RE: What is 'god' or 'gods'?
November 23, 2013 at 7:19 am
(This post was last modified: November 23, 2013 at 7:21 am by genkaus.)
(November 22, 2013 at 10:05 pm)arvind13 Wrote: According to Christianity (that is where the word God comes from btw), God is an agent whose intentions brought forth and governs the cosmos (everything there is, was, and to be).
The notion of 'gods' derived from the root word God is an oxymoron. If God is the agent whose intentions govern everything, how can there be multiples of such an entity?
The word 'gods' only makes sense within the framework of Christian theology (Islam and Judaism too). The biblical story states that at one time God (the true God, the biblical God) implanted the 'true' religion in the hearts of mankind but over centuries, this 'true' religion got corrupted by the Devil and his minions into many false religions with many false 'gods'.
This is where 'gods' comes from. Outside of the framework of Christian/Islamic/Jewish theology , the word 'gods' doesn't make any sense.
Zip up. Your ignorance is showing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_%28word%29 Wrote:The English word God continues the Old English God (guþ, gudis in Gothic, gud in modern Scandinavian, God in Dutch, and Gott in modern German), which is thought to derive from Proto-Germanic *ǥuđán.
The Proto-Germanic meaning of *ǥuđán and its etymology is uncertain. It is generally agreed that it derives from a Proto-Indo-European neuter passive perfect participle *ǵʰu-tó-m. This form within (late) Proto-Indo-European itself was possibly ambiguous, and thought to derive from a root *ǵʰeu̯- "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit huta, see hotṛ), or from a root *ǵʰau̯- (*ǵʰeu̯h2-) "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit hūta). Sanskrit hutá = "having been sacrificed", from the verb root hu = "sacrifice", but a slight shift in translation gives the meaning "one to whom sacrifices are made." Other school of thought believes that the word comes from Sanskrit “gau” meaning cow considered sacred. Refer Hathor in Egyptian mythology.
Depending on which possibility is preferred, the pre-Christian meaning of the Germanic term may either have been (in the "pouring" case) "libation" or "that which is libated upon, idol" — or, as Watkins[1] opines in the light of Greek χυτη γαια "poured earth" meaning "tumulus", "the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" — or (in the "invoke" case) "invocation, prayer" (compare the meanings of Sanskrit brahman) or "that which is invoked".
This is where the word "God" really comes from. And clearly, it does not mean "an agent whose intentions brought forth and govern the cosmos". In fact, the real origin of the word seems to come from an Indian framework and its original meaning would be "that to which a libation is made" (referring to Hindu practice of pouring ghee or milk over the idols) or "that to which a sacrifice is made" or "that which is invoked" (through prayers and such).
Your notion that the word "god" originated within Abrahamic theology and that it doesn't make sense in any other framework not only shows a stunning lack of knowledge regarding the evolution of language, but also a surprising amount of callousness with regards to doing the bare minimum research.
