Is it possible for God to assume the form of different avatars? (user search)
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  Is it possible for God to assume the form of different avatars? (search mode)
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Author Topic: Is it possible for God to assume the form of different avatars?  (Read 2447 times)
Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden
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« on: November 01, 2013, 11:18:51 PM »

I think I kind of get what you mean, but could you be more specific?  In what ways is God imagined differently?
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Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden
Just Passion Through
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« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2013, 11:44:03 PM »

I think I kind of get what you mean, but could you be more specific?  In what ways is God imagined differently?

It could be in an infinite different ways, as long as you were imagining God the almighty. For instance, suppose that a person living in South Asia in the 5th c. BC had never been exposed to scripture, yet somehow came to believe in an ultimate being, by definition the creator of the universe, all powerful and sentient, yet conceived of this person as a woman named Tapati, dressed in red and riding a horse? And prayed to this avatar? Would God respond? Of course he would- because we do not know God's form, if he even has one. Would this be any less legitimate than a burning bush or an old guy with long flowing beard? Each of these is only for human consumption.

I see.  My only problem with that is people tend to use the Humanization of God to make God something that was created in the image of man; sharing our prejudices, our selfish desires, our politics, our thirst for vengeance against those who do us wrong, etc.  Eventually you get a God whose ethics are completely in conflict with each other but is only considered good because He or She mirrors he who conceived of Him.  Don't get me wrong - I think theists should believe that which makes them have a personal relationship with God, but the potential for abuse should not be ignored.
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Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden
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« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2013, 01:10:08 PM »

You're going around in circles a little. My exact phrase was; 'Man has always made god in his own image', which never suggests that there is never an actual god, merely that man constructs that which he believes to be god in the image that is most useful to him. I posted about it in great depth here; https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=178083.msg3846367#msg3846367

But it does imply that Man always chooses what form(s) God may take and that God has no ability to choose which form ey uses.  Now, I do believe that if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, then ey has no free will, so in that sense God would be constrained to appear in the form(s) that Man would be most receptive to, which would be in line with what you said in that post of yours you linked. Yet that makes another assumption, that God cares to influence Man. It's an assumption that I hold to, but the contrary could be the case.

How can God be omnipotent and at the same time have no free will?
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Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden
Just Passion Through
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« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2013, 03:38:18 PM »

I do believe that if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, then ey has no free will.

How can God be omnipotent and at the same time have no free will?

Choices have consequences.  God's omnibenevolence constrains em to select the choice that omniscience informs em to have the greatest good.  If God were free to chose otherwise, ey could not be omnibenevolent.

But is not every act of God 'good' by definition?  If God is the highest good, there is nothing to inform Him of His choices.
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