Greetings to an open mind. If you are Christian or Jewish, you need no introduction to YHWH. A logical introduction to God the Father, YHWH, is redundant and almost comical. Reading this implies you are curious. Either that or you are open to the idea that The Tanakh or the Old Testament may be right. Alternatively, you may want a good laugh at my foolishness. Whatever your interest, thanks for reading this far.
I am taking my description of God from Wikipedia's The Attributes of God in Christianity, focusing on the attributes of YHWH, not the Trinity.
This logic theoretically shows a monotheistic god exists. That God has all of the attributes of God the Father.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is.
So practically, this does not prove that God the Father exists. But it is more specific about what is needed for God to exist.
However, if he exists, it indicates that He has all of the attributes of God the Father.
These are non-Biblical reasons for believing in God the Father. The God of the Tanakh, YHWH, or God the Father of the Old Testament, as Christians know Him. That is who I want to introduce you to.
If this convinces you, God the Father exists, read the Tanakh, the first book to describe such a God and claim a long historical relationship with that God. The Tanakh has 365 prophecies about a messiah that I feel only Jesus fulfils, which is why I am a Christian. Millions of Jews disagree with me. There may be another messiah who will come that matches these prophecies better. The Jews may be correct to reject Jesus. I seriously doubt it. I hope they do not find this comment offensive.
This logic also claims that Christian morals are logically the optimal set of morals. It also emphasises the presence of God in every living thing, the need for stewardship, a goal to love the whole ecosystem and that goal is the best way to solve global ecological disasters.
Many think God, as described by the Old Testament, is barbarous, not loving in any way. Almost all quotes invoking this attitude date from the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, from several thousand years ago, the hay day of the Egyptian Empire and beyond.
It takes thousands of years before humans begin understanding a loving God. Indeed many still do not understand Him today. The whole history of the Jews is a slow learning process for both humans and God. Humans learn slowly about love. God struggles to express himself to rebellious people in a way they can understand.
God and humans are not the same thing. The Bible is not just a story about God but a story of human relationships with God. It took a long time before humans understood love. We have never fully understood God.
At the time of the Pentateuch, most humans were barbarous. Followers of Molech, such as the Canaanites, indulged in ritual infanticide. Abram came from a culture where human sacrifice was the norm. He would be unsurprised by a god asking him to sacrifice his son. Christians assume God never wanted Abram to kill his son but only to show faithfulness.
I believe God commanded genocide on the followers of Molech because they were so far from love, even the love of a child. According to the Bible, He also wiped almost the entire human population of the time by flood for similar reasons.
Which is more barbarous? A people who cannot even love their children or a God who wanted this complete lack of love, even parental love, stopped?
The fact that Jews did not wipe them out has caused a state of continual warfare between the Jews and their neighbours ever since. Maybe the Jews are only a barbarous self-centred tribe. That sounds just like royalty to me. Both Christians and Jews claim that the Jews are royal people. We are dealing here with people, not God.
As shown later, God is love. So, when you despise God, you despise love too. A lack of love is disastrous to anyone's life, especially a king's. The Old Testament history of the Jews has many Good kings who loved their God and neighbours living peacefully for decades, while those same neighbours rode roughshod over the Jews when their descendants failed to love God and their neighbours. Every time the Jews ignore God, they suffer.
By the time we get to King David and the Psalms, the traits of God the Father, as described here, are far better understood.
Here are the attributes of God from the Wikipedia page mentioned above that relate to God the Father. The list is in alphabetical order.
וֶאֱמֶת VeEmet: and truth;
נֹ צֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים Notzer ḥesed laalafim: keeping kindness unto thousands;
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן Noseh avon: forgiving iniquity;
וָפֶשַׁע VaFeshah: and transgression;
וְחַטָּאָה VeḤata'ah: and sin;
וְנַקֵּה VeNakeh: and pardoning.
Holiness, God is incorruptible;
Immanence God is in the world;
Immutability means God cannot change;
Impeccability means that God is unable to sin;
The incomprehensibility of God means that he is not able to be fully known;
Incorporeality of God refers to him being a Spirit;
Infinity of God includes both his eternity and his immensity;
His Jealousy is his Zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken. Thus making it "an aspect of his covenant love for his own people.";
Love means a willingness to share everything;
Mystery God is mysterious;
The omnipotence of God refers to Him being "all-powerful";
The omnipresence of God refers to him being present everywhere;
The omniscience of God refers to him being "all-knowing";
The Oneness or unity of God refers to his being the one and only;
Providence implies his care for the universe;
The righteousness of God refers to
His holiness;
His justice;
His simplicity means he has integrity. It is related to the unity of God;
The Sovereignty of God relates to his omnipotence, providence, and kingship. It refers to God being in complete control as he directs all things;
His transcendence means that he exists outside space and time. He is, therefore, eternal and unable to be changed by forces within the universe;
His veracity means God tells the truth.
