Tuesday, August 19, 2014

God v gods: mutually exclusive?

underground cavern with religious art
Image: John Carter (film)

Some atheists make the point that the belief by humans in so many gods means that they can’t all be true.  This is based on a misunderstanding.

Gods, generally spelt with a small “g”, refers to those beings that are generally not physical but are powerful creators, particularly in comparison to humans.  There may be an almost infinite number of such gods.  These gods may include the gods spoken of in the Hindu religion, for example.  When speaking more broadly, humans could also be termed gods, because of our almost unlimited ability to create. 

God, with a capital “G”, generally refers to either the lord of this universe or to the lord of all creation, including all physical universes and non-physical realms.  This God would equate to “Allah” for the Muslims and “God” or "Jehovah" for the Christians.

This God is generally viewed as the original creator of the physical realm and, perhaps, all other realms.  This doesn’t rule out the possibility that this God has created other beings (such as the archangels) to assist in the creative process; a delegation of creation, if you like.  Clearly, humans would also fit into this category.

While we are on earth our creativity is limited to this sphere but if we are eternal beings, as many believe, we may eventually be engaged in increasingly greater creative pursuits elsewhere in creation, which may result in us being viewed by others, less powerful, as "gods"!

Sharka Todd

Here is an offsite article on this topic entitled: One or Many Creators?

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