12/31/2017 God - RationalWiki

God
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“ At first glance, a person who is investigating the entire "God" concept for the first time might conclude that all of
these diverse deities are purely human creations. That is: God did not create humanity — humanity created Gods.
”
—[1]

A god, goddess, or deity is a kinda-to-über powerful dude, gal, or creature that has supernatural powers to impact this world. Gods
are also often attributed some degree of characterisation that gives them motive to interact with and care about the lives of humans
and the natural world. Usually, though not always, someone, somewhere worships said deity. Most people believe that every deity If you're choosing a deity to
but their own select few are a false deity or mere "mythology". worship, choose one that's
compatible with your
Gods and goddesses are generally mightier than minor supernatural entities like fairies, elves, or spirits; they can alter natural events values. Mayan god G
and help or harm human beings. Most religions believe in one or more deities with distinct characteristics. Typically polytheistic Kinich Ahau seems easy to
religions rank their deities, some being dominant over others. Sometimes the supreme deity started the universe up but is no longer get along with.
involved in human affairs, therefore lower ranking deities that do things for people may be worshiped more intensively than the
supreme god.[2] The dreams of man
Religion
A deity is a generic description of a divine being such as a god or a goddess. In some cases, entire anthropomorphic mythologies
are developed about the deities, 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 natural forces.

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", and is the monotheist deity of Christianity, Judaism, Bahai, Islam, Snooze buttons
and a handful of other religions, living and extinct. God is never referred to as Goddess by any of the Abrahamic faiths; even
when formless or hermaphroditic, like in Kabbalah. In Islam as in Christianity, God is called by the speaker's usual word for God Christianity
(this being "Allah" to Arabic-speakers); in Judaism, God has many names, including (but not limited to) "YHWH," "Jehovah," Islam
and "The Great I Am." The Zoroastrian God is called Ahura Mazda. Not to be confused with Azor Ahai aka Stannis Baratheon Hinduism
the one true king. Buddhism
Judaism
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Sometimes rulers become gods while they are alive as with the Roman emperor and the Egyptian pharaoh. Other times rulers get Sikhism
promoted to become gods after they die.
Disturbing your sleep
A thing like money or the free market can become a metaphorical deity,[3] see secular religions.
Atheism
Among atheists, it's common to intentionally conflate God with other gods to highlight the identical absurdity of their existence. Antitheism
Secularism
Humanism

Contents Recurring dreams

Clear
1 Origins
Evangelism
2 Concepts of God
Miracle
3 Existence
Omnipotence
3.1 For
Omnipotence (français)
3.2 Against
State religion
4 Examples
Suppressive person
5 Quotations
5.1 Physicist(s) on god(s) v-t-e
5.1.1 God(s) on physicist(s) (https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?
5.2 Philosopher(s) on God(s) title=Template:Religion&action=edit)
5.2.1 God(s) on philosopher(s)
5.2.2 Nietzsche(s) on God(s)
5.3 God at the movies
5.4 Other people chat about God
6 Why do some people write G-d or Gd?
7 Lording it and lauding it
8 See also
9 External links
10 References

Origins

“ God was a dream of good government.

”
—Morpheus, Deus Ex

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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).[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] For most of Homo
sapiens' life, the Earth was in its final glacial expansion, which peaked around 18 000 years ago.[citation needed] Around 12 000 years ago, the ice began receding
for the final time as of now.[citation needed] This led to a change in the climate as yet unseen by men. Food was scarce as the megafauna (giant mammals, such as
mammoths, saber-toothed cats, 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.[4] 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. At first, theological ties gave way to nationalistic ones: people felt more proud of their nation than religion.[5] 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, so God will always have a
little gap to hide in.)

Concepts of God
As pantheons of multiple gods fell out of favour in world religions, so the concept of a more almighty and overarching 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 overwhelming 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.

Monotheists (Abrahamic religions, with the possible exceptions of trinitarian Christianity and, of course, Mormonism) believe that there is a single entity
which is the supreme being, responsible for the creation of the Universe. This god usually nurtures its creation, watches over proceedings, and intervenes
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from time to time in the affairs of humanity. Claims made for such a god can verge on the dramatic:
omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. Given how most religions portray God, such claims may be
hyperbole inherited from less-enlightened times. Adherents of the religion wishing to honour their god
credit him with supreme powers, without considering whether or not such powers might be self-
contradictory.
The Holy Trinity doctrine of Catholic Christianity is seen as polytheistic by Judaism and Islam, as
well as many splinters of Christianity itself such as Oneness Pentecostalism, Marcionism, and
Unitarianism. Most Christians strenuously disagree, going so far as to assert (as the Eastern Orthodox
churches do) that it's not supposed to make sense because we can't explain with our limited terms the
unexplainable; hence why all metaphors for the Trinity are clearly wrong break down at some point.