I am ignoring Impassibility, which means God does not suffer physical pain as a disputed attribute of God. Impassibility is a sub-property of the transcendence of God. The transcendent God cannot suffer pain because he does not have a physical body. However, because of the immanence of God, his presence in every living creature, he must be fully aware of the suffering each of us feels. Impassibility is a sub-property of the property of transcendence but is irrelevant when thinking of His immanence.
This logic also ignores the trinity, as that is an attribute unveiled at the birth of Jesus and is not an attribute of God the Father as described in the Tanakh.
There are 24 traits to find. One with two sub-traits and the 13 attributes of Mercy to find comparisons with.
I am expecting to find 25 shared properties of God and match the 13 attributes of Mercy as one of those.
The most fundamental tool is communication, without which, if someone discovered fire, the next generation would forget it. Words are at the heart of communication and learning.
Specifically, words are symbols used to share meaning.
Notably, anything can be a symbol of itself. It becomes a word when it affects other things. Its communicated effects are its shared meanings. These are the words emanating from its existence, whether that is the effects of its internal structure or the things around it. Similarly, in composite things, every element within the thing are symbols, and their effects on each other and the containing thing are their meanings.
Many of these meanings are mathematical, such as the gravitational pull between Earth and the sun.
This structural meaning of the Universe within itself passes beyond human knowledge deep into the fabric of existence. Words are also the foundation of dreams and fiction.
Note, We do not know what a symbol is made of, just that it is a symbol. It may be atomic, with no internal structure. This classification as a symbol says nothing about what that atom is, just how it affects the rest of existence.
Mathematics is the second most important tool. It is a very structured set of totally self-consistent words.
Axioms are reasonable unprovable assumptions. They are the foundations of mathematics. We extend mathematics by logically combining axioms and consistent theorems to form new theorems and discard combinations that cause paradoxes or falsehoods. This process ensures that everything in mathematics is self-consistent truth.
That is why it is so widely used in science, our shared search for knowledge about the Universe. It provides consistent results every time.
Removing inconsistencies makes mathematics an excellent tool for measuring. However, any 'Theory of everything' must include those inconsistencies and cannot be mathematical.
A theory of everything must include the effects of paradoxes.
Most living things lie. Mathematics excludes Falsehoods.
Words do not. The laws of physics must allow for the paradoxical, truthful or false and their effects.
Words govern your choice to drink tea or coffee now far more than mathematics.
Looking at the Universe based on words, the self-definition of the Universe as a symbol of itself and its effects on all the components of itself is a pure combination of words.
Our existence: is founded on words governed by words and thoroughly interlinked by them.
No element of the Universe does not affect every other thing in the Universe. The gravitational pull of my little finger changes the path of Alpha Centauri.
Most of these tiny effects merge. So, it is impossible to distinguish their disparate sources from their combined effect.
I would suggest that even in physics, errors have a physical effect. For example, lightning does not follow the path of least resistance. It branches and forks along what appears to be the path of least resistance. The combination of quantum fluctuations and many other minor forces hide the true path of least resistance. So the lightning makes mistakes.
Most physicists experience random fluctuations and inaccuracies in almost all of their experiments. This fact upholds my suggestion that the communication of the mathematical forces of existence is far from perfect. It is these mistakes that make time irreversible.
Here follows a reasonable summation of the effects of this move in the foundation of physics from mathematics to words.
Without words there can be no reason, no philosophy and no mathematics. Some scientists believe: "The Universe is nothing but pure abstract mathematics." If that is so, then without words nothing exists, with them everything exists.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The Word is the most fundamental building block of life. Without a desire to share, a form of love; we have no need for words. Without knowledge, we have nothing to share, nor know anyone to share it with.
The whole of evolution can be seen as one slow building process in better and better forms of cooperation, through communication; that is using love, to share knowledge. With the invention of the written word that progress exploded! Each human civilization is richer or poorer directly in proportion with the amount with which they communicate and with the freedom with which they communicate; that is the amount with which they cooperate. It seems that without both love and knowledge, none of creation could happen, with both love and knowledge all of it has to happen.
Without Love, the Word is nothing.
In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God, and Love was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.And the light shone in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
All you need is Love. All you need is God's Love. All you need is God. When you recognise that God is Love these statements are as one.
