Can one be godly without a god?

Question

For all practical purposes, I am an apatheist. Please don't try to prove or disprove God's existence. I am curious as to how a person could be god-like if there were no god to be like.

If one does not have a perfect being to mimic how can they try to be perfect? What is a gloriously good like?

Answer 1

To excel amongst one’s peers, live harmoniously and contentedly, have the capacity to love mankind and be loved in return is a good measure to apply.

God is many things to as many folk. Each individual has a higher, supreme and perfect self. One must be able to envisage, imagine perfection to journey towards is attainment.  

As a general rule of thumb, Godly* is one who is consistently sound in Judgment, authorative, holds an all encompassing understating and love for humanity, deep perception and understanding of the world and knows your thoughts prior to you voicing them.

The statutory long beard and white robe usually binds the entire conceptual image of what God is. Celestial music playing subtly in the background, surrounded by beauteous heavenly angels singing his glory are also further indicators that one is in the presence of the Big He who must be Obeyed.

Indeed ordinary mortals, imbued with virtue, radiant with goodness, and glowing with affectionate love for others may appear Godly without making the acquaintance of God. It is possible. Although such individuals are headhunted and snapped up by God Inc Plc* to avoid such bastions and pillars of perfection being pillaged by Satan.

Answer 2

Very interesting question! First of all I believe that religion serves one main purpose. It helps people create a sense of order in an otherwise chaotic world. If we go back to the time of cavemen paying homage to the rain, sun and moon it was done in order to find a purpose, reason, direction that would otherwise not have been there. As people continued to evolve so did religious thought and reason. Along with that thought and reason came a preconceived notion of what God is like, what He expects of us and how we should behave in order to do right, be good people and ultimately find ourselves in His favor after death.  I do believe in God very much, but I also recognize that it has a lot to do with how I was raised and my personal impressions/interpretations of the world. What Godly is will be different for anyone who had a definition for the term.  There is no one isolated answer.

Answer 3

if God is God he is all powerful.    He can put godly thoughts in your mind even if you do not know they ARE godly thoughts.  to that extent you can be godly without knowing God.    God is always around.  and God is always in control of everything including your life,   it would be wise to quickly find that God and connect with or to Him.

Answer 4

I don't think anyone can be perfect. Maybe you can just mimic what you think being a really good person is.

Answer 5

By definition, a godly person has character attributes consistent with those taught by God.  If there were no God, the word would have no meaning.  A working definition of a good person is one with character attributes conducive to the benefit of society.  This definition does not require consideration of God.

Answer 6

Look into Buddhism. They seek Enlightenmet in order to have everything and inner happiness. God-realization.

Answer 7

Don't confuse Good, and God. Yes, there is no way to try to be Godly, if you have no reference point to immitate. Gloriously means "of the essence of God," so a gloriously Good person, once again, is a comparison to a God of some sort. And what does Good mean? --"Of a pleasing nature"--So the question you ask, "What is a gloriously Good person like?", can only be answered by saying, a gloriously good person is of the essence of God, and of a pleasing nature.

But if there is no God, then no one could be gloriously God-like, but they could still be Good.

Answer 8

Hey, yes you can be godly without god. Take Buddha as a good example he was a Man not a god, He was compassionate loving wise and virtuous. people worship him as a god now because he became enlightened and helped so many find spiritual fulfillment, so if you want to be godly try being more like him.

Plato also wrote in one of his books about how you can become happy by working out which one of the 12 Greek gods you are most like and then trying to become more like that god so you can become wise and happy, i do not believe in the Greek gods like that, but i do follow that advise. So in short you do not need God you just need to have a good idea of what a truly good and godly person is like and try hard to become that person. I hope this helps you and gives you something to think about. :)

Answer 9

If there were no perfect god to be like, then no one can be like a god because there is no one to follow. Fortunately, that's not the case. There is a perfect Being to mimic. You can't be Godly without God. If you believe there is no God to follow, and you believe Jesus doesn't exist, then you can't be like God, or strive to be perfect. No one is perfect and you never will, the only thing you can do is try to be, but never try too hard.

A good person is anyone does good (anyone of any religion). A glorious, or righteous person is one who follows Jesus, or their role model. There is a difference between the two.

*(No one begs you for money, it's your choice. He just asks that you  acknowledge him and help build His church. If you don't know what you are talking about, and you have not studied Christianity for a while, then don't say anything, cause it only makes you look stupid.)

Answer 10

Because the concept is still there.

If in the bible if they described "God's" tattoo so profoundly to offer a picture one could just as easily get it tattooed on their body without the real, original ever really existing.

If I wanted to, I could mimic Peter Parker's actions, even though we all know Spiderman isn't real.

It isn't about whether or not it exists, but the concept behind it.  If you want to get technical, no one knows what it's like to truly be God-like and thus couldn't mimic it, but if you want to except the common definition (which is all we can really do):

god-like: like or befitting God or a god; divine.

Also, remember that the concept of god-like has been around way before God.

There are many other gods to choose to mimic.

Answer 11

Each person has their own perception of god.

In religon god is perfect right? And if everyone has their own veiw of perfection then there is no real perfect.  So really perfection is only a state of mind.

Answer 12

You could try NOT taking acid. What the h**l are you talking about?

Answer 13

'Tat Twam Asi' = Thou are that!

Jesus said 'God dwells in us if we are pure as a Temple'.

Human are six type from ....  Stone-man to God-man.

God has six attributes in all religions. So does Energy in science.

Good is GOD.

Answer 14

The Golden Rule existed long before religion said that there was a man living in a cloud. What is God like? A poor financial planner as he is the only deity in history to ask for money with percentages included.