Hello people!:) I just had a stream of thoughts about 'god'.
What I feel is that 'god' is ultimately what you perceive it to be and how you perceive it to be. I mean. sure enough if there is an entity called god and it is as powerful as it is supposed to be, then surely it does not care about how you perceive it with regards to its appearance. That is probably why the fact that different cultures and religions depict different appearances of god is acceptable to god. Because there are instances of prayers being answered for people of different religions. People of all religions pray to achieve the same result, don't they?:)
God is basically what you want it to be. If I think of a simple 'box' as 'god' and worship it, then it is 'god' for me. What ultimately matters is the prayers god is looking for. I say so, because god him/herself does not really make a physical appearance in our day to day lives to give us an indication of what he wants to be perceived as. Just our assumption that he/she is probably like so and so.
Also, another variant of that thought could be that god may not really be interested in our prayers as a driving force for his actions. I mean if he has indeed created the world and is responsible for all its inhabitants, this whole earth and the universe is his 'playground'. And surely if he has such vast power to create so much he probably has something like the "universal world monitor" and knows what every being is up to and what every single being in the universe wants. He does not need prayers to confirm the same. I am sure he is capable of dynamically adapting his moves with the great means available to him.
Also, if god is indeed the great power people believe him to be, I feel he does not need to be appeased by prayers. I mean surely if he is 'great', then he is above feelings like greed, ego etc. Then, why would he wait for prayers to take action? He is not an insecure entity that needs prayers to ascertain his/her own importance, in order to take action. Quite obviously, he is above materialism. He already knows what every being wants at a given point of time.
Personally, I am something like an agnostic. I don't believe or disbelieve in god. I am Hindu by birth and am fascinated by my gods and no less fascinated by gods of other religions. But I also support the school of thought that one makes his own destiny by his own actions. But obviously there are times, when something extraordinarily good happens, people tend to say god has answered their prayers. Those who don't believe in god say hard work has paid off or it is "good luck".
But maybe we should also consider that both are not "mututally exclusive" things. I mean there has to be a reason the saying that, "God helps those who help themselves" also exists, right? Those who don't believe in god would say, "How is god helping us if one is helping oneself?" Others would say, "Because he is trying to help himself, god thinks him worthy." Then, again the opposite school of thought might say, "God might think someone worthy if he/she has the qualities to be worthy even if he/she is consciously not trying", and if one does comment so, I would say that person would not be completely wrong in his/her assessment.
Ultimately, there is no foolproof way to bend one way or the other. Let god be what he/she is. Those who believe in god at least say he is a "great force". And those who don't, try to ascertain that he is 'energy'. I think all of us can agree to 'that' at least as a sort of common ground between both schools of thought, i.e. the reference to something which supposedly helps us. Only question is that, an external force helps us or we subconsciously help ourselves without consciously knowing it?