Why Believe in a God when It is Impossible to Prove?

[GaryLouisSmith]

GaryLouisSmith wrote:

A gendered god to me is absurd..

I think that sums up your views on the matter. Thanks

If you allow your god is one gender or another, will you also allow your god is one age or another, one profession or another, one political affiliation or another, one skin pigmentation or another?

If your god has one attribute and so on according to the principle of a personal god has many attributes does he become eventually a mirror image of yourself?

Then you would be a solipsist.

However if Gary is saying maleness is a god, one of many gods, then Gary is polytheist. I like polytheism better than solipsism.

If Gary would use the conventional nomenclature e.g. ''polytheist', 'solipsist' and so forth perhaps I could understand .If indeed Gary wants to make himself clear to others.
[/quote]

I am a polytheist, but I only worship one god. My Nepali friends worship other gods. I think I have spoken of that many times on this forum.

[Felix]

GaryLouisSmith: I am a polytheist, but I only worship one god.

That's like saying, "I am a thief but I never steal anything." If you only worship one god, you are a monotheist.

[Belindi]

But a polytheist worships (worthships) many gods. A polytheist does not worship(worthship) one god. If you worship one god you are not polytheist but monotheist.

Gary some of your posts are confusing.It's really your responsibility to make yourself clear whoever you choose to write for.

If you worship one god i.e. if you identify as monotheist your god is either yourself or other than yourself. If your god is other than yourself your god will not be male or anything else you can identify.

Maybe you worship maleness and call maleness 'god'. This would make sense. However if you do call maleness 'god' this is not the Judeo Christian god. The traditional Judeo Christian god has other attributes than maleness. Now that I have thought more about all this it begins to seem to me that each person has their god unique to them. Maybe Gary is right after all and I am wrong to suggest he's solipsistic.

[GaryLouisSmith]

GaryLouisSmith: I am a polytheist, but I only worship one god.

That's like saying, "I am a thief but I never steal anything." If you only worship one god, you are a monotheist.

What do you call someone who believes many gods exist, but only worships one?

[GaryLouisSmith]

But a polytheist worships (worthships) many gods. A polytheist does not worship(worthship) one god. If you worship one god you are not polytheist but monotheist.

Gary some of your posts are confusing.It's really your responsibility to make yourself clear whoever you choose to write for.

OK, I will use your terminology. I am a monotheist who believes many gods exist other that the one I worship. What is the word you use for such a person?

[Felix]

What is the word you use for such a person?

Confused.

[GaryLouisSmith]

What is the word you use for such a person?

Confused.

LOL Just because I don't fit into your nice, neat categories doesn't mean that it is I who am confused.

[Sculptor1]

Confused.

LOL Just because I don't fit into your nice, neat categories doesn't mean that it is I who am confused.

I am a monotheist who believes many gods exist other that the one I worship.

This is not about fitting in. It is not about being nice.
You are not only confused, but more like deranged.

[GaryLouisSmith]

LOL Just because I don't fit into your nice, neat categories doesn't mean that it is I who am confused.

I am a monotheist who believes many gods exist other that the one I worship.

This is not about fitting in. It is not about being nice.
You are not only confused, but more like deranged.

You always say the cleverest things.

[Belindi]

Gary, again, I edited my post after you kindly replied to it. Please reconsider that each person's god is a personification of what they would like to be or to possess.

In my edited post I wrote "the traditional Judeo Christian god". I begin to think each individual is on a spectrum of compliant---------self directed.

I don't take any pleasure from dada art but the spirit is right.

[GaryLouisSmith]

Gary, again, I edited my post after you kindly replied to it. Please reconsider that each person's god is a personification of what they would like to be or to possess.

In my edited post I wrote "the traditional Judeo Christian god". I begin to think each individual is on a spectrum of compliant---------self directed.

I don't take any pleasure from dada art but the spirit is right.

I don’t think I have ever said I worship maleness. I have said that I worship the Boy. And that Boy, I have said, is the universal Form, the Platonic Form, of Boy. A Platonic Form is separate from those particulars that exemplify it. Roundness is different and other than round things. Beauty is other than beautiful things. Color is other than colored things. That is traditional Platonism.

Many people are Platonists without thinking that universal forms are gods. I have made my own arguments for my type of Platonism, i.e. theological Realism. As for whether or not the Boy is the Christian God, that is another question which I am prepared to argue. I don’t think I am solipsistic. Don’t forget that I am here in Nepal where people worship all manner of gods. I am not so different from them.

I don't know what you mean when you say that the spirit of dada is right.

[Jklint]

I read about William Burroughs because I never heard of him. Now I know why.

I'm curious to know what you read about Burroughs and why you "now know why". How about Genet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq_hztHJCM4&t=181s

I'm not going to argue with anyone's personal preferences. It's best not to say anything and simply admit I have no use for any of the Beat poets, writers and musicians. There are some like Jean Genet who seem to be a cut above but still has no interest for me.

I also don't know what the YT video is supposed to express. Absurdity would seem to be an understatement. The whole Beat movement echoes more as a passing fad with a few enclaves still keeping it alive.

If I read novels at all, Hermann Hesse among the moderns is more my type. He also wrote some excellent poetry.

[Jklint]

That's like saying, "I am a thief but I never steal anything." If you only worship one god, you are a monotheist.

What do you call someone who believes many gods exist, but only worships one?

It's called Monolatrism...or being in cahoots with the top dog.

[Felix]

GaryLouisSmith: Just because I don't fit into your nice, neat categories doesn't mean that it is I who am confused.

Funny because you said earlier that you love to categorize. Where I see a contradiction is in your affirmation that you are both a Christian, which is a monotheist religion, and a polytheist. Kind of like like a disciple of Christ declaring they believe in him but also in the Roman gods too - but that might prevent them from being thrown to the lions.... how do you feel about being devoured by lions?

I think I am just stymied by your conception of "god." It seems to be, as Belindi suggested, a personification of your ideals, but you don't believe in mental filters so you presume your ideals have literal existence.

[Sculptor1]

I am a monotheist who believes many gods exist other that the one I worship.

This is not about fitting in. It is not about being nice.
You are not only confused, but more like deranged.

You always say the cleverest things.

Indeed.