God Sex/Species

[airkooledchris]

When God is portrayed visually (art, books, television, text) - the common display is the old white haired white man.

I find this to be fairly arrogant and shortsighted when you consider how insignificant old white men are compared to the known universe.

My beliefs have changed regularly over my lifetime as I can never say, at any age, that I *know* what is true and am always open to differing idea's, but ive never been able to assign a visual image to what I believe God (we'll skip trying to define what that means for now) would look like.

Assigning a sex, let alone a species to this - I find too limiting to something that can create matter where there is only vacuum/space.

Do you assign a visual image to God, if you consider God in a traditionally theist sense?

[glasseye]

Which god?

[airkooledchris]

Which god?

If you define with Polytheism then it doesn't matter - pick one. How many do you have?

[glasseye]

Me, I don't have any. Unless you count Clapton. : )

[Velokid1]

The way most of us picture the concept of the Mind is how I picture the concept of God.

[Amskeptic]

When God is portrayed visually (art, books, television, text) - the common display is the old white haired white man.

I find this to be fairly arrogant and shortsighted

I have a representation of God that is a meld of a tiger's eyes and an androgenous human face overlaid over all of Creation. I see God as an Energy, not a scolding old doofus sitting on a throne.
Colin

[RSorak 71Westy]

I don't have an image of a non existent being.

[Velokid1]

What about aliens? Or ghosts? Or John Gault?

[RussellK]

I think of God as the name for what lives in your heart. When you feel goodness that is God speaking, badness the devil. I don't have any particular personal image for either but I really do love the white haired, Popeye armed images for God and the devil as a little red guy that sits on your shoulder and encourages you to steal the towels. 200 Motels?

[poptop tom]

I picture him driving a bus.

He has that hippy look going on.

[hambone]

God is Jupiter's big gas bag x infinity. God is the creator and source of everything. How can you have infinity? Everything has a source - and this source can be realized with a heartfelt search. All of the world's great spiritual traditions point to the same source, but the nut can only be cracked when it is ripe. "I've had enough of this shit".
We ourselves only exist from our own particular frame of reference. Zoom out, you have planets circling like bowling balls. Zoom in, it's molecules quivering like jelly balls. Hell, the sky isn't really blue. Logic is a very (very) local phenomena.
The ancient yogis call it in Sanskrit "sat chit ananda", meaning all existence is: existence, consciousness, and bliss. Bliss! Can you imagine? It is especially difficult being "trapped" as an embodied being in this temporary body in a temporary world, and mistaking it for permanence. That is our fatal flaw that keeps us from our true nature.
A wonderful question to ask ourselves is, "who am I?". Answer that question, you have it all. Or you can also ask, "what am I not?".

[JLT]

When God is portrayed visually (art, books, television, text) - the common display is the old white haired white man.

Blame Renaissance art for that. God is:

White, because the artists were white.

Male, because Catholicism was patriarchal.

Old, because God is .... old. Around before the Creation, in fact, which was put at around 5500 years ago, by Renaissance reckoning.

If you imagine the Deity as a sort of super-parent who loves you when you are good and punishes you when you were bad, I suppose it's natural to envision him as a sort of Big Grand-daddy.

On the other hand, Gandhi said that there are some people in this world who are so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

[Amskeptic]

I think the devil encourages you to steal the towels. 200 Motels?

That does it. I am going to hell.
Colin
(I,I,I,I, do exchange them . . . )

[rallybug]

When God is portrayed visually (art, books, television, text) - the common display is the old white haired white man.

Blame Renaissance art for that. God is:

White, because the artists were white.

Male, because Catholicism was patriarchal.

Old, because God is .... old. Around before the Creation, in fact, which was put at around 5500 years ago, by Renaissance reckoning.

If you imagine the Deity as a sort of super-parent who loves you when you are good and punishes you when you were bad, I suppose it's natural to envision him as a sort of Big Grand-daddy.

On the other hand, Gandhi said that there are some people in this world who are so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

Yup, the same people who characterized Jesus as a beardy white male - unusual for a person from an Aramaic-speaking area, I would say.

[Amskeptic]

Yup, the same people who characterized Jesus as a beardy white male - unusual for a person from an Aramaic-speaking area, I would say.

A beardy white pretty boy. You should see the art in middle America bible belt.
Colin