<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">If you can’t call them a god, what do you call Pan? Horned god? Persephone? Any member of any pantheon anywhere, if not god? <div><br><div>What would you call a non-corporeal force which answers prayers and accepts worship, if not a god?</div><div><br></div><div>SR Ballard<br><div><br>On Nov 8, 2018, at 11:56 AM, John Clark <<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">On Thu, Nov 8, 2018 at 11:37 AM SR Ballard <<a href="mailto:sen.otaku@gmail.com">sen.otaku@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>I don’t mean to nitpick, but I actually feel like you didn’t understand what I was trying to explain. I’m trying to say that there is something “less” than the Abrahamic idea of God (the all-knowing, all-mighty creator/judge) </i></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="4">But the Abrahamic concept of a </font></font><font size="4">all-knowing all-mighty creator/judge is very very common in our culture and so we need a word for it, and we have one, "God". The concept of something less than that is also common and there is a word for that too, two of them actually, superhero and supervillain. </font></div></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div></div><div><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>A god would not have to fit the Abrahamic view in order to be a god,</i></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><font size="4">I think it does, or at least it should. If somebody insists on using the word "God" when they mean something <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">f</span>ar less than God they must realize they are almost certainly going to be misunderstood, and the only reason I can think of they would do that is although they have abandoned the idea of God they just can't abandon the 3 character <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">ASCII </span>sequence G-O-D.</font><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><i><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>You can envision a being, with a still-limited intelligence and power, however being still smarter and more powerful than yourself, can’t you?</i></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Yes, I can envision Lex Luthor. </font></div><div><font size="4"> </font></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> <i></i></span><i>I’m sure you could find a human who would fit that criteria actually.</i></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"></font><font size="4">I have no doubt, but I wouldn't call that human God, there are plenty of other words in the English language I could use that would not cause misunderstanding the instant I made a comment about this very smart human.</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">John K Clark</font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
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