this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Even if god exists religion can't possibly be the way to god (self.showerthoughts)
submitted 5 months ago by bi_tux to c/showerthoughts
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So I thought about this in the shower amd it makes sense to me, like praying and stuff never worked for most people I know, so a direkt link to god gotta be unlikely. That made me conclude that religion is probably fake, no matter if there's a god or not. Also people speaking to the same god being given a different set of rules sounds stupid, so at least most religions must be fake.

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[–] Drummyralf 6 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I know this is just a showerthought, but what do you define as religion? The term religion doesn't necessarily need a God.

Or do you mean the 3 mainstream monotheistic religions? (Christianity, Judaism, Islam)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

God with a capital G usually refers to "the" monotheistic God that we understand in those three Abrahamic religions you mentioned. usually you would say "god" otherwise, as it's just a descriptive feature of other religions rather than the name used to call a specific name of "God".

[–] Drummyralf 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

On the internet? In general I take someone that spells "God" with a capital to be a theist (usually only 2 of 3 monotheistic believes, because Muslims usually use "Allah" probably). Or perhaps raised as a theist, lost their faith, but not bitter against their old faith. while if someone uses "god" they are probably not a theist.

Makes sense to me too: I as a theist would refer to "Thor" as a "god" because to me it is not an entity that exists. It would only make sense for someone that is an atheist to not use a capital to refer to my "God": They don't believe it to be a real entity after all.

E: although, I guess fictional characters do use capitals, so maybe I'm wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

It has nothing to do with belief(although I'm sure some militant atheists chose to use lowercase universally, they're likely just grammatically ignorant) . It's noun vs descriptor. Abrahamic God (and Muslim doesn't matter either... it's the same entity in all three) is literally it's name. A proper noun. In your example of Thor, god is just a description, not his proper name. But Thor is not a good example as he's actually a demigod, but demigod is never capitalized as there is no god called "Demigod". Odin is the god of war and the dead... and ruler of valhalla as a more accurate entity to discuss.

God is a god. My god is God. Both of these previous sentences are grammatically correct. The Bible itself even makes these distinctions. Example:

John 10:33-36 (KJV):

33The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

Other sources agree.

https://www.learnreligions.com/god-or-god-to-capitalize-or-not-to-capitalize-249823

Other examples of the phenomenon... "The other day, Mom cooked with the other moms." You call your mom "Mom" as a proper noun. Where mom is a general descriptor for the other women your mom was cooking with. "Is she your mom" vs "Mom is calling for you".