Alternative Concepts of God? (Part 2) | Niels Henrik Gregersen

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Neils, when I hear the word God, I think of the traditional Judeo-Christian, Islamic, monotheistic God, a personal God. But today, there are broader concepts with go of God, even within the Christian tradition. How do you see God?

[00:00:17]In a sense, I see God as a network that is encompassing everything that exists that has a special concern also for sentient beings and which in a sense we cannot think of God apart from the notes that are comprised by this network. So this network is a network of love. This is I think the core assumption of the Christian faith or actually the core belief and uh this is incompassing.

[00:00:51]This means that there's only one God in that sense it's a monotheistic conception of God but it is a conception of God in which there are different poles or or persons. And this is what in the Christian language is called the God as trinity. That does not mean it is three gods but it means that there are three centers of poles within this network. There's a creative center which is the father who's the source of everything that exists and there is the eternal son or the logos or the wisdom which is sort of the recipient which is everywhere in in the cosmos and there is the uh the holy spirit which is the circulation between the two which also facilitates the the uh interaction between the different nodes within this incompassing network >> and this god this network has been forever and ever in the past and will be in the future and is the most fundamental bedrock of reality. Is that what you're saying? I think it is because you cannot speak of any of the particular notes within this network without seeing it as being situated and kept together and sustained by this uh by this network which is God and which is personal in nature since it's loving and caring but is not a person or a being that exists alongside this world.

[00:02:22]>> Is it three beings?

[00:02:23]>> No, it it's not three beings. It is actually three poles within this one being wi which is or who is God.

[00:02:33]>> So there is one being with three poles and which creates this network in which there are nodes. What are the nodes?

[00:02:42]>> The nodes are you and me and all other creatures in a sense.

[00:02:46]>> Okay. So in that sense we are all part of the divine reality but none of us are able to to show what God is in the in in in God's own world. The tradition would have God creating the world from nothing and God having controlling the world sustaining the world but having an independence from the world.

[00:03:10]>> Yes. And I think actually that there's a reason for this. There's a talk about God as being beyond the world.

[00:03:16]>> Yes.

[00:03:17]>> And I think that this is like a formative network. One thing is a network. The other thing is the the source of the of this network and the formative structure, informationational structure uh which pervades in this network. So as I see it, there are two reasons why one speak of God as beyond in the religious tradition that goes back to Plato, in the Greek tradition, but also in Judaism and in Christianity and and in Islam as you said. And the first is that we cannot comprehend the whole network. We are just tiny parts of it. So our comprehension is very limited indeed. And it doesn't help you to become a theologian. we were still a very tiny theologian in this vast cosmos of meaning in which we are embedded. And the second uh uh reason is that God must in order for God to be loving and caring then God must somehow be different. God must must not does not need to be at a different plane or existing independently or or outside of the world but is simply different is persistent because the notes within this network is are not always actually true images of the of the network as a whole. So are you saying that God does not have an independent existence from that which is part of the cosmos as we know it? A different maybe uh way of dealing with the cosmos. But the traditional thinking is that God has a very strong independence from the cosmos. I think that too actually the the source is independent on that which it is independent of its offspring. So in that sense there's an independence but it's not placed somewhere else. So as as Paul said according to the New Testament uh God is the one in whom we live and move and have our being. So in a sense we are inhabitants in a divinely uh embedded uh uh cosmos. And also Jesus said uh the the reign of God is is uh uh here in the midst of us. He didn't say though that you can see the reign of God everywhere.

[00:05:43]>> No, because there are many things that are not in a sense truly conformed or attuned to the to the bigger picture and what faith is in my understanding from a very general perspective. I can say much more about it in in in a in a Christian tongue or in a Christian parliament or language. But it is about attuning oneself to this basic pattern of reality which is God and which is creative out of nothing if you want so want which is sustaining the world and is also wanting something coming out of this world.

[00:06:18]>> Does this God have a conscious personal understanding of you and me?

[00:06:24]>> Yes. in my in my understanding in my belief. Okay.

[00:06:29]>> But also I think in the Christian tradition that I am representing here.

[00:06:33]>> Yes. For sure. And so that God is a personal God. There is consciousness, sentience, intention.

[00:06:40]>> Yes.

[00:06:41]>> Not just a a generic consciousness, but an intention as part of that consciousness.

[00:06:48]>> You otherwise God would not be love. You could of course say, well, there's also something called a conception of love, a concept of love in which it is about giving everything its its own due.

[00:07:02]>> This could be thought of in a more impersonal way.

[00:07:05]>> But what I'm saying is that God is personal, but I'm not saying that God is a person who exists outside the world, alongside the world as a separate being.

[00:07:17]Because you can only have love by having an object of love.

[00:07:22]And I think this pertains to much of also the traditional talk about God.

[00:07:27]Jesus said, for example, I am the the the light of the world. But you cannot be a light without lightening, without enlightening.

[00:07:37]You cannot be be God without radiating the divine essence into the notes of this cosmos.