Welcome back to my crow's nest. It's been a while since I last visited with you because I've been on a journey that was similiar to nailing Jello to the wall. If you remember in our last time together up here in the nest we talked about sin and suffering and God. I promised you that we would talk about who God really is. Now the easiest approach would be to announce that the God of the Bible is the true and living God but that would be less than satisfying convincing only those who were already convinced. So I went all the way back to even trying to define what the word "god" means without referencing a religious source such as the Bible or the Koran. The only credible voice I could find was the dictionary. Mr. Webster offered a broad framework from which to start, in fact, almost too broad.
Then I had to overcome my own bias in order to engage in our dialogue instead of debating with those of you who may not see things my way. This crow's nest is rather small so if we just argue someone may get tossed out and it would be rude of me to invite you here and then throw you out. And, surely, you would not throw a man out of his crow's nest, would you?
I have been referring to God as He, She, It, or Them. So the best place to start is by narrowing down these terms of reference. Take "It" for instance. A number of modern minds explain God as an impersonal force- a power of some sort that affects us, yet it has no definite personality. No personality means no intelligence, no explainable approach to why it does things, or even if it does things. No personality also means no emotion. Stuff happens with no judgment in mind nor loving intent. That leaves the interpetation of events up to our own perceptions. Does not that, then, make us the ultimate judge of everything? So are we our own God? At least we have a definite personality that allows us to assess things. Are the "It" followers theists or are they atheists? I've got the hammer, you bring your own Jello.