Think we can define God by defining the boundary beyond what human is capable of because God is beyond what we have, what we can etc. as we human being still have issues that we don't know what we don't know.  E.g. life after death, God is Trinity, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, alpha & omega etc.

God is Who creates and makes revelations with love for our salvation. Many of them are sensible but in others we need the help or aid via testimonies of others.

1) It's usually pointless to ask for definitions of concepts, as these require recourse to definitions

2) There's 2,500+ literature on this. I would recommend Sobel's Logic and Theism. I've attached a scan.

3) The idea of a definition of god flies in the face of an enormous number of modern deistic and similar religious beliefs.

For me, GOD is the totality of all virtues within an individual. Nothing other than that.

Think we can define God by defining the boundary beyond what human is capable of because God is beyond what we have, what we can etc. as we human being still have issues that we don't know what we don't know.  E.g. life after death, God is Trinity, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, alpha & omega etc.

God for me,

1. Something we don't know. As time passes, we learn new things, therefore more closer to GOD. 

2. The forces around me, be they other human beings or animals or power like magnetic or electric!!

In my view God in the true sense is this nature in which we live and that has a perfect balance and sequence of every event happening around us on earth as well as in universe.

The point 1 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church presents to God for its characteristics and what does He do, and the promised heritage in the Holy Spirit for his sons of adoption.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2.HTM

Markovic, if God is an abstraction, it could be only an idea which cannot exist in reality. But for many men God is real, He exists, and we have proofs, testimonies and words of Him conserved in the Sacred Bible. He is not an invention of our mind, He is/was sensible for certain men.

For example, the Christian people believe in God Jesus Christ, these who know/knew to Jesus in human and resurrected life, and others whom believe in Jesus for their testimonies.

Thank you, Markovic.

I understand God is real and He has many manifestations (examples of His reality). The supposition of God is not perceived for some people, it does not mean that He would be an abstraction for Moses or for all who believe in his words of truth about God manifestation and words. St. Thomas of Aquino explained the existence of God for five vias, from sensible realities which all we perceive to other metaphysic realities which explain those realities caused by these ones.

If God is only an abstraction without realities or examples of His manifestation, we would be all atheist and to talk of God would be a loss of time. There are people who believe in God because God has been manifested with power to the men in many occasions in the history and in the real present. Our actual existence has not reasonable explanation without real creator God father. We would not believe in the ethernal resurrection if God father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Church would not have explained to the men such future reality for the men and actual reality for Jesus.

On this question, I recommend this link in Spanish. I regret I do not dispose other translation to English.

http://infocatolica.com/blog/notelacuenten.php/1506150613-icomo-se-demuestra-la-existen#more28616

Sudev, do you know an individual with such characteristics you explain?

I think few men or women are or were with. Jesus for the Christian people.

I would submit that a great definition is Cantor's: aleph-infinite. And aleph-infinite cannot possibly have anything to do with human religions: you can't anthropomorphize the infinite (because of emergence and other considerations), which quite unfortunately most human religions appear to be doing.

I'm aware that some religions deny that God is infinite - which seems a very poor way to bypass the issues raised by infinity.

Infinity is a set attribute. Do you mean that God is a set?

 An extremely advanced astrophysicist who knows all the smooth rules of nature

It is an uncertainty of the universe. The rest is something that we are convinced enough

God is something we are not able to understand.

And HE (it seems) does not interest to understand us. We are probably too bad.

I think that God is that entity we need to explain the unknown or to make responsible for our abrupt happiness or unhappines. Out of any particular religion,  I truly believe that whenever something is behind us (v.g. natural or social events), something which the human mind can not rationally explain  by itsef, then the idea of God spout up, either to confirm its existente or to deny it. 

God is omnipresent. But we humans are very limited in realising.

Formal system of knowledge in the human mind needs closure. God is a meme, one of the basic archetypes for this. If short, the self-similarity of all physical processes in open system (Universe) is the main reason for the existence of this archetype.

It's a long story, but the man was actually created in the image of its creator. But at this point, there is one uncertainty problem. Our creator obliged to us for their existence exactly as much, as we obliged to it. Because we are part of it :)

Paradoxically, I have read no definition for the concept of God in this thread. For instance, if we accept as a definition the phrase "is infinite", we should accept "is about 1,70" as a definition for the man concept.

Dear Arno,

but what is your definition of God? Take into account that I am speaking about definition, but not about praise and adulation you can dedicate to him.

