Is god sentient?
According to science, we are sentient because being aware of ourselves and our environment helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce; we evolved from non-sentient life forms over a period of billions of years. I do not think that god is an animal like us, so in my opinion it is incorrect to assume that god shares any of our characteristics. We humans seem to anthropomorphize god a lot, just as we often anthromorphize inanimate objects, plants, and other animals. In my view, god is whatever gives the universe its structure. For example, gravity creates planets. That is an aspect of god. I do not know what other aspects god may have. Maybe god is sentient in a way that we are not. But how could that have arisen, and from what? What ideas could be in the mind of god?
Looking at that, https://www.etymonline.com/word/sentience, I'd answer yes;
1817, "faculty of sense; sentient character or state, feeling, consciousness, susceptibility to sensation;" see sentient + -ence. Related: Sentiency (1796).
Entries linking to sentience
sentient (adj.)
1630s, "capable of feeling, having the power of or characterized by the exercise of sense-perception," from Latin sentientem (nominative sentiens) "feeling," present participle of sentire "to feel" (see sense (n.)). Related: Sentiently.
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Difficult to say and depends on how one defines God.
If one defines God as an omniscient being, then I could see a few lines of reasoning:
1. God is all-knowing and therefore all-sensing and all-aware. Sentience as we experience it is an imperfect approximation of the sentience of an omniscient God from whom our own sentience is given.
2. God is all-knowing and therefore has no need for sentience, sensation, awareness, etc. God does not need sense or awareness because he already innately knows all there is to know. Sentience is a means by which we attempt to grasp an intricate and vast creation of which we have no omniscient knowledge.
3. God is omnipresent in all energy and matter and experiences sentience inasmuch as his creations experience the sentience he himself created. Additionally (if you want), God experiences the "sentience" of inanimate objects by the physical forces which act upon them--regardless of the fact that those objects lack biological or artificial intelligence to be sentient themselves. God's omniscience comes from (or is reflected in) the experience of the sum of his creation outside the illusion of linear time.
4. God transcends sentience. Sentience is merely a result of mundane chemistry and physics. Sentience is an inadequate or inappropriate concept to apply to an omniscient God that transcends the material world of sense and thought.
5. God is omniscient, but still has or can assume some kind of "form" or manifestation (metaphysical or physical) through which he does or can experience sentience in roughly the same way we do.
6. God does not experience sentience directly for any of the above reasons, but can do so indirectly through separate avatars/emanations of himself in the material world.
I could see theists of different religions taking any number of those or other stances. I lean towards #4, but I am not a theist myself.
Of course if we are talking about gods (lowercase) then most would say they are sentient much the same way we are. Apollo/Odin/Set are powerful and wise beings, but they are not omniscient and experience sensation like us more or less.
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Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.
- Thucydides
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I think there's enough signal to suggest that It is, just that our survival priorities might make It hard to relate to when so often the games It's playing with us cut across grain with that (stating that from the panentheistic rather than theistic perspective).
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Do you believe in God? I am unable to tell by your post is why I am asking.
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'This' All Reminds me of A "Doobie
Brother's Juke Box Song" About A 'Dude;'
More About That Later in A Much
Much Longer Practically Never Ending
Depth oF A STory; For Now At Least,
God iN LoVE iN Peace In Love; Yes,
God Be Beyond i Am God Free Will
(Panentheism) Alltheist New Now; Yes,
True THere Are As Many Views of God
As THere Are EYes of Existence as Metaphor
of Course As All of Existence Does not Have
Literal Organs
of EYes and Ears
As Some Modern Theories
in Quantum Physics Suggest
That All of Existence is Conscious
In Some Vague Way At Least FLoWeR
Continuing to Unfold iN Mystery As the
DarK Between Particles and Waves; The Great
Place of Dark Within, Inside, Outside, Above, So Below
All Points oF LiGHT All Around is What Astronauts Describe in the
'Overview Effect' of God As the Vast DarK That Holds All oF LiGHT
ToGeTHeR
Beyond
All Human
MEaSuRE MaKinG
God A Mystery to
Take Great DeLiGHT
iNTo To ALWaYS EXPLoRE
More to UnFold iNCaRNaTE God
Our EYeS and EarS And Metaphors of
Sentient And Unique Beings OBSeRVinG and
DoinG God iNCaRNaTE aS Well As the Father and
Mother and Daughter And Or Son And Brother And
Or Sister and Family oF All of Existence Holding 'Hands'
ToGeTHeR
iNTeGRaL
Naked
Enough
Whole
Complete
iN Play Yes!