Polytheists (some branches of Hinduism, Maya and Aztec mythology, ancient Greco-Roman mythology,
and numerous others) believe that there are multiple divine entities, which are usually responsible for
different aspects of human life and the natural or supernatural world. There are, broadly, two sorts of
polytheism:
Hard polytheism holds that all the gods are distinct and separate. Many ancient pagan religions and
some neopagan religions, such as Asatru, fall into this category.
Soft polytheism holds that while there are many gods, they are all manifestations of a single god (kind
of the different versions of James Bond and Doctor Who played by different actors). Modern-day
Hinduism falls into this category.

Pure polytheism implies that these entities are worshiped more or less equally, according to the needs
of the individual worshipper, but several other subtypes exist: God looks remarkably like an elderly Italian
Henotheists, like pure polytheists, recognize a pantheon of gods, but only worship one of these at a man from the Renaissance. Quite possibly
time. The Israelite religion was originally henotheistic; Yahweh was the Israelites' god, but not the because this was painted by one.
only god that existed, as seen in the wording of the First Commandment.
Monolatrists believe that while multiple gods of similar power exist, only one of these is worthy of worship (another position which is attested in the
Old Testament, where Yahweh orders the destruction of shrines to other gods).
Dualists (not to be confused with Cartesian dualists) are midway between monotheists and polytheists, seeing nature as being ruled by opposing forces
in a constant conflict. The two forces can be seen as either opposite, but complementary (think of yin and yang and Taoism, or the creator/destroyer
aspects of the Hindu triad[6]), or defined as good and evil struggling for domination, the latter view often being described as Manichaean after an
extinct Gnostic religion (such views are also found in Zoroastrianism, some aspects of Norse mythology, and, paradoxically,[7] among many Christian
fundamentalists (see spiritual warfare)).

Pantheists and Animists believe that God is Nature and Nature is God. Pantheism is sort of a theologized ancestor to vitalism, but is embraced by many
neopagans as well as native religions around the world. Greek mythology, though polytheist, included hints of pantheism in its nymphs, naiads, and other
assorted nature spirits.
Panentheists (most other branches of Hinduism) believe that God exists inside of everything, but is at the same time, transcendent of everything. God is seen
as an eternal spark of all things, the Prime Mover, the First Wind from some Native American religions, the Force, etc. God is not creator, for all things are
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part of God (god), the manifest, physical parts of god.[8]

Deists (many forms of Buddhism and some branches of Hinduism) believe that God/Gods/deities exist(s) but is/are irrelevant to the workings of the
universe, sitting behind the scenes but seldom if ever interacting with the material world. Buddhists, in particular, do not believe in a supreme, all-knowing,
all-perfect being, but believe in Karma, heaven and hell (both based solely on karma, not the belief in Buddhism), and 'angels' (deities that people become
after they have done enough merit in their lifetime). It is a common misconception to think that this means that God may as well not exist - some deists, such
as Thomas Paine, believed in the immortality of the soul in a condition outside the universe. Many of the people of the Enlightenment, particularly
American revolutionaries such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were deists.

Maltheists (from "mal" meaning bad, or illness, and theism, from... well, theism) is the idea that God is just out to get us and that he or she or it is malicious,
like a kid who keeps removing the pool ladders in The Sims. A Maltheist, therefore, is someone who believes that a god or gods exist, and that they are evil,
malicious, incompetent, or otherwise causing the suffering of humanity. In essence, Maltheism is the idea that God exists and is not worthy of worship.

Agnostics would contend that it is impossible to determine whether or not God exists, and that arguments about the existence or non-existence of God are
counterproductive. Other agnostics maintain that, as it is very difficult to prove a negative, and hence absolutely disprove Gods (or God) exist, then the most
logical scientific position is that of extreme skepticism. This position is separate from atheism, but usually accompanies it.
Fideists (a term coined by Martin Gardner, one of the few prominent theist skeptics) are essentially agnostics that have chosen to believe in a god
despite an acknowledged lack of evidence.

Atheists do not believe in deities. There are many types of atheism, discussed elsewhere, but generally atheists can be classified as pragmatic (or "weak"),
where they live life as if no gods exist, or theoretical (or "strong") where they make an explicit statement of lack of belief in gods. It is generally believed
that "strong" atheists are rather uncommon, though most arguing in favor of God's existence believe that they are the norm. The Ajivika and Charvaka
branches of Hinduism also hold the same views.

Existence
Do gods exist? We may never truly know, but we can damn sure try to find out.

For

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.

