Ted:

I understand what you are saying. Some thoughts:

Here's the deal. Begin insulting, and stand into the danger of being insulted in kind. That's a general certainty.

To post a thread stating "there are no gods whatsoever" is stupid, but not personally insulting. Well, I guess, if you took your religious beliefs quite seriously, you could be insulted.

To post a thread stating "I am heir to the Truth of the One God" is equally stupid, from some points of view, and, actually a little more insulting in that it lays claim to a Grand Truth rather than merely an interim opinion -- a Grand Truth some of us don't hold to, and therefore are cast in the role of being less than enlightened and incapable of seeing what is right in front of us. Maybe not exactly insulting but certain untactful.

I've been trying to get my wits around why this sometimes produces such a raising of hackles, and I think part of the reason is that monotheism asserts the universality of a single, incomparable bit of information (in the person of the Deity). Regardless of which all-powerful Deity, the same attribute holds -- it is a single "thing" which governs the whole of existence.

Most people who practice thinking are aware that to assess or evaluate anything, you have to begin by comparing it to something else. This means that even space itself must have some datum against which to compare it, or there would be no way to get a view of it that had any meaning. Meaning, generally, comes from these comparisons, no matter on what scale.

So a certain cognitive dissonance, to put it mildly, is set up when assertions are made about the attributes of Infinite Godhood. By its nature, it offers no datum of comparabel magnitude with which it (or S/He) can be understood; therefore it comes across as incomprehensible.

By extension, it is at least a little agrravatin' to have these precepts being communicated at one with vehemence and great importance attached to them, at the same time as they seem (on their own terms) incomprehensible as intended. It leaves the listener feeling a bit dulled, stupid or lambasted. OR even stupid. And no one wants to feel stupid, especially if they have demonstrated good intelligence in other areas.

The very title of this thread, from the view of someone who has not, himself, postulated a referent for the word God, is an example of this.

I do not write this to be hard on anyone. I am trying to get my arms around why this eternal brouhaha keeps surfacing.




A