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啟蒙：什麽是神？
（第二版，2012-09-27在原始版基礎上修改而成）
神是什麽？按照猶太人的遠祖在聖經中的描述，神有以下幾個自然屬性：
它是萬物的創造者，亦即它決定著宇宙間的一切，它是一切存在之存在和一切不存在之不存在的終極緣由；它全知全能且永恒無限地自有自在著；它還擁有至真至善至美的“三至”屬性。
為了與那個遠古時代裏存在著的大大小小的“神”相區別，猶太人的遠祖給這個神取名叫耶和華，其實這個神叫什麽名字是一件無所謂的事情，所以，人們無需害怕“耶和華”這三個字。於是，擺在我們麵前的關鍵問題可能有以下幾個：
1）這樣的神是否存在？
如果他不存在，我們就應該接受無神論。但是，這個問題等同於：
2）萬物存在的終極緣由存在嗎？
3）全知全能存在嗎？
4）永恒和無限存在嗎？
5）至真至善至美存在嗎？
如果一個人相信這些具體的內容存在著，他/她就是相信神存在著；反之，他/她就是不相信存在著“至真至善至美、全知全能、永恒無限和萬物的創造者”，也就是不相信神的存在。顯然，當且僅當我們可以合理地否定了上述關於神的全部屬性，無神論作為一種觀念才能被人們接受；反之，隻要其中的任何一個屬性不能被合理地否定，我們就隻能接受有神論。因此，如果用集合論的語言，神可以被表達如下：
神={一組關於神的全部自然屬性的存在}
={一切存在之存在和一切不存在之不存在的終極緣由，
全知全能且永恒無限的自有自在，
至真至善至美的存在}
這就是關於神的全部屬性。當神的上述自然屬性被人格化的時候，一個人形的神的存在就躍然紙上了。這就是在遠古時代的猶太人對神的認識。可以說，人類關於神的這個認識已經完成了。
遠古猶太人以自己的經曆為這個神的存在做了見證，並將這些見證記錄在聖經中。因此，聖經不是一本類似現代科學理論的著作，而是一種關於神的存在的見證，目的就是要讓一切人都能理解神進而接受神，因為用現代人類的哲學語言來說，神是整個宇宙中一種自然的本體性存在。它是一個哲學化的概念性存在。顯然，除了瘋子和傻瓜，無人能夠否認這個唯一和永恒的神的存在。
有人探討為何猶太人以及少量的人口在流離失所幾千年的曆史中為人類文明貢獻了一大批傑出的人才？我的回答是：根本的原因是由於他們篤信神的存在，也就是相信上述關於神的全部自然屬性的存在，從而在他們的心中有著一種對至高的真善美的追求。這就是成就一切科學和藝術創造的深刻的內在動力。
為反基督的人們啟個蒙——什麽是神？
（原始版）
網絡世界裏常常遇到很多反對神或基督的IDs。他們心氣旺盛，出言不遜，英勇無畏。想必110年前的義和團員們如果能夠看到此情此景便會感到無比的欣慰和榮光了，因為他們終於發現我們偉大的中華民族中敢於繼承義和團精神的大大地後繼有人。
為了幫助這些在新時代裏反抗神的戰士們消除他們在這場偉大的戰爭中的愚昧，我願意借此機會給他們解釋一下究竟什麽是神，以便使他們能夠做到知己知彼，百戰不殆，且在戰鬥中能夠充分發揚革命英雄主義的傳統和大無畏的犧牲精神，真正做到有理有利有節，從而以最小的代價達至最大最終的勝利；反之，如果這樣的一位戰士連神究竟是個什麽東西都不知道的話，他/她無疑沒有取勝的可能性，因為他/她乃是在用自己對神的愚昧無知為武器來與神作戰。為了塑造我們鋼鐵般英勇無畏的戰士，我們要積極開動思想政治工作這台萬能的機器，它是我們攻克一切敵人的至高無上的精神武器和法寶。
那麽，神是什麽？按照猶太人的遠祖在聖經中的描述，神有以下屬性：
它是萬物的創造者，亦即它決定著一切，它是一切存在之存在和一切不存在之不存在的終極緣由；它全知全能且永恒無限地自在著；它還擁有至真至善至美的“三至”屬性。
為了與那個遠古時代裏存在著的大大小小的神相區別，猶太人的遠祖給這個神取名叫耶和華，其實這個神叫什麽名字是一件無所謂的事情，所以，大家不要害怕“耶和華”這三個字。於是，擺在我們的戰士們麵前的關鍵問題可能有以下幾個：：：：
1）這樣的神是否存在？
如果他不存在，我們就可以不費吹灰之力地打敗耶和華。但是，這個問題等同於：
2）萬物存在的終極緣由存在嗎？
3）全知全能存在嗎？
4）永恒和無限存在嗎？
5）至真至善至美存在嗎？
如果一個人相信這些具體的內容存在著，他/她就是相信神存在著；反之，他/她就是不相信存在著“至真至善至美、全知全能、永恒無限和萬物的創造者”，也就是不相信神的存在。由於不相信神存在，一個戰士就可以勇敢地反對“至真至善至美”、反對“全知全能”、反對“永恒無限”和反對“萬物的創造者”，當然也就包括了反對創造他/她自己的那個“存在”。
有沒有聖經和基督教根本不關神的存在，隻是聖經是認識神的最正確的途徑。其他的道路的結果，可蘭經和佛經的地方；和有聖經的結果已經不用在證明吧，起碼到目前為止。
真誠的請教博主，那個宗教更更容易帶人接近神呢？您的答案可能是基督教，但為什麽不可以是佛教呢？
------------
第一個接觸的不是佛堂，我心裏還找個理由安慰一下自己。
http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/znjy/1649761.html
