What Is A God?

I've decided to update this post on 21st Feb 2017. I'm doing this because of a recent exchange I had on Twitter. My interlocutor's insistence on straw-manning my very simple question of "What is a god?" to "What is God?" is decidedly dishonest. He of course gleefully answered his version of my question, and is claiming it as a valid answer. It clearly isn't is it? I mean, if you ask me what a cat is, and I describe the character of Cat from Red Dwarf to you, my answer would be of no relevance whatsoever... I simply would not be answering your question at all! For starters, no feline has ever consistently walked on two legs or spoken English!

When you ask someone to define what a god is, and they answer honestly, you often get a list of things that a god must be, or some idea of how their god exemplifies their idea of what a god is, which isn't actually an answer to the original question, but if they explain that this is all they know, I'm OK with it.

Often they reference things like being humanoid, able to create the universe, being all-good, all-knowing and all that stuff. So, let's unpick that shall we? If a god must be all these things then we should be able to pin down exactly what a god is. Surely if a god doesn't fit the bill it can't be a god, right?

So let's take a look at the common features attributed to gods:

Anthropomorphic (human-like)

There are many gods and goddesses who aren't like us, for instance Kamadhenu of Hindu culture, who whilst having the face of a human woman and often her breasts, is a cow goddess. Ninsun, the Mesapotamian mother of the famous hero-god Gilgamesh, was also a cow.

Anansi is another example of a non-arthropomorphic god. Anansi is an African spider-god, a trickster.

Huntin is an African god of trees, and himself a tree. So not all gods are humanoid.

Creative

Not all gods, or goddesses, are able to create things... especially not universes. After all, if all the creative gods did create the universe they either did so in concert, or the whole idea is total nonsense.

An example of a non-creative god is Heitsi-Eibib, an African god of evolution. Though he himself didn't create any living beings, he reputedly convinced animals to take up more suitable habitats than the ones they previously had. For instance he made the fish leave the desert for the sea, which he deemed a more appropriate place for them to live. Seems obvious when you think about it.

So no, not all gods need to be creative.

Eternal/Invulnerable

Apedemak, a Sudanese war god, came late to the Egyptian pantheon and was gone soon after. How many gods can you name? The ones you can't are probably already dead... if you believe what Terry Pratchett said about them.

Balin, an Indian hero god actually got killed in a fight with his half-brother Sugriva.

So not all gods are eternal, or it would seem invulnerable.

Ethereal/Spirit-like

Most gods and goddesses of the ancient world appeared, or could appear, physically to humans at one point or another. Yahweh's very first real appearance was walking through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam.

Khuzwane is evidenced by the marks he left during his presence on Earth, the African god who purportedly made humans from clay (where have we heard that before?) left muddy footprints everywhere he went (which are apparently still visible today) and even uses Lake Fundudzi as a private pool from time to time.

So some gods are very physical indeed.

Judgemental

There are thousands of gods and goddesses who are seemingly non-judgemental, nor are they involved in any afterlife punishments, or trials of any sort. Take the Roman goddess named Cuba who appears to only be concerned with singing lullabies to children to get them off to sleep.

So not all gods judge our actions

Global/Universal

Um... this may seem fairly obvious to anyone who has spent any time reading about gods, but it appears that many cultures have some very specific gods who look after some very specialist and rather odd things. Anarkusuga, for instance, is a Native American/Inuit goddess who looks after the Arctic ice and its contents.

Mikula, the Slavic god, is in charge of heroics. Yup... just being heroic.

So, not all gods have a universal influence after all.

All-knowing, All-powerful, Ever-present

So far I've referenced a number of gods and goddesses, none of whom appear to be particularly all-knowing, all-powerful, or ever-present... except in their own fields of speciality perhaps. I guess tree spirits are always present in all trees, Arctic frost goddesses are to be found everywhere in the Arctic ice etc. etc.

By contrast, Buga is the supreme god of everything in the Slavic pantheon. Somewhat like the god of the Abrahamic cultures, but with the added advantage of having grown out of a more shamanic and nature-loving religion.

So not all gods are all things to all people.

All-loving

It stands to reason that a god exists which isn't all good. Yama, the Indian death lord, loves nothing more than sending your souls to Hell. Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of night and death, actually leads people into doing evil things, despite outwardly being handsome and friendly (at first.)

