And now for something completely different: Prove Monotheism

Thanks for the reply and the kind words, A.

what can their claim to divinity be?

Same as the Abrahamic gods. Somebody worshipped them as gods.

Look, if you simply define god to be the only one of its kind, either directly or by the accumulation of requirements that collectively exclude more than one god, then of course we can skip the discussion. There can only be one god, because you said so.

You win, but it's not very interesting. Presumably not even for you.

I can do a rap on whether the Hebrew God is trying to create an equal (borrowing heavily from Carl Jung), but I think that's a different question from this thread, except trivially. How do you know God didn't want that, and if so, what with him being omnipotent and all, why would you assume that he hadn't succeeded? Polytheism.

My personal definition of god is a personal being who exists outside of time and space (is eternal in one sense of that word), who can act within time and space, and who, whether or not he or she admits peers, admits no strictly superior personal being.

(Fate, the Brahman, and so forth are "more powerful" than the Greek or Indian gods, but they are not persons. Satan-The Devil-Iblis is unresolved in this definition, since I don't whether he acknowledges the corresponding Abrahamic god as his superior. The loyal angels are presumably not gods, however. But Greek mythology had its local spirits, nymphs, and all of that who weren't quite gods, but had a good ride anyway.)

Then Caligula was a god.

That's what the Roman state religion said at the time. He wouldn't make the cut in my definition (lacking eternal being... not to be confused with immortality, which is inessential. Lots of gods die.)

I suppose it's sort of like 61*. Caligula is a god*.

This, to me, is the most interesting bit of your post. Care to elaborate?

Maybe in a thread about free will sometime. Free will is a sure-fire derailer of any other topic.

Ah yes, but where are the miracles? And since the gods of monotheism also perform miracles, where's the difference?

What do you want? According to Islam, the Koran is a miracle. It's obviously a matter of opinion. I don't think there is a difference between the Biblical miracles and the miracles of the Odyssey, say.

Again, it is the same question: what would be the attributes, the characteristics, of divinity?

Good grief, we have had all kinds of gods. All who make my cut are "involved with the Universe," but creating the Universe is not the only way to participate in it, surely.

I can't think of any of the traditional attributes of divinity not listed above that cannot also be attributed to technologically advanced humans (or aliens).

Can you?

I think their existence outside of space and time is far more interesting than the gee-whiz quotient of what they do within space and time. Just a personal view.

Otherwise, gods are just Superman (TM) or the Highlander series' (not really) immortals or Anne Rice's sexy vampires, or, as you say, like people's ideas about aliens, assorted spirits, and so forth.

That would equally true of one god or several, so it doesn't bear on proving monotheism. IMO.

A certain kind of god, if he or she existed, would be the only god. Granted. But that hardly excludes ploytheism.

reply to post by eight bits

All right, I'll wait for the free-will thread. Though you're right about that topic, it even derails itself.

that hardly excludes ploytheism.

The God of the Gambits?

reply to post by yeahright

It is, as far as Creation is concerned.