Voila! in the
MuSiC of the Vibrations
Frequencies Waves Energies in Synergies That Come
To Be i Am Moving Connecting Co-Creating
Yes in Synergy For All We Dance And Do
Sing oF LiFE SPiRaLinG iN PLaY FLoWeR
oF God Beyond
All Names Creation
Activity FLoWeR UNFoLDinG
ALL oF Existence Continuing
To Survive and Thrive in MuSiC
of Dance And Song And Breath
Of Humanity Best Balancing LoVE iN Peace
Peace iN LoVE Best For All With Most Respect Least
Harm; God Yes, Humans Altruistically iNCaRNaTE God
iNCaRNaTE Giving Sharing Caring Healing ThiS WaY For All
iNHaLinG Peace EXHaLinG LoVE iN Peace iN LoVE BaLaNCinG For All
FRiEnDS With Gravity At Best Continuing to Play in Dance And Song Free;
Interesting, How Humans Ask What God Is AS Humans Have Words to Ponder
This Reality Through Abstract Constructs; Symbols We Create of WordS only Approximating
The Reality that is
Existence to Behold
And Actually Do Whether
We Purr or Wag our Tails;
Or Water Swims Our Fins;
As Air Flys Our Wings;
How Beautiful It is to
Connect With A SMiLE,
A Hug, And The Passion
That May Come With Loving
Life in Gratitude For This Gift of Being
Now; Well, The Truth Is Some Folks Give God
A Great Existence iNCaRNaTE And Others Not So Much
Yet Again There is DarK And LiGHT;
NiGHT And Day; Shadows
And Sun That Only
Shines When
We Reflect That
LiGHT To Be aS Our
Shadows Are Proof That God Exists
Again As Our Shadows Are Proof That God Exists;
Hehe i Could, Can, And Already Did, And Do, Dance And Sing
FOR REAL 11.2 MiLLioN Words of NeW EPiC Long Form Poetry
In Modern Bible Ways and 17,677 Mile of FLoWinG Meditating Public FLoWinG "King David Style"
Dance As Well in 112 Months To SHoW God A Great Existence on Earth Through My EYes
And EarS and Metaphors Far Beyond This Crude Matter; Yes That of Course Most Folks
Only Feel and
Sense of me
FroM A Distance
As FaR AWaY As the
Darkness That Holds
All The Points oF LiGHT
Above Below Within Inside
Outside And All Around True
Some Folks See A God AS Small
As 800,000, or 80,000, or 1.8 MiLLioN Words
All Locked in A Book; Whether it Be the Old King James
Version; the Quran With Only Around Two Thousand Words
Of Vocabulary; Or the Mahabharata, Yes, at Around 1.8 MiLLioN Words
That Took Innumerable Ghost Authors to Write too Over Centuries Also
Mostly About
Winning Wars
Against Other
Tribes With
Some MaNuFaCTuReD
God Without Much Right
Hemisphere Humor to Make
Life Worth Living in Smiles and
Laughs Without Tribal Conflicts
To Secure Subsistence and Resources
in SCaRCiTiES; iNcluding Securing Women to
Breed Not Much Different Than Cattle in 'Castes'
oF All These Old Tribal Based Religions to Dominate
By Monarchial Force of Course; YucK, A 'Left Hemisphere'
Dominating Grasping God of Subjugation and Control
is A Rather Stale and Boring God to Someone As Liberally
Free and Evolving As the FLoWeR i Am Still Unfolding ThiS Way
Yet True Some Animals Are Born More Sitters in the Same Old Caves
Seemingly Enjoying the Same Old "Aghogday" As i used to Do With That
'User Name of Life' too; Sort of Like Republicans in Congress and the Old Men at the
"Hardee's Breakfast Club" that in Metaphor Created EPiC LonG Form Poems of Tribal
Wars With a 'Big
Daddy' to Support
And Rule Them All the
Way to Domination of Control;
It's the 'Nature of the BEasT' AGain,
Not Unlike the Rest of the "Animal Kingdom"
Some Humans Are Rovers And Some Are
Sitters; Others are a Mix of Open Minded
And Closed Minded in Ways of SoUL MiND
And Body; True It What it is; i Love the Way i Do Play, Integral And Whole
God Soul; So, i Continue to Unfold the FLoWeR of God Within me Free THiS WaY;
i've Already Been Close to Disconnecting From Sentience in My Life From All Five
Senses Through Most All Feelings and Senses That Comprise the MuSiC of Emotions
In Waves of Vibrations Frequencies and Synergies of Energies From Head to Toe;
i've Already Been to the
Hell of Real Nothingness;
Why The 'Hell' Do You 'Think'
Nothing Came to Be All That is;
Nothing is Frigging Boring as A
Republican House Divided Against itself...
