Faith Seeks Understanding Pt.1: What Is God?

[VanessaTexasGal]

the one thing I don't get, and I'm genuinely curious about the answer, is: god is "being itself". But isn't that a useless definition of god? If god is being, then it basically means that god is everything, which would be pantheism. and in that case, why would we even need the word god? Am I missing the point here?

[HopefulSaint]

@VanessaTexasGal You're issue there is that you take God as not "being itself" but "all beings themselves" which, as you correctly saw, is pantheism. But to put God as all beings is still not to put him as being itself. God as being itself means that he is existence, not in the sense of "all things that exist," but in the sense that through God, these things contingently exist rather than non-exist.

[MichaelGuardia887]

God can be experienced or known intimately by some of us, like in the case of Moses.But God cannot be known completely by any intellect.We will be spending our eternity in Heaven, knowing more and more about God.The same is true of the angels.For no intellect, whether saintly or angelic, can ever know or contain God completely.If God can be contained in any intellect, then He is not INFINITE.But we know that God is INFINITE.

[kyzersoze74]

So bottom line God cannot be known? Yet how is it that "Moses knew God face to face/intimately"? And Jesus say "this is the way to eternal life/salvation, to know you, the only true God"?

[kyzersoze74]

So bottom line God cannot be known? Yet how is it that "Moses knew God face to face/intimately"?

[uncatila]

Fr Baron you must be famous because you don't have time to respond to email.

[billybagbom]

@3rosesred Yeah, that shocked me, too. But that doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't a nice person.

[spjohnso]

God is being itself. That's all well and good but how has he come to this definition of God. Has God revealed himself, or after having decided God must exist did we create a definition that cannot be refuted - perhaps these are not the only options available.

More food for thought: If God is existence, and existence is consciousness(this is where we come in), than are we not God?!

The gnostics were right! And the quantum physicists!

[billybagbom]

@spjohnso A rock exists. I have no reason to believe a rock is conscious. I have no reason to believe that a rock is god. (Metaphorically, God might be a Rock, for all I know...)

[spjohnso]

@billybagbom I don't think that there will ever will be a consensus on who and/or what God is; however, I wouldn't discourage anyone trying to seek out an answer - be they atheists or believers. We might be better off focusing more on who/what we are, what we can find out about our place in the universe; stop barking at each other about our personal definitions of God, and stop trying to control each other.

[billybagbom]

@spjohnso Amen, brother!

[spjohnso]

God is being itself. That's all well and good, but how does he come to this conclusion?

More food for thought: if existentce is consciousness(this is where we fit in), and God is existence, then we are God!

The gnostics were right!

And the quantum physicists!

[Felix1531]

Good stuff Father Barron. Love your videos.

[Jim1905]

Brilliant title! Fides Quaerens Intellectum! That's exactly what christianity needs, step away from the fundamentalists and follow the path laid fourth by Augustine.

[scienceatheism]

so it is true what the atheist experience says. theists, theologians especially twists reason around to fit there beliefs. he kind of admits this fact, in kind of a back door kind of way.

[bigguitar22]

What is god? If this lot dont know then it's a bit of a poor show?They have dedicated their lives to something they cannot identify? How does Thomas Aquinas know, did god speak directly to him? Divinity is the study of something we cant know and prove and this can occupy us forever without getting us nearer to an answer. Wouldn't an intervening and caring god make himself known? Maybe that would be too convenient because we wouldn't need priests to interpret the unknown to us.....would we?????

[peipappy1]

@bigguitar22 "Wouldn't an intervening and caring god make himself known?" Well, yes He would and yes He has. You can't blame God for your unbelief even when He manifests Himself in the order and patterns of  nature, in miracles, apparitions and in human form. Are you that insecure that you have to have Him come down and hold your hand for you and take care of all your booboos before you can say "I believe"? That is a juvinile understanding of God or what God is suppose to be.

[skewed12]

Essentially you argue that if one desires something then it exists.

But by that logic fairies, unicorns, giants, and so on must exist, too, as their are people out there who desire such to exist.

Some people desire magic rocks which, when pressed against the skin, can heal a person of his cancerous insides; does that mean such rocks exist as well? Or would that just be absurd?

[livelaughlove311]

@skewed12

Desire is different than necessity. He used the example of food, not unicorns. People need happiness, love, and ultimately those things can only be fulfilled in their entirety by God who is Love and Truth itself.

[DavidCastoe]

@livelaughlove311 Happiness and love through friends and family, is allot more fulfilling than from an invisible man in the sky.

[sleepyhead4]

@skewed12 Do not forget possible in God. God is beyond Possible. He is necessary. God is not posited. So if God does not imagine it then it is absurd. So God's creation agrees with you fairies, unicorns and giants don't exist, because they are absurd.

[Nzie]

great opener- posted to facebook and hope to see and re-post future parts soon.

[anXVI]

Wow, awesome!