Is America the greatest country

[CapnAwesome]

So is being of or from god something which exists in pleasant psychological states, being what they are like?  Do you believe God can and does literally take the form of a human-like subject?  Is there anything which God, as you understand it, is apart from the way we experience it?  

I guess you know by now I think that God can seem as real to a person as they are themselves, and that is because I think both personal identity and god identity are the product of the human mind.  Neither we nor god have any existence outside lived experience, but that doesn't mean that those who believe should be rid of belief in God any more than they should try to transcend belief in themselves as persons.  

If it is any comfort, I think that God is usually experienced as encompassing a greater portion of ones total being.  Furthermore, those of us who reject any gods in all forms don't always succeed in creating an alternative 'channel' for accessing that greater self.  (But it isn't impossible.)

Yes, I have definitely gathered that you take this approach. I think it's interesting. It kind of reminds me of that Wait But Why article I posted several months ago where the atheist author talks about reaching a "higher being", though he's talking about ourselves just reaching a greater understanding and overcoming our animal instincts to become something greater.  

And if we look at it that way, it's like mine and your beliefs are really not that different in their most basic, human level. We just have a different way of looking at it and/or of reaching that similar conclusion. 

As for your questions above, another fellow Catholic described God in an interesting way: 

Think of God as being a beautiful crystal vase. It falls and shatters into trillions of tiny little pieces. And each one of us has that little piece of Him within us. So when we see a lot of good in someone else, like, when we fall in love or when we have a child, we have that overwhelming feeling of love and adoration for them. That is because we are subconsciously seeing a little piece of God in that person. And that is only a "preview" of what God looks like and what it'll feel like to be with Him.

Catholics are so funny. Catholics today would vehemently argue with Catholics pre-Vatican two who had such a different and I would argue, more biblical view of God.