Cosmological argument
Ontological argument (Oenological argument)
Argument from morality

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There is also the question of the nature of the god whose existence is being debated, a question at the heart of theology.
Muslims see Allah as powerful, remote, and unfathomable by man. Jews argue that Yahweh is focused on the descendants of
Jacob. Christians argue 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. 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
God. Others say that God did not create the universe (but does create life), yet gets the credit for it anyway.

Against

The concept of the God of classical theism, with what Anselm described as its 'perfections', may lead to logical Our God is an awesome God

impossibilities.[9] 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.[10]

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,[11] and it can be argued that the existence of God leads to logical
contradictions.[12]

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.[13] However, she is just too busy. (After all, being god,
WolframAlpha's take.
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 messed up 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.

Examples
Allah
Ba'al
Cernunnos
Gaia
Eris
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Fidem Turbare
Flying Spaghetti Monster
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Loki
Pan
Quetzalcoatl
Satan
YHWH
JHVH-1
Alain de Botton

Quotations
Some people like talking about god(s).

Physicist(s) on god(s)

I don't think that physics tell us how to behave to our neighbor. ”

“ —Stephen Hawking[14]

God is subtle, but he is not malicious. ”

“ —Albert Einstein[15]

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[15]

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[15]

I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and
“ actions of human beings. ”
—Albert Einstein[15]

I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply
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with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge
“ library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books.
It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of
the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even
the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly.
Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's Pantheism. I admire even more his
contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and
the body as one, not as two separate things. ”
—Albert Einstein[15]

Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a
“ conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality and intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order... This firm
belief, a belief bound up with a deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God. In
common parlance this may be described as "pantheistic" (Spinoza). ”
—Albert Einstein[16]

God does not play dice with the universe. ”

“ —Albert Einstein

Einstein, stop telling God what to do. ”

“ —Niels Bohr[17]

God(s) on physicist(s)

Niels, stop telling my man AE what to do. ”

“ —God

Philosopher(s) on God(s)

Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods? ”
“ —Plato's Socrates, Euthyphro dilemma

Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. ”
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“
—Voltaire

If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him. ”

“ —Mikhail Bakunin

God is dead. ”
“ —Friedrich Nietzsche

God(s) on philosopher(s)

Nietzsche is dead. ”
“ —God

Nietzsche(s) on God(s)

Some are born posthumously. ”

“ —Nietzsche

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).

God is the only recurring character to have appeared in all but one of the "Monty Python" motion pictures (The exception being Life of Brian, and his son was in
that one).

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,

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sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. ”

—Richard Dawkins; The God Delusion

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day.
“ And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full
of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever
and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! ”
—George Carlin

I handed them a script and they turned it down. It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, 'Who is God?' The Enterprise meets God in
“ space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man
believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what
kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way,
says, 'If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven
days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being. ”
— Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, The God Thing

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. ”

“ —not Benjamin Franklin [citation NOT needed]

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 (and some Christians) avoid casually writing his name in order that they lessen the risk of defacement or erasure.[18] This custom would have
begun in Hebrew - which lacked indications of vowels in its written script before the 7th century CE anyway - but some carry it over to English and other
languages. This practice prevented God from ordering business cards and advertising space/airtime, thus restricting Judaism to being a tribal religion focused on a
relatively small ethnic group.

The practice of not writing down the name of God, either for fear of its defacement or for the same reason you don't say "Beetlejuice" out loud, has been around
since the time of the first major translation of the Old Testament. It has carried over into the King James Version, and all other English translations of the Old
Testament that render the Hebrew YHWH as "the LORD".

As with the majority of inconvenient religious customs, 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[19]—it is a title or position[20]—so, by analogy, people should also write "L-rd" or Lrd".
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The word "God" may also be omitted or obliterated in contexts where it would be perceived as blasphemous or improper, along with other perceived obscenities.
This was common in publishing in the Christian world during the 18th and 19th centuries, and explains why it is not uncommon in novels from those eras to find
characters using phrases such as "by G___" or "d___ it". This practice continues in the use of "f**k" and similar typography in tabloids and other contexts where it
is handy to repeat a swearword while pretending that you haven't.

