Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Nietzsche is dead

Not only did Man create God, but more accurately, *every* person with a belief in God creates a (unique) God. Sure, many beliefs surrounding deities are passed down through books and oral tradition, but I still maintain that what God is varies with what the individual thinks "good" is. For example, somebody morally opposed to homosexuality thinks God is, too.

My own God has had a rough birth. He was dead through most of my life, and only recently have I decided to let him live. For me, "God" language forms an idealized abstraction of the world. It is the language I use to express my best intentions, to admit my failures, to grab onto when I need something to hold onto. When I talk to God, I am talking to the idealized version of me and the idealized version of my universe.

I'm not sure how common my thinking is. Some people think of God as a real part of the universe, not as an abstraction. Some people probably share much of my thinking but haven't (yet) codified it as such. For some people, God is dead.

I wish there were better language for these thoughts, as I think the word "God" has to fill many rolls for many people. To discuss a topic, it is generally a good idea to have clear, agreed-upon language as a start. I propose the addition of new words to help this along. We need a words for a physical god: a god that has an existence in our physical universe and can manipulate the world at will. We need a word for self-god, the god which is our own best self. And we need a word for universe-god, the god that represents the good in the universe. And we probably need other words that I haven't yet connected to... perhaps because I lack the language.