What is GOD?

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Because humans cannot imagine Him.

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That's the problem, mankind CAN imagine God. Mankind created the concept of God. God came from mankind's imagination. God is that which we can't explain, or can't control. The more mankind understands the workings of this world, the less God controls. In Christianity it is what happens after death. We don't know. Well, I think we do know, we just don't like it.The rules surrounding the concept of God have changed since they first began. That's why we have so many religions. Since mankind created God, mankind can change the rules of the game so to speak. When they are unhappy with one religion they create another.Just reading on this forum the various specifics about God that theists "know" and yet most of these specifics aren't within the book they call sacred. We interpret religious writings, we don't comprehend them. When we read them comprehensively, then we see the reality of their authors.If God were truly a knowable being outside of the pages and imaginations that house him, then they could share the steps to knowing God that all could follow.Whether there is one supreme being that started this universe machine, I don't know, but, IMO, a known being is not what religion worships.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France

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That may be true of some people, but not me. I believe God is behind the weather even though I understand convection and evaporation and the jet stream.

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I have difficulty attributing natural disasters to a supposedly benevolent God.

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Religion is the set of "rules of the game" that humans create.

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That was the point. Mankind created God and the rules to with him.

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...people who knew little claimed to know a lot in order to control people or gain earthly possesion. As far as I know this has happened in practically every religion including Christianity.

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I don't notice it as much in the history of Native American spirituality from what I've read. Not to the degree of the large religions.

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Do not look to religion if you are looking for God.

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I don't. I already know where God is, no need to look.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France

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Is all suffering inherently evil?

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Who said anything about evil? Weather has no intent behind it, unless you believe there is a being behind it, which is the concept that mankind created and what religion presents. So my point is that if a benevolent God created the weather or controls the weather, natural disasters shouldn't happen so indiscriminately.

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Does God have to like everything that goes on in the world?

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So you don't believe that God controls the weather, just created the system?

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And my point was that mankind creating religion is not the same as mankind creating God. You cannot be certain of whether mankind made up God or whether mankind gained the ability to become aware of God.

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Sure it is. Mankind created the concept that what they cannot control must be controlled by a greater being(s). Since the concept was created with the ancients, it has continued through history. Does a person today, who grows up with the technology we have in the US, really have the chance to become inherently aware of God with no outside influence? IMO, No.The ability to become aware of God is imagination. Many people today have put aside the rules of religion and follow the path of discerning if the human concept of God exists outside of our writings and imagination. IMO, it does not.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France

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You're thinking about it as if God were a human engineer. You can't understand with your presuppositions about what god is.

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I'm not, you said he was behind the weather. If I misunderstood that comment I apologize. I consider God to be a concept that was created by ancient man to describe that which he could not see, control, or understand.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France

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And yet why does modern man...who knows better...still believe in God?

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Because it has been taught through the ages and become part of human culture, tradition, psyche. Religions kept the tradition alive.We know the sun doesn't move, but we still refer to sunrise and sunset.Even though we know the reality of Santa Clause, we teach our children that he is real and can do amazing things.We know that weather is without feeling, but we personify it anyway. It relates more to how it makes us feel as opposed to weather having feelings.If we remove the name God or Spirit from the concepts associated with them, the common man has no name for them. Different cultures have different names as they understand these concepts.We continue in our comfort zone and what works for us to manage our lives.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France

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All I can say is that if you want to know "what God is" you have to expand your ways of thinking.

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I already know what God is and it's not a supreme being.I don't need to expand my ways of thinking, I just need a new vocabulary.

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"The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which lasts forever." --Anatole France