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I think they were once people that achieved the status of god/goddess, were granted divine powers and are representations of things in nature and ideals. I think they can walk with people and inspire and help us.
Is that Michael York's monotheist apologist article?
It's by a Michael York. Not sure I'd call it monotheist apologist unless he's going at the topic from a weird angle.
life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
"But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."
John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper
"You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."
My perspective is still mid-shift, but I don't think I agree with him. Gods and goddesses often fit into more then one of the categories he describes. My brain is a bit shot at the moment, though, or else I'd come up with a good example.
He also doesn't discuss ancestral deities.
Anyway...answering Thal's OP question: The way I see the world, at least at the moment, is that there might be an ultimate divine(what he calls a "super-god) but if so, I doubt it takes much interest in our affairs. I am reaching a place where I reverence the Norse gods as the oldest ancestors, whether in reality or as archetypes doesn't really matter. They are not perfect, but they are far older and wiser then I am. That doesn't really seem to fit in his system.
For me, deity is the driving creative and destructive force that powers the universe, the Great Mystery, Bon Dieu, God/Goddess/All That Is, whatever you want to call it.
Deities are also personifications of natural forces, when elements and phenomenon become more than fire, water, rain, storm, coyote; when They are Fire, Water, Rain, Storm, Coyote.
Deities can be thought-forms given so much energy that They became Gods - God, Allah, JHVH, Zoroaster, Mithra, Eris Esoterica, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Cthulhu.
Deities are sometimes revered ancestors - Marie LaVeau, Jesus Christ.
Deity is everything, and everything is Deity.
The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.
This is something that I am currently spending a lot of time both researching and thinking about. Because of this I have to admit my views do seem to be changing almost daily but I think they are slowly becoming more concrete each time they change.
I think I may be leaning towards an Emanationism view of Deity, and the Universe, but it is a concept that I am still trying to wrap my brain around. I believe the thing that separates us from the Gods is that they are much closer to the original source; that and their immortality. And I think I am becoming a hard polytheist.
I used to call myself a soft polytheist, believing that all gods were one God and all goddesses one Goddess, but now I think I'm a hard polytheist.
I think that we create the gods through our worship and reverence, that we elevate them to godhood. I'm still working on my ideas, but this is my feeling right now.
Like others here, I've been working on this question for a long time...
As of right now, based on my own subjective investigations (which means I can't "prove" anything), I would put it like this:
The gods are a part of that part of the continuum of human experience which seems to be percieved through imagination.
It isn't that the Gods are imaginary - it's that "imagination" is the sense which allows us to perceive them, in the same way that "hearing" is the sense which allows us to perceive a particular type of energy as "sound."
What we perceive as a deity isn't what the deity actually is any more than the sounds we hear are the actual energy which we perceive as sound - but it is the closest metaphor to that which our physical structure will allow us to grasp.
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
I believe the powers of creation are in all things and therefor all things are part of that power. I also believe that the power can manifest itself in any form ( Be that Man/Woman/Plant/Animal or disembodied voice or thought,etc. ) it wishes to so as to present itself in such a way that it can be understood and excepted by whomever/whatever it wishes to have interaction with. This to me explains the many religions in the world that base them self's on similar principles ( Even though things often get muddled by individuals interpretations) and even the one's that are vastly different from all others.
The best way to gain the trust of anything is to become most like it because most things tend to fear that witch is different from themselves.
To me gods are gods. probably as our ancestors thought of them. Higher beings who have some influence on the mortal world though their aspects (love, storms, war...etc). I have a hard time seeing them as thoughtforms or justs something through which we channel to achieve a desired effect.
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