I think that God is who defines us as creatures, we do not define Him because He is not a concept but the reality who is and says us "I am". We could deduce his existence, but his characteristics are revealed, they are not conceptualized originally. From the revelation, we can extract properties and qualities of God.

Dear Mohamed El Naschie,

Perhaps, what you have defiined  the unit interval [0, 1] of the power set P(ℕ).

Dear Mohamed

Excuse me, I am wrong: I did not know that Cantor was a prophet. By contrast, I believe that prophet Muhammad claimed that we can know nothing about God, but the names we denote Him. A similar claim was stated by Mahavira the founder of jainism.

............A WORLD BEYOND YOUR THINKING.......AND A BELIEVE WHICH GIVES YOU A STIMULATION TO SURVIVE LIFE WHEN ALL YOU LOST

God on philosophical basis tends to be a thought or in scientific terms an energy which directly effects psychological thinking of a human being which makes him believe of an entity or again an energy which helps him but which is none other than a belief. As great Albert Einstein said : you cant separate faith from science, as to when science gets limited faith comes in, at that point its just a belief that helps which tends to make human grow his or her boundaries and explore more of science. We cant define God, obviously many would say god is there in this or that form or they have seen or felt it, ultimately its just the belief in oneself that makes you work, you need an inspiration and when humans dont find that in other people or any surrounding they tend to make up something or say even non believers start believing and name it and call GOD!

Dear Arnol,

What he is not, is easy to state.

Can you state a definition for the concept of God?

God is ultimately the biggest ever or the most significant imagination (idea) of human mind (brain); with the biggest, most effective and significant social consequences ever.

I am waiting for a definition, but till now, I have only read attributes or adulations.

I suppose that this is a scientific forum; however every message is far from looking like  a definition.

To redirect the topic, let us suppose that we are asked for defining the concept of emperor and we read something like the following:

It is great, it is powerful, it is the most beautiful....

I can interpret that these words are assigned to some animal, even  an algorithm.

Writing these sentences, perhaps some contributors gain a room in  heaven; however in the scientist kingdom, at least, it is doubtful.

In one of John Banville's novels, Shroud, a sentence appears before the text begins where a dedication would normally appear.  It goes something like this:

"We set up word[s] at the point where our ignorance begins, at which we can see no further,----- these are perhaps the horizon of our knowledge, but not 'truths'."  

I think God is such a word.  There is something immense and unknowable about parts of our experience and we use the word God to stand between us and that reality.  It  protects us from having to explore it in day to day life.

(Shroud, See: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/oct/13/fiction.johnbanville  )

I do not try to define the concept of God, because there are as different meanings for the word "God" as human beings using this term.

For Spinoza he is the whole Universe, and so is for Einstein, who claimed that his thought consists of the wonderful laws ruling the Universe, for some deists is the cause of Universe, for christians consists of three persons, for muslims and jews is one, for atheist is a human mind creation, for some people is anthropomorphic, for others is unknowable, etc... Summarizing, the term "God" is used with an endless set of different meanings. There are a lot of meanings assigned to the word "God"; hence when somebody says "God", it is not possible to know what the listener understands.

God is within everybody. Religion is the ways to learn the God or to achieve the God.

Just like the 'Darkness' is the 'Absence of Light'; 'Cold' is the 'Absence of Heat'.

'Evil' is the 'Absence of God'.

We study the 'Light' and 'Heat', but never the 'Darkness' and 'Cold'. So we study the 'God' but not the 'Evil'.

 It is not my statement, but it was told by 'Narendranath Datta' who is famous as a monk in the name 'Swami Vivekananda' (during 1863 to 1902).

In my opinion, it is a stable state of mind (God) when we are a real human and so 'Humanity' is the Universal Religion -  No Religion can be superior than 'Humanity'.

If one can control all the six ripues (enemies) inside the self through spiritual exercises e.g. through self-councelling and meditation, then he/she is a God.    

In Hindu culture, we call such great personalities as 'Paramhangso'.

These six enemies are . Kam (sex), Krodh (anger), Lov (desire to snatch), Mod (false ego), Moh (addiction to evil), Matsoryo (jealousy) as defined in "Geetha", a hindu-religious book.

So opening our 'Third-Eye' - the inner-eye is the achievement of 'God'- the 'Real Knowledge'.

God is another name of discipline and the power which always remind us the boundary beyond which we can not do any thing even with maximum effort.