Nah Baby, i Ain't Gonna LiVE iN That House And Do That;
if Ya Wanna Do That Go Ahead Yet 'You' Won't Be my Guest in 'my House';
True though i'll Come Visit 'You' As i Do Tend to Get Around With SMiLes...
A Clearest Sign That God Didn't Write a Bible is If There are No 'Dirty Jokes'...
It's More A Sign That It
Only Comes From
Left Hemisphere
Restricted
Expressions
of God With
Half a House
Divided Against Itself Whole And Free
Attempting to Grab A Hold of Water to Swim;
i Am the Water; i Am the Air; i Am the Breath; i Am The Dance And Song Free Spiraling iN
Play, Creating Nautilus Shells Free; No Different Really Than the Milky Way Spiraling in Essence;
True, i Don't Give an F What Anyone Calls me; And i Doubt All that is As ALL Cares too Much
About Names Either;
As Something
is So Much
Better
Than Nothing Indeed
to Play With Always New Now For Real Free...
Listen, i've Been Doing Anthropology Observing
Participant For 62 Years As We All Do Continuing to Exist Newly More or Less Now;
i've Interviewed Countless Folks in the Same Old God Dammed Walled in Church;
And Everyone Has a Unique View of THeiR God and Favorite Quarter Back Jesus;
And In All the Other
Religions of People
i've Interviewed too;
With Their Favorite
Quarterbacks too;
Yes, Tom Brady,
Whoever Else; True,
Existence is Basically A
Rorschach Test; Better
Doing A Work of Art Now PLaYinG
Freely FLoWeR AlwayS UNfolding New
Or the Same Old God Dammed 'Matter
WitH Old Things;' Same Old Aghogday,
Another Ground Hog Day, iNdeed; YucK,
i Ain't Going
Back to that
Way oF EXPReSSinG
WaLKinG TaLKinG
God So Very Small
And Close to Nothing At All
Yet i Still Carry the 'User Name'
Around to Remind me of WHere
i CoMe From The DarK As Well For Real
Before i Truly STArT Dancing Singing Freely
iN PLaY Naked Enough Whole Complete Real;
You Guys And or Gals May Elect Whoever
You Wanna Do For God;
i For One Will
Do God
In the
Way i
Naturally Do too
As My House Is No Walls,
Ceiling, or Floors; i Am Basically
Wind, Water, Air, And Fire; Part of Earth too
Yet i Don't Sing Nearly AS HigH As 'Phillip Bailey;'
More Often Compared to 'Josh Groban,' (Evidence on DeMaND) Hehe;
Some Folks Feel And Sense me Yet Rarely 'See' All of Who i Am, Either...
"Sweet JeSuS" is 'JusT ALRiGHT With Me' Too as Long as i Get to Do the Version That Works Best FoR Me Too..
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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Very interesting question!
God is Unique and Transcendent.
I suppose that according to Quran God is not sentient (unable of feeling pain, but also unable of experiencing pleasure) because there is nothing like Him and the human is not created in the image of God according to Quranic religion. I do not know what are the doctrines about sentientness of God in non-Quranic unitarianisms (such as Bible-based ones which teach that Mosaic Law is still required for salvation).
I found such a text in first description of link in my Google search engine for the phrase is Allah sentient:
Of course I do not want to make any temptation for anyone! Religion is very, very difficult area for me. I had profound OCD about religion and I had to take a lot of psychotropic drugs to get rid of it or at least strongly reduce its symptoms.
God is Unique and Transcendent.
I suppose that according to Quran God is not sentient (unable of feeling pain, but also unable of experiencing pleasure) because there is nothing like Him and the human is not created in the image of God according to Quranic religion. I do not know what are the doctrines about sentientness of God in non-Quranic unitarianisms (such as Bible-based ones which teach that Mosaic Law is still required for salvation).
I found such a text in first description of link in my Google search engine for the phrase is Allah sentient:
Of course I do not want to make any temptation for anyone! Religion is very, very difficult area for me. I had profound OCD about religion and I had to take a lot of psychotropic drugs to get rid of it or at least strongly reduce its symptoms.
Tell god he did a lousy job in making humanity/huwomanity.
Tell him to try again.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Do you believe in God? I am unable to tell by your post is why I am asking.
That's a good question. I think it depends on whether what I believe in (the power that gives order to the Universe) is considered to be god. If so, I believe there may be an infinite number of gods, given that we may inhabit a multiverse in which each universe has different laws.
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