So not all gods are truly omnibenevolent. Some are downright evil.

Please check out my other musings on this subject at: http://ublasphemist.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-impossible-god.html

Dealing with these "omnis", with regards the Christian version of "God", is unavoidable in any honest discourse on the subject. I would argue that my simple analysis in the above blog item destroys the main thrust of their arguments, but there is another point to be made.

Logic dictates that any entity able to be omnipresent must be present in all times, at all locations, future and past and present. So, he would in effect be at the farthest reaches of our expanding universe as well as watching you masturbate.

So, if this god were to watch as a hypothetical girl like Lucy (who is walking the mile home from her school after hockey practice, along the same route she always follows) gets mugged and hits her head hard enough for her to be placed in a persistent vegetative state? How does that not seem a bit evil to you? What lesson could this God possibly be trying to teach a girl who now has absolutely no way to interact with the world, her loved ones, or friends? What possible benefit could there be to her to make her entirely dependent on others for survival? If your answer is that she has been used as a pawn to teach someone else something you've just trodden on the bear-trap of telling me that your god is playing a game with us... and he cannot possibly be benevolent.This incident has robbed Lucy of any chance she has of leading the life on her own terms, nor "find Salvation" if she wasn't already a believer... think about it... isn't leading someone away from Yahweh a sin?

If this event could be foreseen, but not prevented, because it was the free will of Lucy's attacker to injure her, in order to take her purse and smart-phone, this god isn't all-powerful.

There are several logical inconsistencies wherever you look. Your god simply cannot be all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving and ever-present.

Another point to consider is this, dear Christians:

If the Judeo-Christian god, Yahweh, was the only god, why does he even have a name? Why does the term Israel itself not point you in the direction that the original god of the Jews was El? Is-ra-EL. If the people were exclusively Yahweh worshippers their name would have been Is-ra-YAHU... but it isn't is it?

How's about you have a nice cup of tea and think about that for a while... or you can add a plate of biscuits to that and do some research of your own into how Yahweh went from being a Canaanite storm god to being the principle god of the Jews around 720BCE.

In Summary

If you're talking to Christians and ask them the question "What is a god?" they nearly always ignore the question altogether. Of the few who do answer, most just point you to a Bible passage, or come up with some deepity about their god Yahweh. Fewer still actually try to answer honestly.

I'm not sure if they are deliberately failing to engage with the question because it causes a great deal of cognitive dissonance, i.e. they're being intentionally dishonest, or they just don't understand the question. Christians get repeatedly told that Yahweh is the only god, despite their Bible referencing at least a dozen other gods, and Yahweh stating himself that we should put no other gods before him in that list of ten things he's supposed to have said.


What we've seen here is that the traditional view of what a god is according to the Abrahamics does not apply to all gods. So the question remains:

What IS a god?

Check out the source for these god ideas: http://www.godchecker.com
(this post might be updated as more suggestions about what a god is are offered to me)

Who is Mr. Maker?

The God posited by most Christians is one with ultimate, or infinite, power.

We see that term "maximally great" coming up from time to time.

However, if you think that a god exists and he is the creator of the universe, and everything in it, at which point do you make the leap from there to his power being greater than all other gods?

We have no idea, in god terms, how much power making this universe requires. For all we know this could all be a level one class at god school. 

"Great work Yahweh, I like what you've done with physics there. The gravity is really good, but that dark matter is... Class, look at Yah's universe for a second. Look at the way his dark matter flows through his space. That's really neat Yah... 'A+', but be careful not to over reach in your next assignment in Level Two's blended reality project."

How does anyone know that this god is maximally great? It's like bees thinking I'm some fantastic ethereal creature just because the hive I made for them was of perfect quality, by their standards.. The only difference being that occasionally a bee-keeper is going to pop along and make (at least) his existence known.

This brings me back to a point I made in an earlier post. Let's say God did make this universe, does it follow that He is in charge of it still? How can we be sure that the god in charge now is the same one who created it all? Did you make the car you drive?

All we have to go on is a rather simplistic view posited by ancient people's who were keen to move away from a polytheistic concept into a more monotheistic view which affords far better control of the flow of ideas and, ultimately, distribution of power.

