What is "god?"

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bbyrd009

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"
The difficult word θεος (theos) means god, and it's difficult because it's commonly assessed from the Roman pagan legacy that dominates modern thinking. The ancients were not religious like we moderns are. The ancients were mostly interested in survival — surviving nature, wild animals, disease and attacking neighbors — and for that they needed an unbiased, accurate, verifiable and shared world view. In those days, false prophets were executed (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

We moderns may be tempted to think that religious nonsense was the old standard and science the new, but the fact of the matter is that science was always the standard until politicians began to muddy the waters with religious demagoguery. The information technology we celebrate today began when prehistoric people began to share symbols. A book is a far greater miracle than a hard drive, and the narrative technology in which the Bible was written far exceeds any sort of data compression, storage and retrieval that came after that.

The word θεος (theos) probably comes from the noun θετης (thetes), setter, from the verb τιθημι (tithemi), to set or place. It derives from the idea that the universe runs on a set of fixed laws, which ultimately are one. Modern science calls this the Theory Of Everything, and assumes it's a mere set of detached mathematical statements. The ancients, however, understood that this unified set, or Word, describes a universe that is alive in essence, and as one as the Word that governs it. In that sense it's like the DNA that could be confused with a mere inanimate code, but which in fact is the very source of life. The Word contains everything, including DNA..." What God is and what God is not

with apologies to mr ewe--who suffers my presence with much dignity--as i am vaguely becoming aware that such a lengthy quote is prolly a felony or something? Or somehow at least not very kosher

i would much prefer to have threaded this in Interfaith Discussion--which is imo a misnomer at best--but i am trying to be a good little fascist, so.
 

ScottA

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Funny/amazing how science raises up the hood and declares, "Whatcha got here is...!", and the next thing you know they are considered (and see themselves as) God. When...actually...that makes them...technically...mechanics. Monkeys.
 
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bbyrd009

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I think he said something to the effect that most people won't bother to spend the time to learn things.
a1)narf
a2)its a like a whole sermon, yeh? forty-two min...hmm, wait, 42...dang
a3)man, or even them well enough to xlate them, a cushy and overpaid job surely huh? Theres like 42 diff orig terms all xlated "God?" i mean wth? So not only is It in code, i gotta learn Some Guy's code to decipher the code, which ok believe it or not i have patched together some code to enscribe the code--the second code i mean, the oral one--into writing, so at least tell me the synopsis is not going to end up being the op if you would pls ty, vm
 

bbyrd009

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Funny/amazing how science raises up the hood and declares, "Whatcha got here is...!", and the next thing you know they are considered (and see themselves as) God. When...actually...that makes them...technically...mechanics. Monkeys.
i think that prolly def applies in some cases, and not so much in others? But yeh scientists are just ppl too i guess. Well, sort of anyway
 
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Willie T

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The synopsis Byrd asked for:
Basically, he answers four questions that he feels prove Christianity is right and true, out of the 4,200 religions known in the world. But, more than that, Mike is real when he speaks.
 
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bbyrd009

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The synopsis Byrd asked for:
Basically, he answers four questions that he feels prove Christianity is right and true, out of the 4,200 religions known in the world. But, more than that, Mike is real when he speaks.
see imo you just said an oxymoron...but then i cant hear anyway lol. Ill give it a listen at bedtime anyway tho ty :)

does "Christianity" still mean "Zionism," or no?
 

Willie T

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see imo you just said an oxymoron...but then i cant hear anyway lol. Ill give it a listen at bedtime anyway tho ty :)

does "Christianity" still mean "Zionism," or no?
No, he uses words like "religion" the way that common people who aren't pseudo-theologians on internet forums normally use them.
 
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prism

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So not only is It in code, i gotta learn Some Guy's code to decipher the code, which ok believe it or not i have patched together some code to enscribe the code--the second code i mean, the oral one--into writing, so at least tell me the synopsis is not going to end up being the op if you would pls ty, vm
The 'ol pot/kettle thang.
 

Enoch111

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...The ancients were not religious like we moderns are. The ancients were mostly interested in survival...
When you start off with a false premise, you end up with a false conclusion. And this premise is false.

RELIGION WAS AT THE CORE OF EVERY CULTURE AND EVERY SOCIETY since the very beginning. Whether they were savages, pagans, barbarians, tribals, or sophisticates they all had some kind of religion which governed all their beliefs, customs, and traditions. And this is true to this day.

As to the term "Theos", this writer conveniently forgot to speak about its usage in the Bible. It is the equivalent of Elohim in Hebrew, and both terms apply to the one true and living God. But these terms will also be found applied to false pagans gods (and the context will make it clear).
 

bbyrd009

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No, he uses words like "religion" the way that common people who aren't pseudo-theologians on internet forums normally use them.
ha zing again well you're on a roll tonight lol
unless i'm meant to take that the other way...
gotta tell ya tho, being ignernt has its advantages :D

liked what i heard so far; so that's prolly a mark against him narf
but i normally take an hour to crash and i zonked in like 10 minutes
gonna try again this am

is the term "religion" used well or ill by this common guy, btw?
:)
 

bbyrd009

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The 'ol pot/kettle thang.
boy, guess it got took that way, didnt mean it that way though
i was just trying to make like a little frustration joke
but i could tell about half through it wasnt panning out
but that was part of the joke yesterday too so i kept trying lol
which started with the talk to text feature on phones (from hell) that verizon has no prob at all charging whatever the market will bear, a la cable companies and whatnot? Which dont get me wrong iphones are amazing and all...as long as you dont actually touch them or anything?

