the oneness
of creation you told me about earlier?

S: (long pause) By sensations of movement. In the beginning there is an
outward migration of our soul energy from the source. Afterward, our lives are
spent moving inward ... toward cohesion and the uniting ...

Dr. N: You make this process seem as though a living organism was expanding
and contracting.

S: ... There is an explosive release ... then a returning ... yes, the source
pulsates.

Dr. N: And you are moving toward the center of this energy source?

S: There really is no center. The source is all around us as if we were ... inside
a beating heart.

Dr. N: But, you did say you were moving back to a point of origin as your soul
advanced in knowledge?

S: Yes, when I was thrust outward I was a child. Now I'm being drawn back as
my adolescence fades ...

Dr. N: Back where?

S: Further inside the source.

Dr. N: Perhaps you could describe this energy source through the use of colors
to explain soul movement and the scope of creation.

S: (sighs) It's as if souls are all part of a massive electrical explosion which
produces ... a halo effect. In this ... circular halo is a dark purple light which
flares out ... lightening to a whiteness at the edges. Our awareness begins at
the edges of brilliant light and as we grow ... we become more engulfed in the
darker light.

Dr. N: I find it hard to visualize a god of creation as cold, dark light.

S: That's because I am not close enough to conjunction to explain it well. The
dark light is itself a ... covering, beyond which we feel an intense warmth ...
full of a knowing presence which is everywhere for us and... alive!

Dr. N: What was it like when you were first aware of your identity as a soul
after being pushed out to the rim of this halo?

S: To be... is the same as watching the first flower of spring open and the
flower is you. And, as it opens more, you become aware of other flowers in a
glorious field and there is ... unbounded joy.

Dr. N: If this explosive, multi-colored energy source collapses in on itself, will
all the flowers eventually die?

S: Nothing is collapsing ... the source is endless. As souls we will never die-we
know that, somehow. As we coalesce, our increasing wisdom makes the
source stronger.

Dr. N: Is that the reason the source desires to perform this exercise?

S: Yes, to give life to us so we can arrive at a state of perfection.

Dr. N: Why does a source, who is ostensibly perfect already, need to create
further intelligence which is less than perfect?

S: To help the creator create. In this way, by self-transformation and rising to
higher plateaus of fulfillment, we add to the building blocks of life.

Dr. N: Were souls forced to break away from the source and come to places
like Earth because of some sort of original sin or fall from grace in the spirit
world?

S: That's nonsense. We came to be ... magnified ... in the beautiful variety of
creation.

Dr. N: Thece, I want you to listen to me carefully. If the source needs to be
made stronger, or more wise, by using a division of its divine energy to create
lesser intelligence which it hopes will magnify-doesn't this suggest it lacks full
perfection itself?

S: (pause) The source creates for fulfillment of itself.

Dr. N: That's my point. How can that which is absolute become more absolute
unless something is lacking?

S: (hesitates) That which we see to be ... our source ... is all we can know,
and we think what the creator desires is to express itself through us by ...
birthing.

Dr. N: And do you think the source is actually made stronger by our existence
as souls?

S: (long pause) I see the creator's perfection ... maintained and enriched... by
sharing the possibility of perfection with us and this is the ultimate extension
of itself

Dr. N: So the source starts out by deliberately creating imperfect souls and
imperfect life forms for these souls and watches what happens in order to
extend itself?

S: Yes, and we have to have faith in this decision and trust the process of
returning to the origin of life. One has to be starving to appreciate food, to be
cold to understand the blessings of warmth, and to be children to see the
value of the parent. The transformation gives us purpose.

Dr. N: Do you want to be a parent of souls?

S: ... Participation in the conception of ourselves is ... a dream of mine.

Dr. N: If our spirits did not experience physical life, would we ever know of
these things you are telling me about?

S: We would know of them, but not about them. It would be as if your spiritual
energy were told to play piano scales with only one note.

Dr. N: And do you believe if the source didn't create souls to nurture and
grow, its sublime energy would shrink from a lack of expression?

S: (sighs) Perhaps that is its purpose.

With this last prophetic statement by Thece, I ended the session. As I brought
this subject out of her deep trance, it was as though she were returning to me
from across time and space. As she sat quietly focusing her eyes around my
office, I expressed my appreciation for the opportunity of working with her on
such an advanced level. Smiling, the lady said if she had any idea of the
grilling in store for her, she might well have refused to work with me.
As we said goodbye, I thought about her last statements concerning the
source of life. In ancient Persia the Sufis had a saying that if the creator
represents absolute good, and therefore absolute beauty, it is the nature of
beauty to desire manifestation.

