Re: If god exists, what created god? :The answer

Philip Sells (sellsp@vccsouth16.its.rpi.edu)
4 Sep 1995 03:46:31 GMT

In article <42dmac$qu4@shore.shore.net>, Whittet@shore.net (Whittet) writes:
>In article <42cqmh$n0a@hobbes.cc.uga.edu>, venugop@phoenix.cs.uga.edu says...
>>In article <427b54$bbc@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, ARKYJAY <arkyjay@aol.com> wrote
>>
>> You are right; it is like the six blind men who tried to
>> describe the elephant.

Say, does anyone have an authoritative citation for this parable/fable? I
require it for an essay I'm wanting to write. (That just in passing, since the
opportunity to ask for such a thing is now here. :) )

[lead-in to following topic deleted]
>I can't speak for all religions and all gods but the one which was the basis
>of the judaeo/christian/moslem theologies started out being worshiped as a >carved stone in a box in the desert.
>
>The reason what was in the box was considered omnipotent and all powerful
>and the source of everything which was created in the world,
>was that what those Israelites in the Negev were worshiping was
>literally Law and Order. When the command was given "Thou shalt
>have no other gods before me" what was really being said was that
>even the gods (and the god kings) must obey the law. The Ten commandments
>in the Egyptian style ark required unquestioning obedience.
>
>As the Israelites and their god got to know each other it became possible to
>have a meeting of the minds and form covenents. Yahweh was concieved of as
>the power to coerce unquestioned obedience, but became a kind of contract.
>
>In Canaan a different concept was worshiped. At the Bamaats or high places
>the people met in something very like a modern mosque to discuss what was
>right and proper. When the Israelites got to Canaan and Yahweh took the
>Canaanites Asherah as his consort, the Law was tempered by a desire for what
>was right and proper. Law and Order joined with Wisdom to give Justice.

An interesting view of history, but one which seems ("Nay, madam, it *is*--I
know not 'seems'...") implausible. The Ten Commandments were, as far as I know,
never the object of the Israelites' worship; it wouldn't be very sensible (but
then lots of senseless things have happened over time). If the 'carved stone in
a box' still has a place in things these days, at any rate, it's the Ka'aba.
Not that the Stone is worshiped by Muslims--I think it's wise to give them the
benefit of the doubt as far as that goes, and at any rate it'd be horrendously
inconsistent with the rest of Islamic teaching as I know of it--but the mention
of the 'stone in a box' brought that to mind.

Don't misunderstand me--it's not my habit to pick fights on things like this,
but once in a blue moon I feel obliged to throw my hat in when I see something
particularly spurious.

(I've set followups above. Apologies if that's not the right group, but of
the possible choices in the list of crossposts, it seemed the best one.)

-- 

 ~   ~  | Philip Sells (sellsp@rpi.edu) | "On the cutting edge of orthodoxy"

 o   o  | http://www.rpi.edu/~sellsp/   `------------------------------------

   |    | Dept. of Chemistry, RPI; Troy, NY 12180  USA  *  Work: 518-276-4583

 \___/  | I'm a chemist by trade, but a theologian at heart....