Lording it and lauding it

The idea of a "Lord" makes a lot of sense in the conditions of medieval feudal or semi-feudal society - as in the golden age of Christianity - where every decent
person had a lord to serve loyally - a patron and a superior of great power and importance who nevertheless had an interest in looking after the relative well-being
of his collective of human economic assets.[21] It makes a good deal less sense in the degenerate 21st century West, where equal citizens have become infected
with the mind-virus of seeing themselves semi-solipsistically as individuals and seldom even think about barons and dukes and sundry nobility and their social
rank in a divinely-ordained hierarchy.[22]

See also
Babel Fish For those of you in the mood,
Eric Clapton RationalWiki has a fun article about
GodTube God.
Idolatry
Essay:What God would have to be (an opinion piece by User:EVDebs)
Essay:of Islands (a piece by Eira arguing that a perfect Christian God could not exist in a finite universe without an intelligent designer establishing the rules
of existence)
Examples of God personally killing people
Evidence for God's existence
Misotheism
Wak mythology

External links
The "Official" God F.A.Q. (http://www.400monkeys.com/God/index.html)
True Facts About God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5MEJk5ZCQ)
Over Three Hundred Proofs of God's Existence (http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm) (Silly)
Over Three Hundred Disproofs of God’s Existence (http://www.tektonics.org/guest/300proof.html) (Also Silly)
god.com (http://god.com) (She's commercial), god.org (http://god.org) (She's organized), god.net (http://god.net) (She's 'networking'), god.edu
(http://god.edu) but not much for education.
Video on the conversation which brought organized religion into the world (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM)
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Stephen Hawking makes it clear: There is no God (http://www.cnet.com/news/stephen-hawking-makes-it-clear-there-is-no-god/#ftag=YHF65cbda0)
God's Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/thegoodlordabove/)
http://www.conservapedia.com/God (Super silly)
References
1. What different faith groups believe about their deity/deities
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/comp_rel.htm)
2. Gods and Goddesses (http://anthro.palomar.edu/religion/rel_2.htm)
3. deity (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deity)
4. http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g - "RSA ANIMATE: The
Empathic Civilisation"
6. The Hindu triad, or Trimūrti , consists of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva,
representing creation, preservation/balance and destruction.
7. Despite adhering to a faith which is, depending on the interpretation of the trinity,
either strictly monotheist or belief in a triple deity , but certainly not
dualistic/Manichaean. Nevertheless, the tendency among Christian
fundamentalists to see the world in terms of an apocalyptic struggle between
Good/God/Jesus and Evil/Satan/Antichrist is de facto far closer to Manichaeism
than either strict monotheism or worship of (a) triune god(s).
8. As defined by German philosopher, Krause, who first coined the term
9. 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
10. '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.
11. See for example, the God of the gaps article
12. 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
13. In this Sinfest comic (http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=113)
God offers her unique perspective on a theological debate.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/God
14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQQAv5svkk#t=46m16s
15. Albert Einstein (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein), Wikiquote.
16. [1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Albert_Einstein#cite_note-
10)
17. http://www.businessinsider.com/solvay-conference-1927-2015-4
18. The background relating to usage of G-d (http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm)
19. It is, of course, Yahweh. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?
search=Isa.%2042:8;&version=HCSB;)
20. Or species.
21. Davies, Rees (2009). "Apologia" (https://books.google.com/books?
id=rAkUDAAAQBAJ). In Smith, Brendan. Lords and Lordship in the British
Isles in the Late Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1.
ISBN 9780199542918. https://books.google.com/books?id=rAkUDAAAQBAJ.
Retrieved 2016-10-26. "'Lordship' as a concept is currently not a common term in
English parlance [...]. '[L]ordship' [...], dominium, was a key word in the political,
social, and indeed academic vocabulary of medieval Europe. It was a ubiquitous
and fundamental term, be it (for example) the lordship of God or of the lord king
(dominus rex), the lordship of the abbot over his monks, or the legal power that a
husband (seigneur) had over his wife. It was an elastic, protean word. It could
refer to the area over which a lord exercised his dominion - be it a manor, a duchy,
or even a kingdom; but it could also be used to characterize conceptually the
nature of that authority. Contemporaries could likewise refer to 'the law of
lordship' (ius dominii) as shorthand for the relationship between lord and
dependant. Theologians and philosophers argued learnedly about the justification
and credentials of secular lordship (de civili dominio). In short, it was an infinitely
adaptable concept (and word) in the medieval construction of the ordering of
human relationships and in the justification of the exercise of power at all levels
of society."
22. Many former kingdoms have become republics (think Nepal (2008) and France
(1793 and 1848)); some republics have abolished or marginalized their former
aristocratic classes (think Austria (1919) and Russia from 1917 onwards). And
elsewhere monarchs have given way to constitutional monarchs, while nobilities
decay and lose heft - note for example some of the work of David Cannadine, as
in Cannadine, David (1994). Aspects of Aristocracy: Grandeur and Decline in
Modern Britain (https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0dyn1YNmUEC). New
12/13
12/31/2017 God - RationalWiki

Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300059816. ISBN 9780330321884. https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6mPwAACAAJ.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0dyn1YNmUEC. Retrieved 2016-10-17. or Retrieved 2016-10-27..
in Cannadine, David (1992). The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy
(https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6mPwAACAAJ) (revised ed.). Picador.

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