在與伊斯蘭教的人辯論時， 那些神學院教授， 教堂牧師，用 “聖經” 來證明 “聖經”。
聖經是怎樣來用，有機會的話，你向那些神學院教授， 教堂牧師等人說吧。
可能你從沒參加過這樣的辯論會， 但事實上北美洲各地常有， 辯論誰才是正確，誰才是神的忠心信徒，正如那個年代， 旗派與工總爭論誰才是偉大導師，黨，主義的真正信徒。
2000年以前的幾十萬年沒有基督，這幾十萬年裏的人類全進地獄 ？
猶太教， 基督教（包括羅馬教廷），伊斯蘭都信同一個神， 然而就因誰是神的代表互相殘殺。
不信的都進地獄， 這樣暴力的宗教， 怪不得這世界每天都有殺戮。
在這本自稱“聖”的書裏， 隻看到人是怎樣造神。
無條件的信是這個宗教第一要義， 沒有盲從，這宗教不能立足， 猶如哪個60年代，70年代，不信就是罪， 罪的功架就是死。
聖經不是用來證明上帝是什麽，而是告訴你上帝是什麽，並以猶太人的曆史來加以驗證。
我的信仰已經超越了faith，而是將它奠定在事實——那些關於上帝的屬性——之上。誰也否認不了那些屬性的存在，從而也就無法否認上帝或至高神的存在。
多神論在一神論的眼裏就是無神論。
你的信仰觀的實質屬於多神論，從而也就是否認唯一的至高神，也就是否定上述關於上帝的屬性的全部內容。
本文就是要告訴無神論者神存在，因此，無神論是無稽之談。
要想得到解答，我已經將聖經中對上帝的定義或人們對他的屬性的認識列在了這裏。你不妨將你所知道的人們對“佛”的屬性的認識與上帝的屬性作一番比較。這是可以幫助你解答自己的疑惑的唯一途徑。
不單如此， 全部基督徒都犯一個很嚴重的錯誤， 就是用 “ 聖經” 來證明 “ 聖經”。
穆斯林已走出這條路， 他們與基督徒辯論時， 是用 基督徒的 “聖經” 來證明 自己的 "古蘭“。
譬如說， 現在最好戰的國家就是以 “神” 的名， ”和平“ 名義來開啟戰爭
He realized that there is no inherent evil in the world. Evil doesn’t really exist. Evil is simply a symptom of not knowing God correctly, or from servicing one’s ego desire. His example was that even a bad person can worship God and finds beauty in God. What made people bad is his ego and selfishness, not inherent evil. Evil is part of God’s kingdom just like a bad person is also a creation of God. Evil is fleeting and temporal. God is the ultimate quietness and unchangeable peace that all things will reunite to.
[My comment]: This finding is compatible with Buddhist’s conception that evil is simply a symptom of ignorance, not knowing what the truth is, causing man to serve his own earthly egoistic desire. Once a man wakes up to God and truth, he will not find any evil.
Augustine struggled hard to imagine God. Is God a massive body with super power, possibly with human like eyes, hands and hairs? As he studied further and further, he started to realize that God is not of a physical substance. God is infinite, yet has no shape and form. God is not part of physical world, yet all physical worlds are born from him.
During his studies in Milan, he finds out that Bible’s Genesis is very similar to Platonic creation theory, yet Plato refers to no Christ. (Of course when Plato was alive, Christ was even born yet). Despite that, he finds great similarity between Platonic philosophy and Christianity.