What is God?

             Defining God must not be short, since not Devil, but also God lies all in the details. A brief account of details, stimulating, in my view, goes as follows.

             God is the universal consciousness entangled with every bit source of information (shortly info) in the universe. Info is physical and through Quantum Theory our universe bears digital character to the extent that everything boils down to an array of zeros and ones. Recall that purportedly the space-time itself is emergent from the informational quantum entanglement. Once upon a time, matter was made of atoms of Mendeleev`s periodic table. Now, in the language of sophisticated physics every object (it) is made of info atoms (bits or qubits) which serve as the ultimate building blocks of our universe. Entanglement amounts to rule/direct nature`s rhymes within the context of physical/natural laws. God intervenes the world through these laws, Who can strictly be ‘seen’ by minds (of certain depth), not eyes. In physics, randomness is a statistical symmetry that works perfect in the inanimate world of atoms/molecules. Unfortunately randomness is highlighted much to the ranks of Deity. Assuming ‘chance’ as an almighty/decisive factor is a grave mistake conducted often by scientists. Thermodynamic entropy is a measure of disorderness in our world. Orderness, or greater accuracy of knowledge acts inverse to the entropy, i.e. less info means more entropy and vice versa. The equivalence of thermodynamic and informational entropies is taken for granted.

           God`s effectiveness is to be realized wherever the statistical symmetry of randomness is broken/transcended in favor of emergent consciousness/intelligence. From this token Bayesian statistics proves more appropriate since it involves the factor of loaded info. The holistic grand sum encompassing all bits of conscious elements from atoms to galaxies make the Omni-potent/present/scient God. God`s creations can be understood through working rules: isn`t the spontaneous symmetry breaking, i.e. the `let there be mass` rule, in physics that generates mass? God put the rule, P.W. Higgs saw it, informed us  and as a result we have masses. Other properties of matter also derive from analogous symmetry principles. ‘In the beginning there was Word’ says Genesis, where Word must be taken as rules/orders encoded in our universe to make things work. And ‘God spoke the universe into being’ so that the Grand all-encoding universal consciousness gives birth to /creates the smaller scale bits of intelligence. Creativity of nature reflects nothing but the creativity of God. Whether creation occurs instantly (designed reduction of the universal consciousness) or in duration of time (the intelligently designed domino effect) does not differ. After all Einstein taught us that time is relative/observer dependent.

In conclusion, as scientists, under the light of sophisticated sciences of Relativity, Quantum and Information we have to say much more than simple, ‘God is God’. My final ‘Word’:

The entire natural laws that we study, research and teach to make our salaries are nothing but the infinite manifestations of the universal consciousness, that rules everything from within, and whose name is God ! Let this True God not be confused with the fake delusions and artificial gods devised by humans.

In my view God is supercomputer,and we are only software (working inside this computer).. Every person has code which is DNA and software is smart enought to reproduce itself however, it has also expire time (dead).. but when the software is expired, revolution is working and software upgrade itself.. so dead is not end, it is only upgrade of software into new version.. some software are able to understand the working principles of hardware of this computer,and laws of software, like physicist .. or scientist and which rules are governed it, however noone will totaly find it or be able to define it ..

All the fundemental particles in the universe are connected by the entanglement so we are all come from the bigbang... and we are connected..

I think, God is living and non living including matter, energy and space which is infinite. We assume the God as per our best knowledge of positivism. It is an ideology that who have made universe, run and control it.........

I think - in the definition of the majority -

God is an abstract (imaginative) body on which we depend only when we find no way, we rely & pray when we are in danger,  we blame when we fail. - But claim our own credit when success.

So it appears that the human nature is basically selfish and prefers to keep his burden on other's head. Now who will carry his burden? - so the answer is an undefined object God. We never try find our own mistakes: no self-analysis, no self-criticism.

Who created this Universe is unknown.  Since it is beyond our knowledge, we define as God.

So most of us search God to nurse our idle and selfish nature.  Those who are not so,  are the God.

So God is active, sincere, cooperative, kind, helpful, generous, sacrificing, who carry responsibities/burden of others, who acquires knowledge to distribute etc and last of all having infinite abilities to bear the the pains of all sorts of torturing and blaming by others.

If we define a concept, we create an idea. But God is not an idea, because we do not create to God. We could have an idea of God, but God is not an idea. For the true faith we discover to God in this world.