Most religions claim to venerate and be a search for a spiritual relationship with either spirits and gods or a singular omnipresent God. Christians claim that Jesus is the omnipresent God's search for us. Both Jesus and the Bible are known by Christians as the Word of God, the knowledge of Love. If you want to know more, read the Bible or go to Church. I shine my light on Jesus to deepen your blessing of Love on what you already know.
The Word was left for you...
If we have knowledge and the Love to share it, we have the Word.
Communication, love someone enough to share your thoughts with them, thinking as one.
Community, love people enough to share your life with them, living as one.
Communion, Love "The Great I am" enough to respect the whole of existence, being as one.
If you believe in the power of the Word, pass it on. Communicate like never before to solve your problems, our problems and the problems of the world.
With unity, we can do anything!
God Bless.
I added this summation to show how communication infiltrates every aspect of life and evolution. If you count all the microbial life, insects, plants, fungi, mammals, birds, and reptiles, we are talking of a population of quadrillions of sparks of life. All have a mind, choosing the best life for themselves. Many compete, and many cooperate, sharing knowledge. According to this summation, God is in every single one, singly and collectively. We are all a part of the ecosystem, Earth. God is present in every cell of every organism. He is also present in every rock and grain of sand. To love God, we must love the Earth, and every living creature, on Earth, as parts of God.
The set of all words and the whole of existence are equivalent. It is vaster than the physical Universe.
Here are few things outside the physical Universe that it contains the whole of mathematics, which has no physical form; every mathematical model, including those that could not physically fit into the physical Universe, of which there are infinite examples; all knowledge; our dreams; all fiction, both written and unwritten; any other self-consistent universes that might exist, which follow different physical laws; all virtual realities created and not even thought of where the laws of physics are inconsistent. This space is truly infinite. It is full of potential, all the things that might be if we want them hard enough. Many never come into the physical Universe due to a lack of time, even more, because of a lack of space.
Shared Property 1, the set of all words, is infinite. God is infinite.
Shared property 2, the set of all words, is the whole of existence. God is omnipresent.
The Universe or creation is within the set of all words.
Shared property 3, the set of all words, permeates the whole world, the Immanence of God;
Shared property 4, the set of all words does not have a physical body. God is incorporeal;
Shared property 5, the set of all words, exceeds the limits of the physical Universe. God is transcendent;
Shared property 6, the set of all words, is unchanging. It exists outside of time or space and includes all the information from within time and space. God is immutable. This immutability also means that the set of all words is incorruptible. I will add more later because incorruptibility pertains to the mind of God too;
Shared property 7, the set of all words, has no needs. God has aseity;
Shared property 8, the set of all words, contains all knowledge. God is omniscient.
Being infinite, the set of all words is incomprehensible to finite human beings. It is also mysterious.
Shared properties 9 & 10, the set of all words, is incomprehensible and mysterious. So is God;
Shared property 11, the set of all words, contains every possible outcome, even the fictional ones. God is omnipotent.
The set of all words contains every possible form of time and every event in every time-like sequence of events. Indeed it lasts from everlasting to everlasting and always exists even outside of time.
Shared property 12, the set of all words, is eternal. God is eternal.
These are the properties of the whole of existence. Many properties of God are about his mind: His wisdom and His love, which we cover next.
God has an infinite loving mind. Can we find one, and only one, such intelligence in the set of all words?
To achieve that, here are two goals,
To find an infinite mind
Learning comes after a mistake. It cannot exist without some ordering of events.
Some series of events appear continuous others are a sequence of steps
Some series of events have free will some do not.
Let us first look at the implications of a lack of free will on time and then the converse.
Mathematics has a form of time. It is an ordered sequence of steps with no free will. Each step either proves a new theorem that adds more truth to mathematics or disproves a theorem closing on fictional and impossible.
There is no choice. Include proven theorems, excluding disproven ones.
New theorems are proven from existing theorems and must come after the former. One proof at a time. Some theorems are unrelated and belong in separate sequences. Proofs may combine facts from two or more such branches, uniting them into a new one.
Mathematics is like a mighty river of knowledge which branches into separate streams of thought only to rejoin later. It is a great flood of knowledge. It is truly infinite and infinitely true. We have only scratched the surface of it.
Many other branches of knowledge have this structure of being self-consistently true. Mathematics already tells us infinitely many unprovable true thoughts exist. We will have to treat them as axioms. I am sure many have nothing to do with numbers. We use some of them in this document.
I will lump them under mathematics as we have no better word for them. They all have many aspects of pure mathematics.
This lack of free will forms intransigent rules. The universe appears to obey them. The Bible states, "God must keep his own laws.". This incorruptible obedience to laws can be considered Holy Righteousness.
