I'm making this thread so no one yells at rize. Every theist seems to love the version of God that they believe in.

1. Is this universally true?

2. What are the implications of this?

To add some content, I'll give some opinion of my own. I imagine most do love God, but they would also love nearly any other version of Him if they were another religion. What's not to love? Life, free will, forgiveness. It's a pretty sweet deal, iyam.

So does this mean that theists will shape their view of God to fit what they like? Probably. But that doesn't say anything about the true nature of God. Though we all experience Him differently, he does have a singular true identity.

Did I do this right?

It's a problem for us if we claim to have special knowledge of 'the real God' as many theists do. It presents another situation where there is a plausible counter to the theists' belief as to why we find God nice. Maybe it's because he's the ultimate arbiter of goodness, so of course he's nice. Isn't it more plausible that we've invented him to match our conception of niceness?

I'll let you know after I meet Him.

You seem to already know about his intentions and characteristics given that you asked him to help your ailing father at the hospital. This implies that you already believe something about god's nature...but of course, when challenged on it directly, you retreat to vagueness.

I was making a joke.

I'll be very surprised if any theists answer "no". That would be quite an unusual position. "God is real and I worship Him, and of course I want to get into heaven, but from what I can tell He's really not all that likeable. I dislike God, but I respect Him, that's the important thing."

If theism was evidence-based this wouldn't be a near impossible position to hear someone holding.

But of course, it isn't based on evidence. God is an idealized concept in the same way that artists would never draw the imperfections, such as baldness or fatness when depicting a king...and abandoning reality in this way in art was celebrated and encouraged.

Gods were idealized in the same way, some of the attributed characteristics to many of the gods, including the christian god, have already been disproven through scientific study.

there is no such thing as a god, all levels of man have had gods throughout history the Aztecs the Egytians they are all man created to control men if there is a theist or a god in any form he is not the god of any of the man made religions

God is Love...what's not to like?

Welp, that settles it. Thanks for figuring it all out for us plebians.

If you didn't notice, the thread was suggesting that the ideas and characteristics that you and the bible attribute to your god are attributed to him for purposes of subconscious (or conscious) comfort and consolation, and not because they are the most likely characteristics of god given any set of data, information, or evidence.

All you did was restate your unsupported assertions about god's idealized characteristics.

Try supporting, not asserting. You might get somewhere.

Well regarding the OP post a while back I read an article that polled people in the U.S. on the nature of God. There were 4 basic versions of the nature of God that people ascribed to. One of them was a fearful sort so I don't think the universal statement made by the OP is true if that poll is to be believed. Some people do believe in God and have a more fearful approach to him. Of course fear usually means "awe or respect" in my interpretation of the bible.

So then tell us some of the characteristics of your god. I recall you saying that you believe god intervenes, and you said recently that you were praying for god to help an ailing family member.

So far as I can tell: you think "god" created the universe with some sort of plan or direction that is beneficial or helpful to it's inhabitants, you think he knows about what goes on in the universe, (or he wouldn't even know about you, your prayers, your ailing family member, etc.) you think he has the power to use that knowledge in order to heal people. You believe there is some sort of afterlife that is enjoyable.

What you seem not to understand is this is exactly how most humans are bound to wish the cosmos to be. This belief quels many natural fears in humans - fear of death (now you never die, because there's another life to go to after this one! yay!), fear of suffering, not having or not knowing humans ultimate place in the universe. Added benefits such as seeing long past family members in the afterlife, and immortality since it seems you have not indicated that there is an end to the afterlife you believe in.

All of this is how humans are bound to wish the universe to be. It's great stuff for making people feel good, making them feel like they know exactly why they're here, where they're going, what they will do when they get there, etc. It removes the sense of complete chaos that actually has ruled humans lives for thousands of years. Humans have been chased, frightened, scared by multiple natural phenomena over time...tornados, tsunamis, asteroid impacts, droughts, hunger, etc. Religion is the one way in which they can finally once and for all feel that they are safe and in control.

But are you actually in control? Honestly, can you really say that it is anything more than desperate wishful thinking?

You are painting a picture of how you want the cosmos to be and simply pretending that it's true, without pondering or exploring the validity of any other scenario which may not be as appealing to your secret wishes and hopes.

How about you address the issue in the OP instead of scanning through the thread to tear apart some noobs comment and then running away.

Nothing's ever fun for you, is it?

In before and after ad hominems....

Did you borrow somebody's sense of humour for a moment?

yawn

Too lazy to search for it. But this topic seems related to the thread several months ago discussing a study that showed - IIRC - that when people thought about the opinion of other people, one are of the brain lit up, but when people thought about their opinions of God, the area of their brain that matched up with their own personal beliefs lit up.

(probably mangling it a bit, but I think that was the general gist).

Ah yes, the "What part of your brain lights up?" thread.

I thought it was pretty interesting...

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...74106.abstract
Believers’ estimates of God’s beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people’s beliefs
Abstract

People often reason egocentrically about others’ beliefs, using their own beliefs as an inductive guide. Correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that people may be even more egocentric when reasoning about a religious agent’s beliefs (e.g., God). In both nationally representative and more local samples, people’s own beliefs on important social and ethical issues were consistently correlated more strongly with estimates of God’s beliefs than with estimates of other people’s beliefs (Studies 1–4). Manipulating people’s beliefs similarly influenced estimates of God’s beliefs but did not as consistently influence estimates of other people’s beliefs (Studies 5 and 6). A final neuroimaging study demonstrated a clear convergence in neural activity when reasoning about one’s own beliefs and God’s beliefs, but clear divergences when reasoning about another person’s beliefs (Study 7). In particular, reasoning about God’s beliefs activated areas associated with self-referential thinkingmore so than did reasoning about another person’s beliefs. Believers commonly use inferences about God’s beliefs as a moral compass, but that compass appears especially dependent on one’s own existing beliefs.

That's the one. Don't know if its been replicated yet, but fascinating study

I've said before that I thought that if God exist, then He only intervenes on very rare occasions...to keep us humanity from going down a path which would significantly harm us(e.g. he fixed it so the Allies would win WWII or prevents a nuclear holocaust).

....but maybe He intervenes on a more personal level too.

How do God fearing religious people like God? I could understand them saying that they are God fearing and respect God.
Guess I need to do more study.