Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Thank you-got it.
Clarification please: Are you saying that “the God of Judaism, Islam, Mormonism etc.” are corrupted versions of the god you believe in?
I’m positive the god of Judaism is not triune. He is eternally and indivisibly one. I’m reasonably sure the same is true of Islam.
I think he was saying that those were corrupted versions of his triune god, but I’m awaiting clarification.
Christians would say that Jews and Muslims have a grossly defective view of God.
Like St. John says, ‘he who denies the Son hath not the Father’.
Through this thread I have found out that, at best, some who call themselves Christian have that view.
I will start off by letting everyone that I’m a Neo-Platonist and therefore I do believe in a God. This is a great topic and one that needs to be discussed more often in my opinion. I will start by answering the TCs questions, then express my view on the matter.
For those of you who are not familiar with the platonic viewpoint I believe,and study even, a lot of different religions. So when I read, say the Bible, or the Quaran, or even the Bhagavad Geeta, I believe in those Gods as well as my own.
My reason for this is that I feel as though dieties in most religions are roughly the same God. As you stated in your question, I do believe most other dieties to be an avatar of sorts of a one true God, one without any Judao-Christian affiliation.
Now here comes my reasoning for having this belief. The new Abrahamic religions that we are familiar with, and that are only a few thousand years old, all came after previous religions and even borrowed many elements from earlier religions. Evidence of this is in the similarities that key figures play in almost every mythical text ever found.
Now this isn’t to say that I’m only willing to believe that God does exist and I shun logical and practical thinking where its needed. Whether you are a theist, or an athiest you can still look at the texts and compare Gods and important characters from all different holy texts. Then you can analyze all the recurring characters and see them for what they really are, even if you don’t actually believe the stories surrounding them historically or literally.
To give a more clear analogy, it would be like if you were to read Harry Potter
and Lord of the Rings, and compare characters and story elements and themes without actually believing that the books really happened. Then you can work your way back to the source that was prevelent enough to influence the story of two entirely seperate allegorical tales.
Did you even think before you posted this?
I am not “atheistic” about Odin and Zeus. I am monotheistic, whch means (by definition) I believe there is exactly one god. No more, no less.
That has been the belief of Jews, Christians and Muslims for centuries. It’s not complicated.
My question was directed towards all religionists, not just monotheists of the Christian variety.
Why? Because your book tells you so? Or from some process? After all, monotheism is relatively novel, historically speaking, so you can’t call it an obvious conclusion from all thoughts about gods.
If you want an omniscient deity He has to be mono, since if there were more than one omniscient mind there would still be only one.
“Omniscient” wasn’t in the OP, either.
Interesting. To me the “other deities” includes one that is omniscient. Maybe you should have said, “except omniscient deities.”
Yes, that’s what I mean.
Did you think stomping your foot would be a valid argument?
No, I think what I wrote was what I intended to say.
When I was a teenager in the 90’s, I was taught that anything that wasn’t God (in the Judeo-Christian sense) was Satan. That is to say, Satan created other religions, and anyone who worshipped another religion was a Satan worshipper.
I didn’t get into the finer points of whether it was possible they were well-intentioned but incorrect, nor the issue of why Christianity was ostensibly valid while all others were not. I think at that stage of the game it was mostly about beating it into our young, empty heads that everyone different was evil.
I am at this point an atheist.
Sorry to jump into the thread late, but this struck me:
The fact that you are dismissing billions of people as irrelevant is kinda scary, but still…
If we follow the premise that only one religion can be correct, that means that many billions of people in the world are living their entire lives pursuing an illusion. Entire nations are built and bloody wars are fought over whose religion is the right one. The entire history of man’s religious experiment shows us that it is a supremely important question with astonishing, often hideous real-world impacts. To dismiss it as a philosophical exercise with no real-world importance is baffling and incorrect.
FWIW, my experience has been that most people’s religion is decided by geography, society, and family. I have questioned people as to why they believe their religion is correct, (that is, why did they choose their religion from among a number of competing alternatives) and they just looked at me like I was an idiot. Of course their religion was right, and I was either stupid or willfully evil for suggesting otherwise.
And yet, God created Satan, and allowed Him to fall, so by extension, worshipping any other religious figure (e.g. Satan) is not that different from worshipping God.
Which begs the question: Is Hell all that different from Heaven? Is it a lesser Paradise, or is Heaven itself the ultimate, eternal inferno?
Do any Christians ever acknowledge this obvious, sinister paradox?