(February 2, 2020 at 11:47 am)Gae Bolga Wrote: Like every other universal social phenomena, ofc. To use your analogy earlier, so many different species of tree.
But they're all agreed to be trees. Any dendrologist can point at an elm, an ash, a spruce or an oak and say, 'That is a tree' and the only dendrologists who disagree will be adjudged as either loonies or just not frightfully good at their job.
To take your earlier definition, not all theists agree that gods are supernatural or that they have influence over nature or human fortunes. A theist can point at a rock, a statue of Zeus, a pile of poo, or a salmon and say, 'That is god' and be taken seriously (well, seriously enough to be debated, anyroad). As has been said earlier, when a definition is stretched to cover everything, it covers nothing.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson