Questions to ponder . . .
Throughout history, every culture has eventually developed a
tradition of deities out of fear, superstitions, and ignorance. Plural deities because ancient traditions
bestowed each with special, but differing powers. The Sumerians, Greeks, Romans, etc.
maintained many deities for centuries. Today, there continues to be many
deities, although some religious sects would claim, “there is only one God who
is known by many names,” but is this true, or just a claim to bolster a position
of dominance.
Aboriginal beliefs of all continents are supported by plural
deities. Shintoism, Buddhism, and even
Catholicism include many deities called upon to grant differing attendant
services, Mary, St Christopher, St Francis, St Patrick, etc. Although Christianity is a sect that claims
their Trinity is the one and only true god, and all others are only colloquial
variations, I doubt you would find much agreement of this claim among other
religious groups. Yahweh, or Allah would
not be considered the same deity by their cultural traditions, as the Christian
Trinity. Although all three religions
consider their deity to have creative powers sufficient to do, or create,
anything, Jews and Muslims do not adhere to a deity that produced a noble son
by human sexual concepts with a young Jewish virgin, in the same manner claimed
by Kings and Pharaohs of the period.
How do religions respond to the proposition of
one god, with many names?
My personal position, (at this time because positions are
influenced by gained knowledge) is that gods were created by superstitious and
fearful mankind to answer the unknown and the unknowable. As man’s knowledge of his environment increased,
his early fears of gods of the natural world, i.e.. earthquakes, volcanoes,
violent storms, etc., diminished while other gods of agriculture, rain, sun,
fertility, war, etc. became more sophisticated in relation with man’s growing knowledge
and cultural traditions. Deities that
reflect an evolutionary development to parallel the cultures from which they have
emanated.
Today, our knowledge of the natural world extends beyond the
comprehension of our early ancestors. We
now know more about what lies beyond the distant mountains, borders, kingdoms,
or oceans. We have a knowledge of not
only our world, but of the planets, galaxies and universe in which we live. Now, we have an idea about how and when the
universe came into being, and, I am inclined to believe the current scientific
evidence of a universe created by an unimaginable conflagration of a ‘big bang’
which created the atoms of which the whole universe and everything in it, is
constructed.
My god, if I claimed one, would be the unknown creator that
produced this universe and set it into evolutionary motion. An entity which is beyond any comprehension
of man or our gods. How is man able to
imagine, comprehend, communicate, etc., with an entity capable of creating a
universe, when we cannot communicate with each other, and has resulted in
60,000+ versions of gods, religious sects and cults around the world?
Does any created entity, which includes mankind,
possess an ability to know, comprehend or communicate with its creator? How great is the span of ignorance between
life on this planet and a creator of the universe?
I have a niece who recently acquired an automatic floor
sweeper. It is a round robotic
instrument about the diameter of a large dinner plate, and approximately 3
inches thick. It came with a recharging
station that is mounted against the base-board in a remote area of the room
where it will dwell. When it begins its
duties, it will detach from its charging station and begin to scour the floor
in straight lines, changing its course whenever it encounters an obstacle. When its battery is almost depleted, it will
make its way back to its Charging Station by consulting an internal map and
attach itself for replenishing its battery.
If the door to an adjacent room is opened, the sweeper will
include it in its sweeping duties and proceed to include the new area in its
mapping data storage. If more robotic
sweepers are installed in other rooms of the house, they too will sweep the
areas open to them before returning to their respective charging stations. If
all of the sweepers are given access to the whole house, they will each contain
internal maps of the house, but they will be different with respect to the
location of their charging station.
These diligent cleaning instruments were all made by the
same designer and manufacturer, of which they have no concept or
knowledge. And, they will only have
information about the rooms they are given access to, from their charging
station; only in one house; only on one block; only in one community; only in
one city; only in one state, etc., etc., etc.
Does this sound familiar?