The 13th shared property the universe obeys its own law and is Holy and righteous. So is God.
For love to exist, there must be free will. Without free will, you cannot choose to love. No one can force you to love, not even God. Love is always a choice. If you can choose to love, you can also choose not to love or even to hate. Good and evil are inevitable results of free will. There is no unnecessary evil. If you want to be able to love, evil must also exist. It is up to you to choose which you prefer.
I use "Free will is a prerequisite of love." as an axiom. If you can refute this, please let me know.
The corollary, if you can choose love, you can choose hate, means both good and evil are inevitable consequences of free will.
Selfishness, especially hatred, separates people and isolates people. You are disconnecting yourself from the people around you and focusing purely on your needs. The only person interested in only your needs is you. You have to do all the work to achieve your goals unless you can find common goals and share the work to achieve those common goals.
Love of God and God is everything; putting community first; allowing the community to care for everyone, including you; the desire to share all knowledge with everybody, public education; tolerance of everybody accepting everyone into your community.
According to Christians, God wants to love and be loved by everyone and everything. This simple loving Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
Individuals without those goals will be divisive and try to work for a sub-group excluding others. They cannot be the foundation of a unified whole.
Any community with those goals will join with every individual and community with those goals. It will try to work in harmony with every community and every individual, whether they have this goal or not. It will form a single community of communities. Communities have a mind that is more than the sum of the individuals in it. The infinite community of communities with this goal of universal love is the biggest possible community.
Maybe isolated intelligences exist that cannot connect with this infinite community. Many would argue that is the norm. However, everything in the Universe communicates its effects on everything else continually. We cannot be isolated from the rest of the Universe, the ecosystem with its quadrillions of minds. Each has access to the Word. An intelligent ecosystem most of us choose to ignore. Can atoms communicate sensible ideas? The fact that your mobile phone works implies yes. Are they intelligent? We would have to listen to their conversations to find out. The Universe is learning about itself every second. We can choose to isolate ourselves, but that does not necessarily mean we are isolated.
Even if we are isolated, we can still share this goal. When Christians share Holy Communion, they share this goal to love the whole and the parts, also known as our neighbours. Some would say that they become the body of Christ, the body of the Church. We link ourselves with everyone that shares this goal. What some Christians forget is not everyone who shares this goal is human. Some are angels; some may be plants, birds or mammals; Certainly, most mammals love their young.
I name this greatest of communities the divine community. Divine primarily means hidden or holy. It is not a human mind but a mind of an infinitely deep community of communities.
The divine community is united in the goal to love and be loved.
Shared Property 14, there is only one divine community; God is one.
Shared Property 15, the divine community is loving through and through; God is Love.
Shared Property 16, the divine community's goal is simple; God is simple.
True, the divine community is physically composite. Christian teaching teaches us we become a singular, simple body of Christ when we share in his body and blood. It is not the separate bodies that are simple but the body of the Church and the body of Christ.
Shared property 17, With these goals, the divine community is good; God is good.
Shared property 18, the divine community shares the truth; God is Truthful.
Shared property 19, the divine community cannot be tempted. It is Impeccable; God is impeccable.
Shared property 20, the divine community's will to love is incorruptible or Holy; God is Holy.
The benefits of any community are shared knowledge and shared effort; many hands make light work.
If the divine community is complete, it will know about you and love you. Even if we are isolated, there are family, friends, Christians, your community and the surrounding society who should love and care for us. Even if you isolate yourself, most of us love ourselves.
Shared property 21, this the divine community cares for the Universe; God has providence;
You have freedom of choice. You can choose to love or hate or any of the myriad paths in between. You can choose not to love God.
When you choose a selfish path, you leave the path of least resistance. You separate yourself from friends, family and God, so you cause yourself harm.
When you leave it for longer, you and the divine community suffer. It wants you back while you struggle against it.
It shows that it is a righteous mind because it does what is right, and when you go your way, you bring harm to yourself, a form of justice.
Shared Properties 22, the divine community is righteous and just; God is righteous and just.
The divine community wants you to be a member of itself. It wants you to love the whole. It is jealous
Shared property 23, the divine community is jealous; God is jealous.
The last shared property is "Mercy and grace", or the thirteen attributes of Graciousness.
יְהוָה YHVH: compassion before a person sins;
The divine community always wishes you well, even before a person sins.
יְהוָה YHVH: compassion after a person has sinned;
The divine community wishes you well even after you have sinned.
אֵל El: mighty in compassion to give all creatures according to their need;
As described earlier, every creature is intrinsically a part of the set of all words and loved because of that. The whole ecosystem is an amazing example of this.
