The Judeo-Christian-Islamic Deity Is

[MineralMan]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the General Discussion forum).

a one-size-fits-most, all-purpose god. Kind of like a muumuu, it covers pretty much anything, and hides a great number of defects while being colorful and available in a wide range of patterns. Everyone sort of looks the same in a muumuu. Monotheism became all the rage a few thousand years ago and simplified the whole deity thing, allowing human beings to appease the imagined demands of just one deity, instead of a motley pantheon of them.

However, that didn't work out so smoothly, and no single dogma or scripture really covered everyone. Indeed, the splintering of beliefs continues even today, in all religions that use this all-purpose deity as a core prime mover. As always, humans are still fighting over differences in how that deity is interpreted and what rules must be followed to stay on its good side.

Humanity adopted monotheism, pretty much, with a few notable exceptions. Perhaps, though, the evolution isn't complete yet. Perhaps the answers will come when we toss out deities altogether and decide that we can figure out how to get along without the bounds of religion. I don't know, but I'm ready to try that, I think...

[Angry Dragon]

1. Seems strange that Christain and Islam came from the same loins

Abraham

[MineralMan]

3. All three are Abrahamic Religions.

He is the patriarch of all of them. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all are branches off the same trunk. From there, the number of branches and twigs expands exponentially, but all purport to worship the same deity. Muumuuism.

[Wounded Bear]

4. That would be Judaism...

[marylandblue]

2. I kind of like the pagan way

You picked the god or goddess you liked and followed that one. No need to fight over who is right or wrong. Something for everyone, just like a candy store.

[WinkyDink]

14. Oh, right. Pagans never fought over deities! Bwahahahaha!

[longship]

23. I worship the Sun, but I don't pray to the Sun.

I wouldn't want to presume on a friend.

Do you know who I pray to?

Joe Pesci!!!

...

Joe Pesci looks like a guy who can get things done.

...

It's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple baseball bat!

(George Carlin)

Joe bless you all!


Here:

[rogerashton]

5. Hindus would be surprised to hear that

"humanity adopted monotheism."

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, well...OK, then.

[marylandblue]

13. Buddha would be surprised too

He was agnostic.

[Warpy]

7. I'm always surprised they worship such a small god

Poor thing can't do anything on his own and needs his evangelical zealots to ride herd on the rest of us, outing and punishing sinners while they rage at much of the stuff a bunch of Bronze Age priests didn't like, mostly because they didn't know any better. They make an exception for pork, bacon is sacred. So's football.

And his aim! When he does want to smite a sinful city, he always manages to hit the wrong one, destroying a bunch of the oversized houses his worshipers built for him in the process.

The god of assisted living, tucks nicely into a little box and can be brought out to fix football games but must be told what to do and given the maximum amount of help by putting religious dogma into civil law.

One really does start to wonder why so many people bother. Then again, flying without a net is not for everyone.

[sarisataka]

8. One God

Comicus: The Christians are so poor...
Swiftus: How poor are they?
Comicus: Thank you. They are so poor... That they only have one God.
[drumbeat, everyone laughs]
Comicus: But we Romans are rich. We've got a lot of gods. We've got a god for everything. The only thing we don't have a god for is premature ejaculation... but I hear that's coming quickly.

-credit to Mel Brooks in History of the World Part 1

When people ask if religious jokes offend me, or the God I believe in, I steal a quote from an Irish comic- "God has a sense of humor; he invented us didn't he?"

[MineralMan]

9. Ah, religion jokes. I have to remind myself that this group

isn't really the place for them, sometimes. And there are so many good ones. What a shame!

[sarisataka]

10. Maybe we can get a

"potentially offensive humor" group. Enter at your own risk...

edit> {Disclaimer: I can only speak for myself as to what I find offensive. For the record, my skin is thick- I don't take life too seriously, no one survives it}

[MineralMan]

11. You might suggest that in Ask the Administrators

They might just go for it.

[WinkyDink]

16. There's the Lounge.....(Why do so many need reminding today?)

[marylandblue]

12. This actually is not too far off from the Roman attitude

They called the Christians atheists because they believed in only one God.

[lunatica]

15. If God doesn't have a sense of humor

the joke's on him...

[MineralMan]

17. Donald Trump is proof that the deity has a sense of humor.

An evil, wicked sense of humor, but it's there.

[lunatica]

20. yeah, God has a profound sense of irony

and with Trump his humor is on steroids.

[Hekate]

18. The error of monotheists was to abandon the Goddess. If we are "created in his image," God is Two...

Raised as a strict monotheist by a Deist mother, I have a hard time abandoning monotheism as a habitual way of thinking, but as a student of mythology who was also a member of a Moon Circle for 20 years, I have to say that polytheism goes a long way toward extricating us from the mess we are in.

For instance, I used to feel as tho I might be struck by lightning for saying I do not believe in Joel Osteen's smug self-serving god or Mike Pence's self-righteous woman-hating god. Really getting how much gods are created by men in men's image (read: humans, for men) has allowed me to declare definitively that I do not believe in the mean, small, nasty god of Pat Robertson. Or, perhaps, it may exist in the pantheon, but being a mean small nasty god it certainly is not going to get my devotion. Just because they claim to be related to Jesus of Nazareth doesn't mean they are.

Look to the world's great living polytheistic pantheons, and the past ones that live on in our psyches. We don't have to swallow them whole or recreate the cultures they were/are embedded in -- which in my mind is much the point. But they have much to teach us about liberating ourselves from too narrow a definition of god(s), and how to recognize when others are trying to impose a straitjacket of belief on all the rest of us.

[MineralMan]

19. I don't know. As a long-time atheist, I don't seem to

feel a need for any deities at all, somehow.

[Hekate]

21. Which is fine. Polytheists like the separation of Temple and State.

[MineralMan]

22. Cool! I'm down with that.

[Solly Mack]

24. I just knew the answer was going to be me. (as in me, Solly)

Oh, the crushing weight of an expectation not met.

Oh, well.

[hatrack]

25. " . . . an absentee landlord!!"

[Binkie The Clown]

26. We chipped it down to ONE god, now maybe we can go for a HALF a god? nt

[Adrahil]

27. Meh.... religion, as always, serves some interest.

Sometimes that interest is subversive, but mostly it's not.

Religion offers comfort when there is no reason to feel it.

It offers answers when answers are no otherwise available.

I don't want to be too dismissive, but it serves the needs of people in a mysterious, often arbitrary world.

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Locking - this belong in the Religion Group

Threads about the existence/non-existence of God, threads discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of religion in general, and threads discussing the truth/untruth of religious dogma are not permitted under normal circumstances and should be posted under Religion.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10025307978

Please repost there. Thanks.