Deep studies of ancient philosophy and Bible, Augustine finds that true believer should not be restricted by words’ face value in books like Bible. In Genesis, Bible described God created the world, but this should not be imagined as a human like physical God with bears and hairs performing magic to create earth, mountain and oceans. Rather, such creation should be perceived in a spiritual way. Because God is not a human, but an infinite eternity. It is important to study Bible by going beyond face value of words in the book.
In Book VII, Augustine told us that through deep medication, he was able to see the true light of God. He said he was able to see God by turning inward as suggested by Platonic teachings. He finally saw that immutable light higher than my mind.
He told us that this light was not a visual kind of light. It was “utterly different from all other kinds of light. This light transcended my mind, not in the way that oil floats on water.” He also said that “this light did not come from the flesh”. He was able to see God with his mind instead of his mind’s eye.
[My comment]: Please notice here, Augustine’s sudden illumination is actually the same kind of illumination that Buddha experienced. In Buddhist terminology, this is called enlightenment. After man reaches enlightenment, he is free and forever happy and forever free from suffering. He reached Nirvana. But in ancient Italy, what Augustine experienced was exactly the same transcendence. He was able to see God with a light in his heart that is not any regular visual light, but a light that allows him to suddenly understand everything in the world. Augustine is enlightened and transcended.
From the light, he understands that “For God, evil does not exist at all.” All things are “good in themselves,” but may appear evil when there is “a conflict of interest.”
Augustine finally finds out that evil can be repelled through personal improvements. Once a man can grow toward more God-like, there is no room for evil.
After his conversion to Christianity, he was getting firm with his belief that God is no substance; God does not dwell in space and time. But all space, time and material are born from God. During and after Augustine’s conversion to Catholics, he again and again went through periods of enlightenment (or illumination). Each period is very transient. He regretted the shortness of his transcendence. He blamed that to himself as being not graceful enough, so that God is not ready yet to see more of his grace.
[Jing’s comment]: Period of enlightenment is actually a period of time man ascend into eternity, a timeless state, and able to see (not with mind’s eye or flesh), but with soul the whole truth. This is a state that a man temporarily reunited with his creator, God. You can say that you see God in such enlightenment experience, or you simply see the state of eternity that is the foundation of all things. Such experience is of untold beauty.
After one experience, Augustine said: “Eternal life is of the quality of that moment of understanding”. Plain and simple, he is right to the point.
Book X, XI and XII are the key analysis of his belief and philosophy. We should spend more time reading these books. These last 3 books are very deeply philosophical. It’s hard for regular people to comprehend. I only bring out a few key points that I find very interesting:
Augustine acknowledged that there is life before current life, i.e., concept of reincarnation is a truth. We humans don’t just live one life, we live infinite amount of life. Our life time is infinite just like God is infinite. We humans are created by God, is a part of God. If God is infinite, then we humans must be infinite as well. There is no separation.
A man’s essence is of God, yet not knowing of his God nature. Why we want to learn? Because learning is a process of the soul remembering what it already knew and forgot when taking human form. Our soul migrates from one previous human form to the next endlessly. Death is not a true end, but a temporary migration from one body to the next. The only true end must be the reunification with God who created us. True end must be accomplished by self improvement that eventually leading up to complete enlightenment very similar to what Augustine experienced in his illumination. In other word, a soul’s goal is return to God, before he can do that, he keep spending time in eternal incarnation and reincarnation.
[My comment]: Such finding matches Buddhist ideology completely. Although Buddhism doesn’t emphasize soul concept, it recognizes the need for personal liberation to awaken ourselves to God. Buddhism doesn’t even emphasize God concept, it never mentioned God in Buddhist scriptures. But Buddhist emphasized meditation and voids self of all the selfish and ego desires to prepare for the final illumination to truth that is the state of Nirvana. Basically, the only real difference between eastern philosophy and western philosophy such as Christianity is that the first only described the state of eternity and the latter name the same state as God, trying to make the state a human like form with the name God. Obviously, that’s easy for regular people to comprehend.
His studies of human memory are intriguing. He finds that the vastness of our memory is much more than we can grasp. He further postulates that memory is actually infinite if our souls live infinitely. That means, our body can die but souls move on with all the memory. That explains why for a limited and short life, a man can have such a vastness of memory.
He postulates that knowledge must be infinite as well, residing in the infinite memory. Learning is simply remembering things already in memory. We are actually not learning, but retrieving things already stored in vast memory, yet we don’t know it. The pieces of these ideas are present somewhere far back in our memories.
Why we don’t remember all the things stored in vast memory of soul (please note he is not talking about flesh’s memory, but a memory that survives the death of flesh) ? because just like rebirth, previous memory is temporarily blocked from us.
