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God

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A god is a mythical being worshiped within a religion. They are often attributed great supernatural power, but also some degree of characterisation that gives them motive to interact with and care about the lives of mortal humans. In some cases, entire anthropomorphic mythologies are developed about the gods, as in ancient Greek religion - the gods have feuds, are born, die, fight and often interact quite directly with mortals in these myths. In other religions, particularly the oldest ones, the gods are given more transcendent qualities and are simply representations of concepts such as fertility or nature.

As religion developed, the role gods played altered and monotheism developed to replace the pantheons of old. The most widely worshiped god in the present day is, confusingly, called "God" most commonly, and is the monotheist deity of Christianity, Judaism, Bahai and Islam. In Islam, the word for "God" is "Allah", in Judaism it varies, but includes "YHWH", "Jehovah", and "The Great I Am". Amongst atheists, it's common to intentionally conflate this God with other gods to highlight the identical absurdity of their existence.

Contents

[edit] Origins

God was a dream of good government.

—Morpheus, Deus Ex

Since humans first appeared, the world was surrounded by unexplained phenomena: the rise and set of the sun and moon; the ever-changing weather, including seasons, storms and other natural disasters; as well as other things. Once human intelligence reached the point of being able to comprehend time as having a past, present, and future, men realized that they would someday die, which was a quite depressing fact. The idea that these unexplained phenomena were controlled by possibly sympathetic entities, and that their psyche would survive bodily death as an immaterial entity, was comforting. Those who were able to buy into this comfort woo would be better able to get on with their harsh and brief lives. Evolution therefore created the first gods. A possible date for these events could be the first anatomically modern humans ~150 000 years ago, or maybe the time of the Cro-Magnons and the behavioral revolution ~40 000 years ago.

As time went on, though, the climate changed. Over the past million or two years, the glaciers' grip on the Earth continued changing millennium to millennium in the current ice age. Sometimes, the ice would have most all of Europe in its grasp, other times not even reaching Scandinavia. For most of Homo sapiens' life, the Earth was in its final glacial expansion, which peaked around 18 000 years ago. Around 12 000 years ago, the ice began receding for the final time as of now. This led to a change in the climate as yet unseen by men. Food was scarce as the megafauna (giant mammals, such as mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, etc.) began dying out. In order to keep from starving to death, some of the inhabitants of the Near East began to grow figs and wild barley to eat. They built simple granaries so their food wouldn't spoil. The Holocene and the age of agriculture had begun.

However, in order to maintain a tribe under agriculture, it would be necessary to have some sort of government so the people did not destroy themselves over land squabbles. Some people were able to realize that some are more easily led than others. A position of authority was created, as some men claimed to be in touch with the already-thought-of gods. Tribes would be united under these theological ties. Organized religion had formed in the earliest theocracy, existing in what is now Turkey some 12 000 years ago.[1] Organized religion was used to get the idiotic to act somewhat sensibly (e.g., the dietary laws in Leviticus). Religions would allow people to be coerced with threat of supernatural punishment.

Of course, the world has changed since the Neolithic Revolution. In 1620, Francis Bacon created the modern scientific method and humanity began to actually mature. Over the next few centuries Science was able to rise and greatly improve the lifestyle of humans. Theological ties gave way to nationalistic ones: people felt more proud of their nation than religion[2]. In many ways, religion was becoming obsolete as science forced God into the continually shrinking gaps yet to be explained. Although some gaps cannot possibly be filled, and so God will always have a little gap to hide in, both of the initial purposes of gods — explanation and control — were fulfilled by others: science and nationalism. The correlation is obvious to all those but those who choose to deny it.

See also this video on the conversation which brought organized religion into the world.

[edit] Ideas of God

As pantheons of multiple gods fell out of favour in world religions, so the concept of a more almighty and over-arching god began to be developed. Although the name hints at an overly Christian bias, the idea is often captured by the name God, distinguished by a capital G. This would be a transcendent force that was responsible for creating the world, and was blessed with powers such as omnipotence and omniscience, and qualities such as goodness. The idea was described in Science of Discworld by Ponder Stibbons as "a god built-in to the universe itself", to distinguish it from the usual gods of Discworld who were merely characters within the universe controlling it. So the idea of God is far more difficult to describe than the anthropomorphic characters of older religions, and numerous views of what this force actually is have been put forward.

God looks remarkably like an elderly Italian man from the Renaissance. Quite possibly because this was painted by one.

[edit] Proofs of gods existing

Our God is an awesome God

Throughout history, various arguments have been proposed that supposedly prove God's existence. Sadly for their proponents, not one of these arguments has yet been successful.

There's also the question of which God to prove exists. Islam's theory is that Allah is powerful, remote, and unfathomable by man. Judaism's theory is that Yahweh is focused on the descendants of Jacob. Christianity's theory is that God is united with humanity in the flesh in the person of Jesus. Pantheists say that God is the whole universe. Deists say that God created the universe in the beginning but now has nothing to do with it at all. Mormons say that God and man are the same species at different levels of advancement, and God was once a man, and man will someday be a God. Before these various gods' existences can be debated, both sides have to agree on the god's attributes.

[edit] Discussion

The concept of the God of classical theism, with what Anselm described as its 'perfections', may lead to logical impossibilities.[6] There is a great deal of debate, to put it lightly, over this topic - one of the most common contentions is that the problem of evil renders God's existence with the above attributes impossible.[7]

For some believers however, there are versions of God which appear to be at least logically possible, and as it is impossible to prove that something does not exist, even the most hardened skeptic has to concede that there is a remote possibility that such a being (or for that matter fairies) might conceivably exist in some form or another.

However, in rational terms, logic and evidence appears to dictate that there almost certainly is no requirement for God to exist in the monotheistic sense,[8] and it can be argued that the existence of God leads to logical contradictions.[9]

God, in the meantime, has usually declined to participate in this discussion. This is unfortunate, as it is certain that she would have many fascinating insights to add.[10] However, she is just too busy. (After all, being god, she has other civilisations and even alien races to attend to. You wouldn't expect her not to be busy! Especially if they're as stupid as this species.)

In general, it would seem to make little sense to seriously discuss the existence of a particular god, as the many tales about gods tend to be mutually exclusive.

[edit] God and her agents of death

Coat of Arms of Prussia between 1933 and 1935.

Apart from the people whom God personally claims to have killed, all humans are godly agents of death; for everyone who is an agent of death always wants to justify their actions by citing a power beyond question which provides that justification. There is no better power than god, who has, since the beginning of time, been invoked to justify every mass slaughter—and can also be called, in addition to the creator, the killer. Some religions actually recognize this.

German soldiers marched into WWI with the words Gott Mit Uns ("God is with us") on their belt buckles. During the Nazi period, soldiers in the German Wehrmacht also wore belt buckles inscribed with this slogan.

In Hitler’s Mein Kampf, volume I, at the end of chapter 2: "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

Both George Bush and Tony Blair claim to have consulted God about the invasion of Iraq. It appears that She gave them the go-ahead. What a kidder!

Al-Qaeda claim that She is on their side, so it may have been a set-up.

The Yorkshire Ripper has also claimed that God approved his activities as a serial killer.

[edit] Physicists on god

God is subtle, but he is not malicious. — Albert Einstein
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. — Albert Einstein
The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. — Albert Einstein
God does not play dice with the universe. — Albert Einstein
Einstein, stop telling God what to do. — Niels Bohr

[edit] God on physicists

Niels, stop telling my man Al what to do. — God

[edit] Philosophers on god

God is dead. — Friedrich Nietzsche

[edit] God on philosophers

Nietzsche is dead. — God

[edit] God at the movies

George Burns played God in the Oh, God! movies, based on the novel by Avery Corman. In the third installment, Oh, God! You Devil, Burns played the dual roles of God and Satan.

"The Supreme Being" in Time Bandits is played by Sir Ralph Richardson.

Now he is usually played by Morgan Freeman (or, on one regrettable impressively iconoclastic occasion, Alanis Morissette).

[edit] Other people chat about God

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Richard Dawkins; The God Delusion

[edit] Why do some people write G-d or Gd?

Judaism holds that, as a mark of respect to God, His name should not be erased or defaced. There is no prohibition on writing God's name (or names), but Orthodox Jews avoid casually writing his name in order that they lessen the risk of defacement or erasure.[11] This custom would have begun in Hebrew, but some carry it over to English and other languages. This practice prevented God from ordering business cards, thus restricting Judaism to being a tribal religion focused on a relatively small ethnic group.[12]

As is the case with the majority of inconvenient religious beliefs, some smart-ass will always find a workaround that respects the letter of the law, if not the spirit. This is done by writing "G-d" or "Gd" instead of God. The omniscient creator of the universe has yet to see through this devious trick, allowing theologians to safely use a black board or Etch A Sketch® without risking the ineffable and baffling vengeance of He whose Name shall not be written in any way that makes sense. The ridiculous thing is that "God" is not even his name[13] it is a title or position; so, by analogy, people should also write "L-rd" or Lrd".

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html
  2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
  3. As defined by German philosopher, Krause, who first coined the term
  4. Though china refuses to participate in polls about it
  5. Bertrand Russell said all ontological arguments are just a case of bad grammar. Also see the Wikipedia article.
  6. For example, no being can be both omniscient and omnipotent. An omniscient being would know everything, including the course of its own future actions; this means that it would be unable to change them, and hence would be denied free will; this denies omnipotence. Conversely, an omnipotent being can do anything, including change its own mind about what it can do, even up to the last moment prior to acting. That means that any attempt at omniscience would fail. This argument is explored in depth in Augustine c. 415, The City of God, and elsewhere
  7. 'Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?', Epicurus.
  8. See for example, the God of the gaps article
  9. The Transcendental Argument for the Non-Existence of God concludes that Logic, Science and Morality are inconsistent with the existence of God. see http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/martin-frame/tang.html
  10. In this Sinfest comic God offers her unique perspective on a theological debate.
  11. The background relating to usage of G-d
  12. The practice of writing "G-d" is most common among Orthodox Jews, although some Christians may observe the same custom for reasons known only to them. Like other Jewish laws, the custom becomes amusing in modern times when Rabbis have to determine whether or not it's okay to write God's name on a computer, since technically the screen is being repeatedly blanked and redrawn. On a monitor (the type with a cathode ray tube) with a refresh rate of 60Hz, an unsuspecting believer could find that God's name is being erased over 60 times per second. Wikipedia has an article discussing CRT refresh rates, but they don't make any attempts to resolve this tricky theological question.
  13. It is, of course, Yahweh.
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