AllStarSuperboy:
Without first establishing what is meant by “god”, it would be extremely difficult to even have a meaningful debate or discussion on this subject. I assume most are relating “god” to the 2nd definition below, but until that’s established many may be talking about different things. And keep in mind, when it refers to “male” in the 2nd definition, it simply means the female aspect would be “goddess” and not because it’s a “man” thing to be a god. So I’d try not to get hung up on that verbiage too much.
god
(gŏd)
Noun…
So I posted this back in 2016:
I just happened across this, and found it interesting with specific reference to PGM-inspired “assumption of godforms” and also out-right LHP theogenesis:
god (n.) Old English god “supreme being, deity; the Christian God; image of a god; godlike person,” from Proto-Germanic *guthan (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch god, Old High German got, German Gott, Old Norse guð, Gothic guþ), from PIE *ghut- “that which is invoked” (cognates: Old Church Slavonic zovo “to call,” Sanskrit huta- “invoked,” an epithet of Indra), from root *gheu(e)- “to call, invoke.”
But some trace it to PIE *ghu-to- “poured,” from root *gheu- “to pour, pour a libation” (source of Greek khein “to pour,” also in the phrase khute gaia “poured earth,” referring to a burial mound; see found (v.2)). “Given the Greek facts, the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound” [Watkins]. See also Zeus.
Source: etymonline.com
NOT “all powerful sky man who sends people to hell” - not “being who demands worship, and grovelling”…
That which is invoked, called, poured into, immanent within - implying pre-Christian users of the term may have had a concept of godhood (single or multiple, and it probably varied as much within a tribe or village as we personally do here) that was about the vital moment of interaction, and not a proper name for a specific being.
It’s as major as the difference between the proper name Mark, and the verb mark, as in, “I marked this with ink.”
The PGM and arguably older forms of yoga all have this same idea, that god is something you bring into yourself and operate, yes with training of course, and hard work, but not some sky-dwelling being of a fundamentally different nature to ourselves.
This is why words matter, it’s easy to mis-label a thing then end up letting that label ALONE convince you it’s not for you.
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