Peter Forrest - Alternative Concepts of God?

Is God, if there is a God, a personal, conscious, all-powerful Supreme Being? Some offer radically different concepts of 'God', exploring novel ideas of what God may be like. They challenge theism—the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam—with radically new kinds of gods. Is this 'heresy'? Or enlarging our vision of what the Ultimate can be like?



Peter Forrest teaches the areas of Epistemology and Metaphysics at the University of New England. He works in the area of the philosophy of physics, epistemology, the philosophy of religion, and other issues in metaphysics and epistemology.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[waynecassels]

Since my wife's long struggle with cancer and her eventual passing I have been painfully struggling with my once unquestionable faith. This man gives me hope. This man has articulated what I have been arguing with myself over. Is God really all good and if so, man (or thru God) has sparked new arguments for my mortal brain to wrestle with. God changes through His own development, from a cold to a warm, loving God. Could this be God bringing Himself to earth in Human form to feel and experience human love? Jesus?

[hammaadurrehman]

Man i have never seen a man more humble yet excellent with his questions. You the man MR Kuhn

[lloydmeredith]

Peter wrote the notes for the metaphysics unit I’m currently doing and taught the coordinator running it! His notes are very thorough and he doesn’t beat around the bush about what his thoughts are on each of the subjects which I really like

[shyan]

I had the distinct pleasure of having Dr Forrest for one of my courses at UNE when I was an undergrad. I can't say I've ever been more excited about attending anyone's lectures. I was deeply saddened when he took an early retirement and left, because I was planning to do at least two more courses for which he was the coordinator. Apparently the university's administration had circulated a redundancy notice to him, which is astonishing given his talent and the fact that he was the only Professor in the already impoverished philosophy department. I really wish he had stuck around at least a couple more years until I graduated.

Having said all that, this video really does not reflect his true analytical prowess. I was always asking him difficult questions in class, but he would always think through the problem and come up with a solution on the spot. Even though my position was almost always contrary to his, he would always seriously consider my arguments, which I greatly admired.

Everything he says here seems highly speculative and not the kind of stuff I would typically consider to be "philosophy" (even though I realize that in the early days of philosophy speculation was a big part of the game).

[liluziBurt]

God is infinity consolidated into a thought our finite minds can understand. How do we consolidate infinity you ask? Thru personification.

[smeechdog]

So I'm a massive atheist and this was, strangely, emotional. I'm still an atheist, but if there is a God, I hope he's a God who limited himself because he loves.

[deepaktripathi]

I become so happy to see Robert because he's also so desperate to become a theist as I want to. So there is man who's like me.

[J]

An evolving, thinking God? For God to be able to change or choose, He has to have a less-than-perfect option. Even the mere consideration would imply fallibility.

[jeancorriveau]

It's pointless to ponder about what God might be without having a solid proof of his existence.

[Monster_Mover_Stocks]

It would be nice to have a god who knows how to COMMUNICATE.

[margrietoregan]

Judging by ‘His’ works - for example countless bazillions of incidences of totally, utterly meaningless pain & suffering - personally I’m opting for a 100% malicious-but-only-85%- effective God….

[stefanandersson]

So the devil is the part of god that is not in line with the loving god?

[ramaraksha]

God is with the Living. God is not with the Dead - never forget that
That would be like looking for God in a cemetery or among Ghosts in dusty, old & creepy abandoned mansions! No Sir, God is with us! God is with us sharing not only in our joys, but our sufferings as well

[jdc]

If you're going to define God in a way which has little to do with what the word "God" has traditionally meant, what are you accomplishing? The word "soul" has had a traditional meaning assigned to it. If I redefine soul to mean the imprint my body makes when I lay down in the snow, I'm just creating confusion in language.

[MrSanford]

I think if you’re a piece of the puzzle then you’ll be perfect as far as you fit in. As far as the nature of God ; it’s irrelevant in this plane of life but on the other side what I gather is it exceeds your expectations but maintains the characteristic trajectory

[davetubervid]

Listening to Beethoven's music, especially the later more difficult and profound works, make me think there is a higher form of consciousness to which we all potentially belong. I am an atheist and don't think the concept of God, whether traditional or alternative, is very meaningful, since it exists as an intellectual abstraction. It is limited by our language and our mental capacity, Yes, we can talk about certain things that religion/God have traditionally seen as important, such as love, compassion etc. but we cannot theorise them as philosophers and theologians do, we can only experience them, sometimes just glimpse them or intuit their existence and their meaning. Music and art seem to me the ways through which such experiences are channelled (and of course music of all kinds can accomplish this, not just 'serious' music such as Beethoven's)

[jlip]

Anything that changes is impermanent. If god changes, god is impermanent. But the claim is made that god is eternal. If god is eternal then god is permanent. If god can change, god is impermanent and therefore not eternal. It's basic logic.

[willp]

Sounds like he's saying that, if there is a God, then that God is a non-caring God because of all the suffering in the world. Which makes me wonder, why can't there be several or many Gods, with some caring and some non-caring? Why be limited to one God? There are still many possibilities when creating a God or Gods in your mind. And the whole idea of creating this God is to explain how existence began?

[im-not-alone]

So basically he described Christianity without calling it Christianity?

First he says the old testament is full of bad things. Then he makes a case for a COLD God who does things that are maximally good. When he's asked good for WHOM? He casually explain that good doesn't exclude painful... That a good choice could harm some, but given a certain set of conditions it's a sacrifice god should make.

And then he talks about this other God who is one and yet plural, and who knows cares a lot about love. Sounds familiar.
I mean I know a god who limited his own power just like he described. Came down on earth and told everyone to love their neighbours...

[ThePinkus]

Aside from the topic discussed in the video, the notion of considering all possibilities and choosing (one, I suppose) is so classic, in the literal sense of classical logic... and classical logic is just the wrong one to deal with a fundamental (omni-)potency.