Of course it could also be true, that the Elohim (plural) created the universe and everything in it for the LORD (God) who has since assumed control over a prefab universe. Elohim is a plural (essentially the distilled essence of all the gods) so why isn't it so that a group of gods made everything? This could account for Yahweh's inability to change anything dramatically, or intervene to stop tornadoes from tearing up houses in the US Bible-Belt! He just doesn't have that sort of juice!

Any of these scenarios could be true, so why is it that the standard Christian idea, that God rules the universe He created, so pervasive?

The church wants it to be this way and their "sheep" just lap it all up.

That's the only reason I can think of. 

Deliver Us From Evil

When Christians pray I wonder what they think they're doing. The New Testament clearly states that Jesus wanted his followers to avoid synagogues (and by extension churches and chapels) and praying in public. More specifically he said to pray alone, in a closet and to only use the prayer commonly known as The Lord's Prayer.

I wonder if any one of the mumblers have ever stopped to examine that prayer. For me it's a list of requests, or even demands, made to their god. So let's see what you think.

The common Lord's Prayer goes like this:

Our Father, which art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done In Earth

As it is in Heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil

For thine is the kingdom

The power and the glory

For ever and ever

Amen

I apologize to every non-believer who just read that, because as we know God sees and hears everything, even if you don't say it out loud. :)

Which brings me to my first point about prayer. Why would an eternal, benevolent being who is all-knowing and all-seeing need anyone to pray to them. The idea Christians (and all theists) have about their god is that he (it's always a he) can see and hear everything we say and do at all times. There's no thought we can hide from him and nothing we want, hope for, dream about or need is missed by this ever present CCTV-wielding god. So why are they bothering to pray at all?

Christian apologists will tell you that they are doing it to become closer to god, yet their god is inside their head, so how exactly do they think they can get closer? Another apologetic is that they get to show thanks, or increase their connection to their god, or even move one step closer to Heaven. Their god knows if they are thankful without them having to say so. Arguably their staying verbally silent cuts down on the amount of work their god needs to do, so staying schtum would be better. Again, they can't get any more connected to a god who is always hovering around. The getting closer to Heaven is a bit of a doosie. God's Will is paramount, he chooses who goes to Heaven and who doesn't, and has decided this long before the person was ever born... so a few mumbled words saying thanks for a nice meal, which farmers, retailers and cooks provided, or their favourite team winning a game/match/test isn't going to do anything to change that.

So why pray? It's totally pointless... unless of course the pray-er doesn't trust their god's power, or abilities.

Anyhoo... back to the Lord's Prayer itself.

It starts with a fairly standard 'you're god and you're awesome' sort of schtick but then the next few lines are quite telling.

"Thy kingdom come
Thy Will be done on Earth 
As it is in Heaven"

These lines assume that God's kingdom on Earth is on its way and what he wants will happen here as it has always been done in Heaven. What would be his purpose of creating a new kingdom on Earth when he already has the perfect set up in Heaven? Is it something to do with the Nephilim? Is it about the angels wanting to have sex with mortals all the time? Does god have to keep them apart, just in case?

"Give us this day our daily bread"

Provide for us... give us food every day. The presumption here is that it goes beyond bread; perhaps into money, fame or success. At any rate, this is the first request/demand.

"And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us"

We are good people. We're tolerant and forgiving, so we'd like you (god) to be forgiving of our sins, mistakes and crimes. So what's the suggestion here? I would like to think that it reminds the person to be more like their god, and be good to others, but I think on face value it is a request that the god be as good as the person. The basis of the Christian faith is that you should accept Jesus as your saviour or you'll burn in a fiery lake, so since that's the only real qualification set out by the Bible for guaranteed entry into Heaven (or God's new Earthly Kingdom away from rutting angel types) anything else we do is irrelevant*.

An important note is that the original lines from Matthew 6:9-13 state "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors", but this must have been inconvenient to a church which preached that Christians owe an eternal debt to their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Evil"

I believe this is a demand which has more to it than meets the eye. God is being asked to lead people away from the evil of temptation, but this reveals a lack of dedication to the cause. It places the emphasis on their god to lead them away from situations they themselves should be avoiding. This is a prayer which abdicates the person from their responsibilities. If they don't sin then everything is copacetic, but if they do then God clearly didn't want to lead them away from it and so, by extension, he wanted them to do it.

What if the line is a darker one, which the early Church fathers were using, by placing these words into the mouth of Jesus, to disguise the real character of their god? The Bible makes it perfectly clear to us that God created evil before he created mankind and the whole Garden of Evil... sorry Eden... thing was a set-up to make us feel that we're to blame for his anger at God's own failings.