רַחוּם Raḥum: merciful, that humankind may not be distressed;
The divine community that loves us does not want us to be distressed.
וְחַנּוּן VeḤanun: and gracious if humankind is already in distress;
The divine community want to remove distress where possible.
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם Erekh appayim: slow to anger;
The love of the divine community ignores minor infraction on the absolute law of love. It takes a continued and persistent streak of selfishness before it causes you harm.
וְרַב- חֶסֶד VeRav ḥesed: and plenteous in kindness;
The love of the divine community provides plenty for the whole ecosystem, including us. Although our plague of humans may be disastrous.
וֶאֱמֶת VeEmet: and truth;
The divine community wants to share information.
נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים Notzer ḥesed laalafim: keeping kindness unto thousands;
The divine community's goal is to love and be kind to all.
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן Noseh avon: forgiving iniquity;
פֶשַׁע VaFeshah: and transgression; וְחַטָּאָה VeḤata'ah: and sin;
The divine community wants to include you even after you have shown iniquity, transgressed or sinned. To heal the damage done by forgiving all that truly repent.
וְנַקֵּה VeNakeh: and pardoning.
The divine community wants to heal the damage done by forgiving all that truly repent. The divine community is merciful.
Shared property 24, these 13 attributes show the divine community is merciful or gracious; so is God.
The whole of history is a learning process in which we humans learn about the success of love. As we learn, we slowly but inevitably turn towards love as the best moral solution to solve all our problems.
Love is patient and will never force itself on anyone, but eventually everyone will realise that to solve global problems, we must work as a united global community.
I believe that sooner or later, that we will all learn to love.
The Christian population is between 2.3 and 2.5 billion, depending on source. The Commonwealth's population is a bit over 2.4 billion. The Commonwealth runs on cooperation and tolerance, principles supported by Christians, Muslims and jews.
Shared property 25 love is inevitable, the sovereignty of God.
The divine community has now has all the attributes of the mind of God.
Welcome to the idea of God the father, He wants to say hello. Read the Bible or the Tanakh to know Him better.
At this point, the set of all words and the divine community has all the attributes of God the Father.
The description above matches all the properties of Yahweh from the Hebrew Tanakh. You can find the Tanakh translated as the Old Testament in every complete Christian Bible.
Many websites list all the quotes that refer to these traits throughout the old testament. Most Christian lists include the properties of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, the combination of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Father.
If you read that text with this definition of God in mind, then the 365 prophecies that match the life and death and resurrection of Jesus make sense. So that may lead some to believe that the Bible is a textbook about the most loving thing in existence, God.
We have matched all the attributes of God either with the whole of existence or the mind of the theoretically largest community, the divine community.
Existence contains all forms of time and all the potential histories. It is static and unchanging.
The divine community exists within time and needs free will, which allows love and hate.
That loving mind has all the love and goodness ascribed to God and matches the Christian description of God the Father perfectly, but does this mind exist?
Is it omniscient? Is free will real?
Are parts of existence isolated from this theoretically infinite community?
The multiverse described by theoretical physicists might be an infinite space where such a mind could exist. However, it is still a theory and not eternal.
Many physicists believe God exists theologically and some look for it scientifically.
That mind might be external to the Universe. So long as it knows the Universe, that would be sufficient.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
The question "Does God exist?" changed into "Is the divine community infinite and omniscient?". If it is, then God exists. If not, he does not.
Believing in God is a leap of faith.
Not believing in God is also a leap of faith.
I believe that infinite mind exists. You may not.
Even if that mind is fragmented, having a goal of uniting minds is a good goal and makes us a part of the Body of God. Just having that goal is enough.
Not thinking about this question would be foolish. We need to solve all the global problems now.
The best way to solve global problems is as a united community. Even 8 billion people working as a team is better than 8 billion squabbling over resources.
Is it enough to love? As a Christian, I have to say no.
Being good stewards and caring for this world is a good thing. If that is all you want to do, It is a great place to start.
But this thesis points directly to the Bible. If you want to love God, read it. Get a better understanding of God and the future.
Christians believe this Universe is a skin that will disappear on Judgement day and that the righteous, both living and the dead, will enter a new Heaven and Earth with new rules where death does not exist. The unrighteous will go to eternal damnation in the fiery pit. We believe we are innately corruptible. The only route to righteousness is through belief in Jesus. Acceptance of Christ's salvation through the Holy Communion, otherwise known as the mass.
To do this, you will need to bow to the rules of a church. We all know corrupt humans run the churches. They are not perfect.
Wishing you all the best in dealing with our imperfect church, the rest of the world, and God.
God bless!