Divine nature.

From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 12:35:35 +0000


danny bourne :

>>However, I believe that Humakt does have an existence independent of
his
>>worshipers (i.e. things would still die, etc)
>
>But would the Brithini, Kralorelans, Pamaltelans etc, upon seeing
something
>die, think of the death of that thing as being part of the existence of

>Humakt?

Who cares? It's not relevant to the discussion. They see with different eyes. If nobody worshiped humakt - if there were no temples to humakt and the Orlanthi forgot the name of his trusty sword, would people in Dragon Pass still die? Even if all the clans forgot the name of the Death God, they would still know that he has a face.

>I don't believe it, everything I said was put forward as a suggestion
along
>the lines of a Socratic dialogue (only nowhere near as intellectual).

Socrates believed what he said. (Arguments as to whether the dialogues are the words of Socrates or Plato notwithstanding).

>>>Would a god exist if he had no worshippers is an interesting
question,
>>IMO
>>
>>I would say yes.
>
>Please elaborate. I'm interested to know why you think so (or someone
else
>would think not)

Would the world still exist, if you weren't here to experience it?

Are you familiar with real world philosophical conceptions of divine nature? There are a number of models that have been developed over the centuries to try to describe the nature of god. The best book on the subject I can recommend is Karen Armstrong's "The History of God", which summarises the evolution of the conception of god throughout the history of monotheism. While the book principaly concerns the main middle eastern monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it does comment on the very close agreement between many monotheistic and pantheistic notions of divine nature. Also, much of the early classical philosophical theory for the nature of the divine, which was later adopted and developed by thinkers in the three main monotheistic religions, was orriginaly postulated by pantheistic greeks.

I'm sorry to answer your question with more questions, but I hope that I've indicated the scope of the subject. It's far too broad to adequately, or even meaningfully cover in a casual email discussion. You and I seem to have too few common points of refference to do so. I know that's a cop out.

Simon


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