What is this “god” you speak of?

I often hear people ask if you believe God exist. Or some one will argue very confidently that God doesn’t exist. For others he does and is very anxious for you to do something or another for him. This makes me wonder, what exactly is a God? For those of us brought up in a mainstream Christian household in America (well mainstream for the South any how), we tend to think of God as a kind of invincible Superman. A person who is all knowing, all powerful, perfectly just, and infinitely merciful. There’s all kinds of debate on what all that means. I think we’ve invented this idea of a being, defined it, and then set out to find if it exist. 

To give a short answer, if you ask me if God exist, I’d say “yes most definitely a god exists!” I’ll explain why. First, our concept of god is relatively recent. Earlier people had different ideas of god. Our word god is capitalized because we use it like a personal name. Who do you worship? God. Not the god or a god. But God isn’t the name our hypothetical being picked for its’ self. It’s an English word meaning deity.[1] Deity from the Latin Deus meaning a divine being. Divine, meaning Deus or deva like. Deva from Deiwos an Indo-European word meaning the day light sky.[2] Divine-deity-Deus-deva-Deiwos, a supernatural being. An intangible person or a soul, or ghost, or spirit. The soul of the sky as a kind of ghost. A spirit being called “Sky”. The idea of sky. 

 

 

 

Another word for a god is a spirit. We keep the words separate in our language. A medium talks to spirits at a séance not gods. Other cultures don’t make the distinction. In Japanese mythology, kami is used to mean every thing from the great goddess of the Sun to the spirits of dead ancestors. Sometimes you’ll get an overlapping system. Many Indo-European based mythologies have competing groups of beings like the Theos of Greece and the Titans. Also there were the Ahura (or Asura/Aesir) [3] who were the foes of the Devas in Indo-Iranian lore. The Ahura were spirits in Iranian mythology. The supreme god of Zoroaster’s is Ahura Mazda, meaning Spirit of Wisdom.

 

We often say things have a spirit. It’s not a tangible thing but spirits aren’t supposed to be. And spirits can be gods. And if the sky its self can be god then I can say that gods exist. Now you could argue that these things aren’t real gods because they don’t listen to prayers. Personally I don’t think asking the stars for favors works but I still wish on stars. Any how gods have thier own reasons for action. 

You may say that these things aren’t your gods. “I don’t worship them!”That’s another thing about gods. There revered. One of the early distinctions between supernatural beings are those who are revered and those that aren’t. That’s the difference between God and angels or elves. It’s a very subtle distinction. If you leave milk and cookies for Santa, is that worship? I’m sure the Sadducees would have thought so, they didn’t even allow for the existence of angels to distract from the worship of their one and only ADONAI. ADONAI was the word that Jews of the era used to refer to their god Yahweh. Adonai means master or owner. The Canaanites used a word with same meaning, Baal, to describe their gods.

 

The idea is the god is like an earthly ruler and is owed tribute and honors. This may be out of fear or love (like getting mom presents on mothers’ day). We might be made aware of a being that knows everything, can do anything, and always did what was right. You could still say “screw him he’s not my god”. Your gods are what you respect most. You don’t need to be superstitious about it. I can give respect to entities that are unaware of my respect and not be superstitious. When I salute a flag, I salute the spirit of my nation, not a banner. And I do, knowing full well that America doesn’t know it happened or appreciates it. In reality, every one has gods.

 

 

[1] God comes from the Germanic gudan, meaning poured. This could be in refrence to libations being poured on an idol, the earth being poured on a burial mound, or decendents pouring out of the ancestor.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_%28word%29

 

 

[2]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[3]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some times a man will be seen as divine. The ancient pharos we’re believed to be gods. The Emperor of Japan was believed to be a divine being, descended (legendarily) from the Sun’s spirit. They knew that a god existed. Some had met him. They didn’t believe he was all powerful or even all knowing, but they believed they were gods.

Imagine the sky having a consciousness like you. What does the sky do? Sky stuff. It rains, blows wind, moves the Sun, Moon, and stars. And these things as well may have their own consciousness. With them also, the rivers and sea and mountains. Now if we are men, what kind of beings are the Moon, sky, and mountain? The greatest being becomes the eponym of the race. The Moon, Earth, and day are deiwos or deities. The ancient Semitic word for god came by a similar method. Their high god was El, the wind and el was used to mean any god.