On 12/8/2016 3:31 PM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 6:47 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
On 12/8/2016 3:29 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 7:26 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
On 12/5/2016 1:31 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 3:38 AM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]>
wrote:
On 12/4/2016 10:45 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
On Sat, Dec 3, 2016 at 6:03 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]>
wrote:
and by doing so you drag in a lot of baggage. There was a group of
atheists in the Dallas area which for a time formed a church and
claimed
to
be a religion for tax purposes. They defined "God" to be whatever was
good
in the world. The IRS disallowed their claim.
I assume that evoking the American IRS as a a scholarly authority on
such a matter is a joke, right?
But they are as good an authority as any. Unlike theologians they have
to
make decisions that have real consequences - not just mix word salad.
But this is not a discussion about theology, it's a discussion about
the historical and cultural variations of concepts of god -- it falls
under anthropology and history.
OK, tell me about a historical or cultural variation in which "god" doesn't
not refer to a person/agent.
Anything pantheistic. Taoism, several gnostic cults, certain native
Americans I think, sufi mysticism, certain denominations of modern
judaism... Ah and the force in Star Wars.
But they don't use the word "god". It's an abuse of language it say
that "god" means "whatever one's religion worships". Paul Tillich tried
that maneuver in the '60s. He said "god" meant whatever one valued
most: money, fame, power,... If you cut a word lose from common usage
then, as the Caterpillar said to Alice, you can make it mean anything
you want.
Brent
“People are more unwilling to give up the word ‘God’ than to give up the
idea for which the word has hitherto stood”
--- Bertrand Russell
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