The reality you exist in is intelligent and continues to become more and more intelligent as time passes. It seems to me that there must exist some ultimate eternal reality and if it is like ours then this ultimate eternal reality is also intelligent and has been increasing its intelligence for eternity. When you ask me, "What God is made of?", the answer that comes to mind is boundless intellect.

Begging the question in this post.

Think of the Spirit of Christmas. The Spirit of generosity. The spirit of Goodwill among men and women after 9/11 or Katrina. These are things which are non matter, but that exist primarily in our consciousness -- individually and socially -- and then manifest themselves in reality.

I think that's a reasonable way to look at God and understand that the spiritual reality doesn't have to exist in a material sense at all.

Not sure about false, but I would at least view it as irrelevant if no brain were thinking it. 1+1=2 is a concept, which does not and cannot physically exist, even if the premise were true without brains thinking about it. Unlike things like light or rocks which would exist whether a brain were thinking about them or not.

Secondly, this is a very difficult and complicated subject which I am not qualified to partake in. Much better thinkers than I (or you) have not been able to resolve the issue. I've seen some bunny posts which have done an excellent job of at least impressing me (I believe he thinks numbers actually exist). However, I do not and consider math a concept albeit a true one.

Lastly, you guys are trying to change the subject by throwing everything you can think of to divert attention away from the actual question of the OP. I played along for awhile, but am tiring of it. Things like evil and ideas like 1=1=2, are not applicable when it comes to creation, answering prayers or talking to people from behind burning bushes, and you know that. Stick to the OP or GTFO.

Let's not kid ourselves. Spirit of Christmas has become all about buying material things for your family.

But about your other points, what about the hate that Hitler felt for jews? That's not measured in matter. Does that mean it's part of the spiritual reality, a way to look at God?

Nowhere ITT did I say I have determined god does not exist. Normally you at least make an effort not to be this transparent when nitting up a thread in an attempt to divert attention from the fact you have no good answers to a legitimate question.

By the way, I recommend that you do this. You will find that there are many secular thinkers are not physicalists, so this particular issue doesn't exactly isolate theism as an aberrant belief (that is, the belief within theism that there exist non-physical objects is not unique to theism). In fact, in a survey of academic philosophers:

http://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl

If you really want to know more about this: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/

You bunch of idiots wikipedia'ing physical phenomena is not going to solve the spiritual debate of the last 2000 years.

For the record, if you don't know why photons have no rest mass, why they have momentum, how they are emitted, etc, then you're probably not qualified to explain to anyone here how they tie into your theory that everything that exists must be somehow related to the concept of an atom.

Sweeping generalization. Not relevant either way.

Hitler hating the Jews has nothing to do with God, even when you tie it to my point.

Yes though, your Hitler example has demonstrated that something can exist in reality without being matter.

Nevertheless, this being has been said to have physical characteristics, such as speaking, and if you believe in Jesus, then walking around touching things, etc. It has also been attributed to creating things. So please let's not quibble over thin differences in definitions (that's Aaron W's forte anyway). Whatever you want to call god, the question is, what is he comprised of? Is it atoms?

In thinking about it more, maybe I should allow something like a "force" similar to gravity as an answer. I'll have to think about what this means however. For instance, I think forces just interact and do not create. I could be wrong about that though. I suppose gravity can create a black hole or even a star, but to my knowledge it doesn't create matter. All the matter that ever was had been created in the earliest moments after the big bang AFAIK.

You gave examples of things that are not matter and tied it to spiritual reality and a way of looking at God. You made the connection between those two. Not me. I just gave you another example that's not matter and asked how you would view that.

Anyway, the hate, the love, it all exists in brain. Neurons are matter and if they don't fire, we don't feel anything. I wonder what brain scientists have to say about thoughts and feelings. Time to google

Um, atoms are not concepts. They actually exist. And everything else that exists IS related to atoms in some way. If not, please provide some examples other than evil or thoughts, etc.

You're mixing "atoms" and "energy" and "force" and "matter" and "create" and "exist" in ways that you probably shouldn't if you want to be speaking meaningfully.

Of course atoms exist, and for the record I believe air exists too, and the ground, and myself.

You are saying that God must be made up of atoms were he to exist, because everything we know that exists in the physical world is made of atoms. Atoms are considered the basic building block (they really aren't) of all matter, and it's this property you refer to when you make your argument. So really, it's the concept of an atom, not the physical definition that is important to your argument, hence why I used the word concept

Bear in mind your argument does have its merits. And you can learn a lot from other members here. But don't go overboard arguing points based on phenomena you have no formal understanding of.

Just because I can't prove something is impossible, doesn't mean that something has merit. We can't prove any existing religion, or the religion I'm making up in my head is impossible, but it doesn't mean they have merit.

Thanks. Looks interesting and I'll definitely read those links in their entirety when I have time. TBH, I never thought about whether I'm a phsyicalist or not. I didn't intend this thread to go into that. I was just curious what people think god is made of. I assume the best answer (or at least one where I'd be hardest pressed to argue), is that he is an exo-universal force similar to gravity or electromagnetism in this universe. Most wouldn't claim that god is of this universe, so I used the term exo.

You must also be careful to note that it doesn't mean they don't have merit too

I understand that, but Concerto's post indicated the inability to prove his beliefs impossible is evidence for their truth.

You're right. But you must be careful, many atheists argue that the inability for him to prove his belief's possible is evidence for their falsehood.

Some theists hold that light, rocks...everything that we think physically exists, only exists in the mind of God.

Imagine in your mind a stick man, if your brain was big enough you could imagine that stick man with intellect and free will navigating a world which only exists as a concept in your head. What would that stick man think his world was made of? Even if your stickman observed atoms which appear to have physical existence to him, they only exist because the mind of God is thinking about them.

If your considering the possibility of God existing, you can't assume that light and rocks would exist whether or not a brain was thinking about them.

Proving the negative and the affirmative are not the same thing. The inability to prove one's theistic beliefs is not in an of itself evidence of their falsehood, but it is more of a negative than the inability to prove the beliefs are impossible. It is also evidence of the irrational nature of making the leap to theism, especially something as specific as one religion over another. The burden of proof is on the believer. It requires no effort for me not to believe.

Is the mind of God really the mind of man?

You've just showed that the concept of god(s) can exist.

Now let us tackle whether or not a concept can raise the dead, part the sea, or speak through a burning bush, and we'll be making real progress.

Non-sequitur FTL.

You should have anticipated it. If you didn't anticipate it, it means that you don't really know much about what you're asking about. I don't think there are many theists who hold that God is physical.

I doubt this is true. If it were true, then why would you pre-reject answers?

Uhhhhh... yeah. This is more evidence to suggest that you weren't actually "curious what people think god is made of."