 I am agree with Dr. Han Ping Fung.

It appears to me that as if 'God' is a 'Source' as well as 'Sink' - it can create all the Positive forces and can absorb all the Negative radiations in the Human Society.

In case of Heat and Thermodynamics - we have the concepts of source and sink.

We have the 'Sun' as the infinite Source of  Light and Energy e. g.  lives.

Again always please remember that "Science"  is to satisfy our Physical needs and Culture (Music, Drama, Arts etc) are for our Mind.

 'God' is a concept created by the Mind only.  So first we have to Unify the Mind (sole) and Physique (body). Then only the question of defining the God scientifically arise.

So I suggest to give more attention to find the relations between Body and Mind.

Why I am idle? Why I am depressed? Why I like to harass others? Why I am selfish? Why I have the jealousy at your success? Why I harm you being your closest neighbour? Why we make a suicide? Why we revenge? Why I am a terrorist? Why I am snatching/cheating others? Why I disturb others? Why I am not cooperative? Why I feel to punish other? Why I prefer to defeat others rather than winning?

Why I cannot love everybody like my self?

All above are animal properties. An animal is a living body made of blood and flesh.  But please note God has given us a Mind and the Language to speak. 

Again please note, I have Schizophrenia, I have heart disease, I have Kidney problems, I am a mental patient, I am anxious, I am less active. Could you please answer them where lies the root?

Again I think,  'God' can be treated as a spirit that inspire our mind to do positive activities. That spirit  provide the life in a body  and start pumping the heart.  As it can inspire our mind, it is a kind of source of Energy. Absence of this Energy that is the absence of God is the evil - Just like absence of Light is darkness, absence of Heat is cold. So 'God' might be a kind of 'Energy/force' that activate our 'Heart' and inspire our 'Mind'.

I think, God can be treated as a wave. The associated particle interacts only with minds. If we say the particle is God, then reverse is Anti-God. The laws of force can be defined as - God attracts God, but repels Anti-God.

If all the particles are Anti-God then only annihilation/destructions;

If all the particles are God, then only creations and no destructions;

If both the particles are present, then all sorts of possibilities are there.

I believe that the scientific laws should be different from matter as God is an immaterial entity.

Am I close to the real social situation in my model of 'How to define God?'  ???

Please make comments - I would appreciate.

Just like - "Heat and Thermodynamics",  "Light and Optics"  -

Can we define "God and Humanism"?

Please, don't forget that this is a scientific forum. Humor is important, but in other arena.

One can feel God 

Dear Arno,

Excuse me, your messages are serious. My comment is more general, otherwise my message begin with "Dear Arno".

Dear Arno, I think that you are right...

I like both the comments by Arno Goegels and Juan-Esteban Palomar Trarancon.

If we are not able to define the God, then we cannot proceed if something better could be done using the entity.

So I request you to try for more appropriate definition of God.

Humor is always important to relax our Mind. So it is again related with God, I think. 

Can you define happiness and quantity?

We feel intuitions, hence we know them, but we cannot export them to other particular consciousness. By contrast, those objects we know by deduction, we can only know through some constructive or deductive definition.

In other words, if somebody denotes by "god" some particular intuition, perhaps he cannot build a definition. It is a personal true, that cannot be exported; therefore there is no room for this true in science. Science must be universal knowledge. By contrast, if somebody denotes by "god" something that he have deduced from the real world, a definition can be build by the same logic.

Dear All,

I agree with Mariano. Humans cannot define God. We only try to define outputs of our imagination and fragments of our perception. We are not even able to define objectively approachable events and phenomena. God belongs to a dimension we are not able either to approach or to imagine.

"God is life; God is truth"    — Swami Vivekananda

Self-analysis, Self-criticism, and "Finding the own mistakes rather than blaming others" -

are the best three exercises we need for self-improvement and to realize the existence of the God inside our own heart.

Only after understanding the spirit - one can define the God?

AGHAM BRIHMASMI

I accept divine guidance and am always safe.

Thinking where research ends and spirituality starts

A place where science ends and spirituality beginsss

God is a feeling ; you love your mom but you cannot tell why; like wise we all feel God; we say God will come in the form of good people; 

GOD is the idea of a physical or mental perfection, which is needed by any human being under certain circumstances.  God is a limit to our power of acting and thinking. Under pressure we all need a GOD.

God will come in the form of people when you feel helpless

Thank