imo, there have been a whole lot of ever-lasting problems, conflicts and killings, so far in our human history (and possibly in the foreseeable future), that could be evidently caused directly or indirectly due to the definition of God.
Personally, I would prefer the following definition of God.
Humans, that are free to do good or evil, must choose the side of good, according to natural law - God.
https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/predestination.306528/page-7#post-4409067
Personally, I would prefer the following definition of God.
Humans, that are free to do good or evil, must choose the side of good, according to natural law - God.
https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/predestination.306528/page-7#post-4409067
An atheist may be too sensitive to the term God nowadays. Partly/mainly due to the God concept is not/never scientific enough.
However according to Stoicism, which was the most popular philosophy during Jesus' era, the construct of God was/is a very scientific one.
God, the nature and natural laws, purposeful/deterministic intelligence, fate and causality, divine reasons and Logos, rational truth and facts, Zeus, the universe and universal laws, cosmos and cosmic laws, divine providence, etc. etc. are all in one.
A Holistic construct that recognises (and beyond) the limitations of human words, vocabulary and writings, or any man-made theories, concepts, constructs, definitions, and imaginations.
Science can be considered as a never-ending process of helping humans to explore more and more knowledge and understanding of this God.
Q
Doctrines
Stoic physics can be described in terms of (a) materialism, (b) dynamic materialism, and (c) monism or pantheism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoic_physics
Gods
For the Stoics, God is everywhere as the ruler and upholder, and at the same time the law, of the universe. Zeno declared cult images, shrines, temples, sacrifices, prayers and worship to be of no avail. A really acceptable prayer, he taught, can only have reference to a virtuous and devout mind. The Stoics however attempted to defend and uphold the truth in polytheism. Not only was the primitive substance God, the one supreme being, but divinity could be ascribed to the manifestations – to the heavenly bodies, which were conceived, like Plato's created gods, as the highest of rational beings, to the forces of nature, even to deified men; and thus the world was peopled with divine agencies.
UQ

