What is a god?

[leo-rcc]

I think he got his trolling scripts mixed up.

[moslem]

Muslims believe in one, unique, incomparable God, Who has no son nor partner, and that none has the right to be worshipped but Him alone. He is the true God, and every other deity is false. He has the most magnificent names and sublime perfect attributes. No one shares His divinity, nor His attributes. In the Quran, God describes Himself:
Say, “He is God, the One. God, to Whom the creatures turn for their needs. He begets not, nor was He begotten, and there is none like Him.” (Quran, 112:1-4)
one has the right to be invoked, supplicated, prayed to, or shown any act of worship, but God alone.
God alone is the Almighty, the Creator, the Sovereign, and the Sustainer of everything in the whole universe. He manages all affairs. He stands in need of none of His creatures, and all His creatures depend on Him for all that they need. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, and the All-Knowing. In a perfect manner, His knowledge encompasses all things, the open and the secret, and the public and the private. He knows what has happened, what will happen, and how it will happen. No affair occurs in the whole world except by His will. Whatever He wills is, and whatever He does not will is not and will never be. His will is above the will of all the creatures. He has power over all things, and He is able to do everything. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and the Most Beneficent. In one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad , we are told that God is more merciful to His creatures than a mother to her child.1 God is far removed from injustice and tyranny. He is All-Wise in all of His actions and decrees. If someone wants something from God, he or she can ask God directly without asking anyone else to intercede with God for him or her.
God is not Jesus, and Jesus is not God.2 Even Jesus himself rejected this. God has said in the Quran:
Indeed, they have disbelieved who have said, “God is the Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary.” The Messiah said, “Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever associates partners in worship with God, then God has forbidden Paradise for him, and his home is the Fire (Hell). For the wrongdoers,3 there will be no helpers.” (Quran, 5:72)
for more:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-330.html

or: http://www.islam-guide.com/frm-ch3-2-1.htm

[Ace Otana]

You know what this reminds me of? Rivaling companies trying to get you to go with them.

One religion says "follow this god and you can go to heaven, don't and you'll go to hell" and the other religion says "No! Follow this god and you can go to heaven, don't and you'll go to hell".

The thing is, many religions do the exact same thing. Also they all warn that you will go to hell if you don't follow. None of them are willing to see from your perspective. None of them are willing to look at other possibilities and none of them seem to understand why people turn away from religion altogether. They would say what you would get from following and the punishment if you don't. Why follow any of them?

This is where it is better off for you to take the third position. Just don't get involved. If there was a god, surely he would understand why you step back and look from a critical view. If this god does not understand your reasons then he isn't all knowing and most certainly is not all wise.

[Edwardo Piet]

Well said.

[AtheistPhil]

He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, and the All-Knowing. In a perfect manner, His knowledge encompasses all things. He knows what has happened, what will happen, and how it will happen. Whatever He wills is, and whatever He does not will is not and will never be. His will is above the will of all the creatures.

So, God decides what the future is, right ? If that's the case we have no will, we're just God's puppets. But still God doesn't convert everyone to islam which is absurd since he could do it easily. And if I kill someone in the street and I say "God made me do it", would you really believe me ?

If someone wants something from God, he or she can ask God directly without asking anyone else to intercede with God for him or her.

How can you "ask" something to God when he is all-knowing and knows what you want and knows if you deserve it ? What's the point of prayer then ?

[Purple Rabbit]

God alone is the Almighty, the Creator, the Sovereign, and the Sustainer of everything in the whole universe. He manages all affairs. He stands in need of none of His creatures, and all His creatures depend on Him for all that they need. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, and the All-Knowing. In a perfect manner, His knowledge encompasses all things, the open and the secret, and the public and the private. He knows what has happened, what will happen, and how it will happen.

The claim you make is absurd. For to investigate the truthfullness of the claim you'll have to be all-knowing yourself. Since you are not, the claim must be from ignorance. Now, from ignorance small and big claims can be made. But since you just opted for the biggest claim possible I think it is fair to say that it was a dumb move.

No affair occurs in the whole world except by His will. Whatever He wills is, and whatever He does not will is not and will never be. His will is above the will of all the creatures. He has power over all things, and He is able to do everything.

Again you are not qualified to make the claim. You are not all-knowing, remember. So you do not know for instance if your imaginary friend can make the ever faster expanding universe slow down or shrink on itself. If I say he can't do shit, there's nothing that proofs me wrong. So the premise A. he is allmighty and B. he can't do shit are epistomologically on equal footing. I advice everybody to stay away from people making big claims from ignorance, for these are the ways of conjurers, frauds, crooks, imposters and swindlers. Bad for public health also.

He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and the Most Beneficent. In one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad , we are told that God is more merciful to His creatures than a mother to her child.1 God is far removed from injustice and tyranny.

What a sick and perverted way of redefining graciousness and mercifullness! Wouldn't it be more gracious to stop child cancer, genocide, malaria, tsunami's, earthquakes and so on than to let flourish all this human suffering, being an allmighty god and all that jazz. Please think about this. There seems to be something seriously wrong with this claim. Certainly the vilest criminal would be gracious by your new definition.

[Darwinian]

What you have to remember is that none of these words are those of moslem him/herself. He/she is simply finding paragraphs from Islamic websites and pasting them here.

Presumable though, moslem does in fact agree with the content that he/she is generously sharing with us but please do not expect any sort of meaningful or relevant response as, unless there is a site containing such a specific and beautifully tailored reply ready made, there will be none forthcoming.

[Purple Rabbit]

What you have to remember is that none of these words are those of moslem him/herself. He/she is simply finding paragraphs from Islamic websites and pasting them here.

Presumable though, moslem does in fact agree with the content that he/she is generously sharing with us but please do not expect any sort of meaningful or relevant response as, unless there is a site containing such a specific and beautifully tailored reply ready made, there will be none forthcoming.

Moslem wrote "He has the most magnificent names and sublime perfect attributes. No one shares His divinity, nor His attributes. In the Quran, God describes Himself:", after which followed the phrases I criticised.

He presents the phrases as the word of god, he presents god as an existing entity. He asks no questions about the phrases, he asks no questions about their validity, he asks no questions about the true origin of the words, he places no doubts about their abject moral content. Pasting words from other internet sites on this forum does not discharge him of the obligation to justify his reasons to do so. To make at least clear where he stands.

Therefore I think my critical response to his citations is fully justified in this place where posting quotes equals making a stance.

[Darwinian]

I quite agree with you, and of course you are right to respond as, although he may not have written the words themselves he echoes their sentiment.

However, all I'm saying is not to expect a reply to your critique as all he is doing is basically spamming.

Something that he won't be doing for much longer...

[Edwardo Piet]

If he carries on like this (again) I think something should be done yes.

If I wanted to read the horrors of any of the three abrahamic religions (and also the book of Mormon) I could just go to the SAB website.

And I sometimes do go there. Why do we need all this spamming malarkey?

Well I would say at least - that we don't.

And it seems to me, Darwinian has the same (or a similar) position on the matter. But I can't speak for him.
evf