Who is God?
God has no shape,no gender,is infinite and is not bounded by any faith.The concept of God starts where scope of science ends.That controller is said to be eternal, genderless, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and ultimately indescribable in human language.
This definition[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman#Conceptualization] is very close to my thoughts irrespective of my religious affinity.
He cannot be Human in shape because then it would be bias for other creatures!!He cannot be male because then it would be bias for those females!!It is pure being. It is the "world soul" .The Brahman concept is very complex and hence for common man various forms/ faiths can be realized to conceptualize that complex concept[Brahman].

What is that faith?
Faith is a realization of that Brahman/God by all creatures.

Is Faith religion?
No. Religion is NOT faith.Faith is pure and above religion.It can be something very personal which would realize that God.

Then what is Religion?
Religion is man made.It is a social grouping by society for betterment of society .The concept of Hell to followers of other religion in NOT true .No religion should claim that it is the ONLY way to realize God because it is Faith and not religion which makes you realize God.God cannot be discriminatory on basis of religion.Those who claim that their religion is made by God are liars.

Then what is relationship between religion and FAITH ?
Religion is meant for common people who cannot realize God through their Faith.It is a set of beliefs held by a group of people from a particular event of time .A sage is not bounded by a religion because he can realize that Brahman by his power of Faith-and that is why he does not need any religion.The duty of religion is to to bring peace of mind from worldly pressures and help you to realize Faith.So if a religion claims that it is the [only] way to realize God is WRONG and LIE. Because the jurisdiction of religion ENDS where jurisdiction of YOUR FAITH starts!!

Finally, I have found a Sells sentence that I can agree with.

This is such an unusual occurrence that I fear I may have misunderstood.

>>That is why Christianity cannot be reduced to a message that once we have it ends the journey<<

I hope I have this right (a comma between "it" and "ends", would have been useful), that the practice of the Christian religion is not an end in itself, simply part of a journey. Presumably to some form of enlightenment or heightened awareness?

Can this realistically be confined to Christianity? Surely, it is equally true of any and every religion under the sun?

If it is restricted to Christianity, can Sells explain what makes this journey uniquely Christian, and how (spiritually, of course; I know the players are unique to each) it differs from, say, Buddhism?

On the other hand, if it is simply a universal description of anyone, anywhere, searching for a spiritual meaning behind our existence, where does Jesus fit in?

Pericles
If God is pure event then history is the realm of revelation. The unique nature of Israel was that it among all of the nations reflected on its history theologically. This is different from the Greeks who sought only description. The theologies of Israel may have begun in a primitive way but they were refined as history unfolded. Thus belief was tested against actual events. They found that God did not protect the temple from destruction (twice), that nature was not a source of meaning (the Baal cults) that faith was ineffective when it came to actual events.

The greatest gift that Israel and then the church has given the West is the priority of history and the understanding of its linear and not cyclic nature ( as opposed to Asian religious consciousness). This is where our distorted trust in progress comes from.

If all of history is the revelation of God then why Jesus? He was the one who broke the rules learned from history, that power always overcomes, that the strong will always overcome the weak. His assault on the Judaism of the day using only passive resistance (if that is not an oxymoron) and his murder because of it, was the event that broke the iron rule of history and opened the way to a new creation. We see this being worked through in the history of the world. I know this sounds like I have contradicted myself but I beg your indulgence.

Of course this has all been subverted by the religious who were Jesus’ primary targets. Mature thinking will see past this.

Jesus came to save humans who make history i.e. choices that are self-destructive and destructive of others -- i.e. from these sins, for which there is a definite spiritual and physical consequence -- death.

Buddhism is an Indo-European religion which hypothesizes that man never dies, but returns from the death to relive old mistakes or learn from them. This removes responsibility from those who do harm to others, because reincarnation explains that as the fault of the harmed, in a past life (they did something bad and are paying for it in the present life).

Christianity, on the other hand, says men live once; those that do harm are sinning, and are responsible for those sins; that Jesus came to offer salvation from sins, and is the only one who can do that, being God.
He sets the terms of how one might be saved from the mountain of sins one has accumulated. Believe he is God, follow him,truly repent of sins (change one's ways), and those sins will be washed away, as if they never happened ("Go and sin no more.").

The Bible is God revealing himself to mankind. Other religions are men trying to imagine what they are here for, using their finite minds and imaginations. Other religions try to hid our sins, by saying variously, there are none, there is no God, no Jesus (or another Jesus), so there is no need to choose Jesus. Reincarnation is saying we can save ourselves in our next life, if we so choose. But, there is no next life.

There is only the offer of eternal life that Jesus/God makes to mankind -- reveals as the only choice. However one may choose, by believing or not believing, that is still a choice that will have the consequences outlined by God.

Who else would know the universal rules of the universe he created?

I was just thinking...
Suppose a new universe is discovered[and I see that there is high probability in near future in next 10 years] and we find that aliens have their own God.....:-)

What would happen to all our Earthy Gods :-((((

All,

Please see my earlier post:

Many interesting contributions to Pete's article, do; A priori, assume God exists and next make the Grand Canyon leap to, Jesus being that God. Again a priori. The consequent result narrows the study of other explanations, as "How does God can exist". Mine is, basically, physics (and biological evolution) produced a brain with a mind. That mind is inclined towards spirituality (maybe for socio-ecological reasons?)...

God is a second generation effect of a physical process. God does not precede the mind; the mind does not precede the bio-physical processes creating it.

I wonder if anyone has studied " 'belief' in God" using computerised axial tomography; an MRIf, perhaps? A socio-neurological process with a readable signature? Such a signature of, "How do people ' believe'" (in their brains) might be a good indicator to, "How does God exist"?