There are enough synchronicities, and ironies, that I conceive God to be a creative scource not unlike shakespere making comedies and tragedies for beauty's sake. We are the actors on the stage of the universe, our individual lives may be comic or tragic, but at a deeper level the lives we think define us are just the roles we play... and like really good actors we forget for a time who we really are off the stage. However, death the "curtain call" restores us to what we are, and like most actors we go home (to whatever that state is), relax and get ready for our next performance which I'd presume to be another life.

In this sense villians, heros, foolish knaves, wise men, and wealthy merchant kings that make up the people in this world are really in essence equal, none is worse or better deserving heaven or hell anymore than you'd punish one actor for playing "Iago" from Othello with eternal torment because he was convincingly evil. Off the stage, the actors are just actors, they are not to be confused with the characters they play, though the characters they play may represent a part of who they are and may be an experiance that they allowed themselves to be immersed in fully and convincingly.

God, the playright just keeps creating stories, think about the diversity of stories in the people you've known, the variety, the complexity and richness of detail... he/she is pretty good at it. Of course, this is all a metaphor to things that could never be represented otherwise, those who say that God and ourselves are expressions of energy and pattern beyond our understanding seem to be correct as well.

i was raised christian, and i dig on spirituality alot. as i get older, it does sometimes seem just another "-ity" or "-ophy" among many, but it s working for me...(does any o that make sense?)

i pray thanks to many gods and goddesses: the sun (the source), the universe, change, synchronicity, "jesus, buddha & everyone else" -seems there are modes of divinity to meet me at any level of my awareness.
if i am aware of myself as part of this earth (another god?) in a moment, i may pray to the sun, as all the plants seem to be doing, and i may dream to 'come back' to be a tree - in constant prayer.
if i am aware of myself as a being of light or energy in some moment i may wonder at the chaotic symphonic perfection of the universe as reflected in my experience of myself and the responses i get through the worlds of people and events, synchronicity
...i am grateful to the spirits of my family and lineage i can feel with me,
i am grateful for snatches of memory much older than i and this body...

it s often when things are going really good or really not so good that my truth comes out, and i can say i am very much focused on what i in this mind and body, can do to meet the goddesses halfway, and in that i recognize another recognition:
that i am goddess, too.
or universal energy momentarily transfixed, an occurence within an occurence within an occurence, and exponentially soforth...

thanks for having this discussion folks.

I guess I believe in a universal force of justice, if not necessarily a sentient being that is 'in our image'. I do believe that our intentions and actions together create consequences that are inevitable and appropriate, even if they don't seem that way at the time. I think we are intended to grow towards some goal (oneness with all people? I'm not sure) and that all our experiences are preparing us for that goal. At least, that's how I like to think when things are going badly - that I'm just being prepared for something greater.

Like a lot of you I don't think of god in terms of a person, the classic old man in robes dictating his own personal views on good and evil on us all.

To me, god is everything, and nothing. God is more an "it" than a "he." If god were to be anything at all it would be something like a small child or an animal. Something inherently innocent.
This is going to sound a little out there, but has anyone seen the first pokemon movie? Mew? He's what god is like. All powerful, but so overwhelmingly sweet and good.

I don't really think I believe in hell. No one, and i mean no one, deserves to burn for an eternity.

I definitely think god is more an energy.. I don't think that it has much concern for the everyday comings and goings of humankind. It's not like the bible. There are no 10 commandments. If anything, the purpose of life is to live. Live happily, love yourself, love others, enjoy what earth has to offer without in any way taking from the experience of another individual.

Questioning god isn't an act of evil, it's human nature; I think that by pondering the existence of god, we become closer to it.

That's my spin on it anyway. I also don't exactly think there's a right or wrong answer to the question though.. I think it's better to believe in something than nothing at all.

That which can be explained is not God.

......and also.....

You'll know it when you feel it.

I think I could simply say ditto to the last two post but that would just be too simple. Since I like to complicate things I must elaborate. God to me is the Tao, it is the Wu Chi, it is beyond space and time with no opposite. To name it is to know it not.

But having said that I like to make up a meaning that works for me (today anyway). It resonate most to my physical brain as light and the joy behind the playful illusion. The energy in all things.

Personifying it can be wonderful but every time I try to do that it seems to dissolve or morph - like standing on solid ground that turns to quicksand or standing on a nice solid iceberg that begins to melt. It is easier I guess, for me, to say what it is not!