He also asks very interesting questions. Why a man seeks happiness? His answer is that a man must have known such happiness a long long time ago, even before this life time, eons ago when a man’s soul is still at union with God. How else would a man want to seek happiness yet not experience it? Augustine’s happiness is not flesh happiness like sex or material possession, but together with God happiness. He said that we humans are from God, and once are together with God, so we know such happiness. That explains our inherent desire to struggle our ways back to God.
Wickedness and evil or distance from God is due not to any mistake in God’s creation, but rather caused by a man’s lack of will to recognize God’s perfection. Therefore, wickedness, evil or loneliness is not permanent nature, but a temporal nature of a confused soul.
In Book XI, he went into a study of time.
He asks when the true beginning of time is. Although in the Book of Genesis they described that God “made” creation, Augustine argues that God did not make the heavens and the earth in a literal sense. God did not do it like a human did, or like an architect did. Augustine said that God did not create this universe in our universe all. Because God is beyond space and time. From a place that is not a place (space and time), our physical universe with space and time was born.
[My comment]: From modern astrophysics and quantum physics, Augustine’s idea is proven to be correct. Our universe was actually born from a Big Bang from who knows what. Current physics theory seems to point to a fact that our space and time is not permanent, but will have an end. Modern quantum physics further showed that the material is not as solid as we imagined. Once scientists go deeper and deeper, all they can find is no physical item, but wave functions. Everything becomes undeterminable in microscopic level. Heisenberg’s famous quantum uncertainty principle is a big mystery. Current physics is getting closer still to find that TIME may not be real at all, just like material and space may not be real at all. Buddhism doesn’t acknowledge the existence of time in its ultimate state of enlightenment, neither does Augustine.
Augustine finally reached the conclusion that time is actually an illusion, a human feeling, rather than something real. From spirituality, he explains that time is not a property of external world but rather of the soul itself. Relating to memory, he said that when we appear to be measuring time as some property of the world, we are actually measuring something in our own memory. Since the past does not truly exist, we can only be considering the images of the past times as they are now retained within us. Therefore, it would seem that time is some property of the mind (or soul) itself.
Since time is temporal, God does not know time because God is eternal. Human’s soul falls down from God therefore time seems real to human. Time is actually a measure of how far we fall from grace. We every human returns to God, we will be one with God in a timeless eternity.
[My comment]: Augustine has completely repelled the concept of time. He emphasized that there is no past, no future, only eternal NOW. This concept matches exactly to eastern philosophy such as China’s I Ching and India’s Buddhism.
如果耶和華是善的，就該民主點，允許不同的宗教信仰。這點都做不到的話，那他嚴重違反人權，違反聯合國憲章，敢露麵的話，會被告上法庭。
信仰基督教的西方國家，似乎都洗白了，西班牙毀滅過南美文明，葡萄牙是海盜國家，英國靠鴉片把最富的中國人淪為病夫，美國販賣黑奴，。。。
耶和華的信徒們直接導致中國近代的苦難。樓主前一陣有過自稱漢奸的帖子，對教會在近代的作用有過肯定。我在多年前接觸過民國及清代的一些文獻，清朝的教會教徒的不法行為，搶占國人土地資源甚至殺害知縣等官員，對白蓮教義和團運動有促進的作用。這些不法之徒可能是少數，但肯定的是他們不受清廷約束。
還有認為鴉片是合法貿易的言論，那是對今天全世界範圍內肅毒的否定，不客氣的說是站在人類大多數的對立麵。雖然時過境遷，可以不再追究，但要我對鴉片販子的國家有好感是困難的。
樓主的藝術造詣我是佩服的，又及。
任何宗教，能同等對待不信教的，那才是好的宗教。
這兒的無神論者眾多，大家連想都不想就嘲笑, 開罵. 如果不同意觀點，忽略就是了, 用不著動怒.
介紹大家一本書, , 這是一本關於Near Death Experiences 的書，是一個Medical Doctor 收集眾多瀕死個案寫的. 同類型的書很多，但這本是最有權威性的. 靈魂是否存在，人死是否如燈滅，看完了可以自己判斷.
本書Amazon鏈接如下:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Investigation-Phenomenon--Survival-Bodily/dp/0062517392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316801650&sr=8-1
還有wiki 鏈接如下:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_Life
真誠的請教博主，那個宗教更更容易帶人接近神呢？您的答案可能是基督教，但為什麽不可以是佛教呢？
我可愛的同濟校友，你何必氣急攻心呢？若非如此，你斷不會對你熟悉多年的校友和學長出此惡毒之言。請你自省。
一個人可以接受至真至善至美的存在，與永恒和無限的存在，而否認有人格(personality)的神存在。兩者沒有必然關係。