God Squad Review XLVII (How Many Gods?)
June 30, 2003 | 9 Comments
Do Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Says the Squad:
Yes! The basic, undeniable fact of all three faiths is that they believe in one God.
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There is some dispute among Jews and Muslims about what to make of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Some might falsely conclude that Christians worship three gods.
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What we are commanded to do to worship this one God differs dramatically from faith to faith. Indeed, it is the variation in the rituals of each faith that most accounts for their differences. The calendars of sacred time with their holidays are different. The way of sanctifying the passage of life differs from faith to faith.
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But the ethical teachings of the Abrahamic faiths are virtually identical. Goodness, compassion, charity and discipline of our passions are taught with love, power and consistency by all three faiths. The differences in the three faiths have to do with how God ought to be served, who God sent to Earth to teach us how to live and what ritual practices should be observed to celebrate the sacred moments and holidays of the religious life.
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There are religions such as Hinduism that believe in many gods, and there are religions such as Buddhism that do not believe in a creator god at all. However, their ethical teachings are remarkably similar to those of the Abrahamic faiths. You might be surprised to know how many religions embrace some version of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
To summarize:
1) There’s either no God (Buddhism), one god (the Abrahamic faiths) or millions of gods (Hinduism). However, it is absolutely false that there are three gods.
2) Assuming there is just one God, he’s the same God, even though his commands regarding worship are “dramatically” different. Think of it this way — if someone told you to drive on the right side of the road, another person told you to drive on the left side, and another told you to drive down the middle, you’d conclude that they were all the same person.
3) While they differ as to rituals, all of the Gods share the same moral views regarding love and compassion (but differ as to abortion, divorce, gay marriage, euthanasia, capital punishment, etc.).
4) As to love, God (or Gods or no God) all believe that we should all love each other equally (but do not fall in love with or marry someone outside your faith).
June 30th, 2003 @ 1:41 am
“Some might falsely conclude that Christians worship three gods.”
So true. In reality Christians have no idea what they’re trying to worship. Rumor has it, its a Slithy Tove. Eleventeen of them! Don’t let a lack of clear, conceptually sound definitions bog you down, the answers to such matters are divinely hidden.
Although there is one thing we can know with a high amount of certainty – ping-pong and jack-russell terriers do exist in heaven.
June 30th, 2003 @ 9:58 am
Jason, I thought all dogs go to heaven. I feel so betrayed.
June 30th, 2003 @ 10:43 am
JASON: As the Squad explains: “The truth of this deeply mysterious and profound Christian belief is that the three names — Father, Son and Holy Spirit (once called the Holy Ghost) — describe three aspects of the same unitary God worshiped by all three faiths.”
So all three faiths worship the Trinity. EVERYBODY understands what they’re worshipping. You might consider actually reading the Squad’s column before making smug and snarky comments.
ANDY: All except Cerebus, with his Trinity of heads.
June 30th, 2003 @ 12:16 pm
A God with 5 heads and 10 arms simply means a God that plays many roles and takes various actions. It is an effective teaching device to present multiple viewpoints of a given concept. Motion is often suggested by showing a figure in several successive poses, like a blurred photo of a racing car or a dancer.
Just as an example, I might draw a figure with heads and arms that suggest a blogger, journalist, atheist, lawyer, blasphemer, theologian, porn pimp, philosopher, helpless drunk, godless swine, and decent human being. Something like this picture of Lord Hanuman.
June 30th, 2003 @ 1:53 pm
JUNE: That site describes Hanuman as “a provider of courage, hope, knowledge, intellect and devotion . . . . ”
Couldn’t you have just left it at that?
June 30th, 2003 @ 4:02 pm
Saturday morning cartoon-show idea #432: Lord Hanuman and his Mighty Monkey Warriors.
I was thinking that each monkey would be endowed with a unique ancient fighting style. Like the spider monkey will know some crazy jujitsu and the rhesus monkey will be a bad-ass drunken boxer. We might even throw a lemur in there somewhere. The bad guy can be like a dead pirate from the future or some shit.
June 30th, 2003 @ 4:27 pm
The God Squad names 3 religions that believe in one supreme being, and ignores Hinduism, which is 5000 years older than the Bible. At this Hindu site, the Squad will see that the Hindu concept of God is Paramatman or Brahman (NOT Brahma), which Hindus themselves describe as Supreme Reality, perceived differently, worshipped in Monotheistic Polytheism. And the Christian trinity was patterned after the Hindu Trinity Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
June 30th, 2003 @ 6:46 pm
So, when the evangelic Christians say the Catholics are wrong and will all go to hell for God in an incorrect manner, they’re just kidding?
If there were any Gods, you really think they could learn to leave some clear instructions…or are we supposed to be believing in a kind of Microsoft God who doesn’t bother to delete the old OS before installing a new one on top of it?
July 13th, 2003 @ 10:49 pm
bravo