On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 2:22 AM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On 12/8/2016 3:52 PM, Telmo Menezes wrote: >> >> On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 12:38 AM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> >>> 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. >> >> So you are saying that "god" is reserved for judaic-christian style >> deities. > > > It's not "reserved"; it, like any word, is defined by usage, and the usage > overwhelmingly denotes a being who is immortal, has supernatural powers and > knowledge and should be obeyed and worshipped or placated. It includes the > gods and godesses of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, India, Scandnavia, Mayan, > Aztec,...
I hear people say stuff like "God for me is Nature" all the time. Don't you? I was raised a catholic and had to go through 6 years of Sunday school until my father put an end to it (I'm forever grateful to him). Even there, I could tell that some people were more literalists while others saw god as "more of a concept". I have the impression that more educated people had a more abstract and less interventionist conception of god. Many did not believe in heaven or hell or miracles. Or that the universe as 6000 years old or any of that nonsense. > Noun 1. God - the supernatural being conceived as the perfect and > omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object > of worship in monotheistic religions > 2. god - any supernatural being worshipped as controlling some part > of the world or some aspect of life or who is the personification of a force > > http://www.thefreedictionary.com/God Well if you go here you get a different picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God I am not trying to cut the religious any slack, by the way. I think we agree on a lot of things. Telmo. > Brent > "If atheists repudiate traditional faith it is not only because this faith > is in contrast with the affirmations of believers themselves, with reason > that denies the idea of God, but because they have understood that false > dogmas go against true morality, against the social demands of the world we > live in. The belief in God is not only a simple illusion, a purely > theoretical error. It misrepresents the practical direction of life by > orienting it in a chimerical direction. It goes against the social realty, > against the essential needs of mankind which are the primary motor and the > ultimate goal of every morality". > --- Prosper Alfaric, former professor of theology at the Sorbonne > > >> Given that those were invented in the Middle East, and that >> they didn't speak English there at the time, how did the anglo-saxon >> term merge with the judaic-christian tradition? >> >> Telmo. >> >>> 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 >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "Everything List" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