so i got on this roll, cracking wise via text to my girls, mom and sis, and one would be in the same room with me while i'm replying to some work related thing via text, and theyre doing talktotext too so i'm getting material to riff off of, and even ol Dave (no wave Dave, Dave's not here) started laughing a little, and i was just trying to like include Willy there tbh. But now i'm totally lost there

anyway this post was meant to be about how what we call Bubbles get started, bc ppl who make too much money up here have no probs paying $100 a month for a f...cell phone, believe it or not, and have you tried to call verizon lately? So, my fam and friends are like getting totally punked by these phone vampires, getting dished off to a "digital ass istant" and being forced to listen to Dizzyland commercials every time they call verizon for help, and i'm like Man you know you can leave me a pm on FB RIGHT oops i mean you feel me? For free? But see i live in Dizzyland now, these ppl are all um very shiny and looked up to by all the tourists we get, so long shory stort get ready for $100 cell phones i guess, bc ppl are just insane?
 
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bbyrd009

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When you start off with a false premise, you end up with a false conclusion. And this premise is false.

RELIGION WAS AT THE CORE OF EVERY CULTURE AND EVERY SOCIETY since the very beginning. Whether they were savages, pagans, barbarians, tribals, or sophisticates they all had some kind of religion which governed all their beliefs, customs, and traditions. And this is true to this day.

As to the term "Theos", this writer conveniently forgot to speak about its usage in the Bible. It is the equivalent of Elohim in Hebrew, and both terms apply to the one true and living God. But these terms will also be found applied to false pagans gods (and the context will make it clear).
not sure about your first comments p, but this guy and his friends do seem preternaturally knowledgeable on ancient history, and fwiw the head guy i have corresponded a bit with and he believes a lot more like you do than me, seems like anyway. He dont like me much. So anyway i know how the ancients are portrayed to us usually but i bet they run on a bell curve too, just like everything else? Wonder how we could get a second informed opinion there even? Dunno

"What did the ancients believe?

The ancient Greeks believed that Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in mainland Greece, wasthe home of the gods. Ancient Greek religious practice, essentially conservative in nature, wasbased on time-honored observances, many rooted in the Bronze Age (3000–1050 B.C.), or even earlier..."

note Essentially conservative in nature...but gotta run for now, i'll look around some more and maybe you do the same? But i do suggest that the Abarim are pretty at least show-humble, and anything wrote is either plainly labelled "perhaps, maybe" etc or rigorously evaluated before publishing ok. Personally i have no clue though
As to the term "Theos", this writer conveniently forgot to speak about its usage in the Bible.
not quite sure what you mean there, this is a Bible etymology after all...but you are maybe judging from a small snip, dunno. Its usage in the Bible is the whole point imo? Could you rephrase your objection maybe? ty
bc yes, he can get self-satisfied with his own interp too, and get scanty on the support sometimes, yes
 

bbyrd009

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"Not much is known about Bronze-Age beliefs, but objects from the time suggest that the Bronze Age brought about big changes in religiouspractices. One of the greatest was that people stopped building large ritual monuments, such as stone circles. ... Bronze-Age people also held beliefs about death and burial..."

guess a lot of it depends on when is meant, plus how Religious is defined maybe
 

bbyrd009

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Ugh: you see that Grok? Big flash from cloud, like when i first lay on fur; must be Old White Guy in sky, touching finger to cloud!
Grok: Ugh lost mind; obviously static coefficient displacement in both!

i gotta feeling very little has changed in 20,000 years there lol
or 6000
or whatever
 
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bbyrd009

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a1)narf
a2)its a like a whole sermon, yeh? forty-two min...hmm, wait, 42...dang
a3)man, or even them well enough to xlate them, a cushy and overpaid job surely huh? Theres like 42 diff orig terms all xlated "God?" i mean wth? So not only is It in code, i gotta learn Some Guy's code to decipher the code, which ok believe it or not i have patched together some code to enscribe the code--the second code i mean, the oral one--into writing, so at least tell me the synopsis is not going to end up being the op if you would pls ty, vm
so anyway, havent smoked any Headband in weeks, brain keeps popping off in four directions, so i didnt do that so good. My basically off-the-shelf speech to text stenographer keeps autocorrecting Willie's guy in some hilarious ways bc i tried to patch it into iPad, same as we were doing yesterday--not patching into ipad i mean, but speech to text autocorrecting--and i was taking advantage of the situation to make everyone laugh, by way of some hopefully kinda explanation there. Doing steno so i didnt have to stay captured for forty two (42!) minutes...got about 3 hours in it at this point narf, still havent finished the sermon lol
 
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bbyrd009

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This was the sermon two days ago at our church. It speaks a little about this.
What Matter Most wk 4 - Your Beliefs - December 01, 2019
so, just finished it, and i like the guy well enough, but i would love to ask him what he believes the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge is, maybe you could do that and get back to us?
What is the Fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge, Willie?

ha no wait i mean
What is the fruit of the tree of knowledge in your opinion
obv narf
so go 'head, tell me the truth
 

prism

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so long shory stort get ready for $100 cell phones i guess, bc ppl are just insane?
Let alone some of the actual phones costing upwards of $1000.00. But I can relate to your frustration with the 'phony' adds.
I'll have to try out a talk-to-text ap sometime. I stutter pretty badly and so it will probably look somthing like this....gg7&7% xd,kl( bl@h! LOL
 
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