I'll explain.

The tree which Adam and Eve were warned not to eat from was called "The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" which immediately raises the question, how could anyone be aware of something which didn't exist at the time? So, evil preceded mankind, or at the very least was created at the same time. An obvious point to anyone who bothers to read between the lines. Apart from this, God states that he created evil, but the common consensus is that he created it after the Fall, so it was man's fault. If read the way I've stated it though a case could be made for the events in the Garden to be part of God's plan, which makes the Fall an pre-meditated excuse to put mankind in the firing line.  If the serpent in the story was Satan, as some have suggested, we see from later on in the book that Satan was in God's employ which places his sudden appearance in the Garden in a whole different light.

So, this line could clearly be a request to God to stop him using us for the Evil he intends to commit. Could it be an admission that God's default is to put us in harm's way? Is it a line born of the fear that it is God's intention to direct us to sin?

The last lines of this prayer are yet more praise and 'aren't you wonderful' nonsense before the traditional ending borrowed from paganism's ritual "If it is willed to be."

So, in my view, this prayer is a solid request to provide for the person saying the prayer. It's a prayer which stems from a fear of an unknown future and it smacks of resentment born of knowing that we're better than the god who controls us.

So the next time you speak that prayer, or hear someone else speak it you should be suspicious. Be suspicious of your, or their, motives for wanting to say it. Firstly it shows a lack of faith in their god and secondly I believe it begs God to prevent them from turning out just like Him.

At the very least it should give you pause for thought.





* see my future post on the human soul (link to be provided later)

Fundamentalists Are Confusing

Have you ever wondered why Fundamentalists go around making other people believe the way they do, often at the point of a sword, or the barrel of a gun?

Why is this?

If you believe that your god is the four-Os then this has to be what you think:

1. Your god is omniscient therefore it/he/she knows everything there is to know about everything... including ALL of your thoughts, aspirations, dreams, ideas and beliefs - good and bad.

2. Your god is omnibenevolent so everything that happens will eventually, even if you can't see it from your limited perspective as a human being, turn out for the best, according to your god's grand plan.*

3. Your god is omnipresent, so that along with his omniscience he is everywhere, at all times in the present, future and past. Your god is in everything, everywhere all at once.

4. Your god is omnipotent so nothing at all can ever happen without it's knowing about it, and it can create anything at any time, move whatever needs moving effortlessly, and bend the laws of science to its will.

If you don't believe these things with all your heart then you're not a Fundamentalist and in essence you are some watered down version of the ideal follower of your god.

So, let's break this down a bit more. The Fundamentalist believes that her god is omnipresent and omniscient, yet she still prays to it. Why? If the god is truly all-knowing and ever-present there'd be no need whatsoever to utter a word of praise (if you cherished it truly), or utter a wish, or voice a thought, desire, need or idea. A god who literally knows everything you think, at all times and in all possible timelines, knows everything you could possibly think or say... so a prayer is, or can be interpreted as, a demonstration that you do not trust your god implicitly.

Further to that, if you think your god is perfect and all-powerful (omnipotent), then you must believe that everything is exactly the way your god wants it to be. Your god wants the Earth to be 4.54 billion years old. He wants it to be full of evolving organisms. He wants us to be sentient of our sentience. He wants a quarter of our population to be homosexuals, and he wants other people to have their own beliefs and ideas. So if you, for one second, think that any of these things are not true or not correct (sinful) then you are essentially telling your god that you, yes you, know better than him!

Given that Fundamentalists do still go around telling people that this and that is blasphemous and that their god dictates such and such, with absolutely no idea of what a god would even look like, never mind what it wants, then these people are not true believers at all! In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they believe the dogma, but reject the idea of their god entirely in favour of their own system of beliefs.

So the next time you see the work of one extremist group or another on the TV and someone says that they don't represent the particular religion they claim to represent, they might just have a point. If they were true Fundamentalists, then they'd be sitting at home with their children without a care in the world, minding their own business and looking after their friends and families. They'd be safe in the knowledge that everything was precisely the way their god wanted it to be and everything would turn out just fine as long as they were true to themselves and good to others.

That is a true Fundamentalist.


*I will cede that not everyone agrees that a god needs to be benevolent.