[Consciousness (like God) is a word--as I discussed in my forthuyse article at https://sites.google/site/forthuyse/god-is-a-word:] God is a word--think about it, but without the doctrinal overlay of that other Johns phrase In the beginning was the word and the word was God. We will get to that later. Keep it simple for now: God is a word, in the same way that food is a word, or roof, or rain--all of these are words. Words are sounds that have been assigned specific meanings by a specific group of human beings with the object of facilitating communication among them. There is something magical about sounds anyway, but when sounds become words, the magic intensifies, for then it becomes possible to build up far more complex realities (a word that means thinglikeness, as it comes from the Latin res>realis>realitas meaning: thing > thinglike > thinglikeness) among people who share the same language or tongue, i.e. among those who share the same movements of the tongue (and other apparatus) to produce specific sounds and words. With the development of words to describe concepts, (which I think of as formatted (i.e. limited and shaped) units or entities of awareness that point to formatted units or entities of being) more complex thinking becomes possible. Learning becomes more prominent and with learning and memory, planning is facilitated. We learn from the past and project what we have learned into the future. That allows for far more complex societies to develop. Concepts are like mental bricks (limited, shaped units of clay)--with which more complex structures could be built. of course you can ask, what is clay, and what is this and what is that and the other--and ultimately you get down to a mystery, for we will never really know what Is is. Unless we call it the Goddess Isis and build up a whole theology, ideology or even scientific theory on who or what Isis is. Etc, etc, etc. Complexity is a human endeavor and not the true nature of the Mystery that is hidden behind the veils of complexity--religious, ideological or scientific. The science of chaos and complexity are human inventions about reality--not reality itself. The same can be said about religion or ideology--those too are human inventions: we draw lines, make mental, verbal, or physical images--and then we worship them, quarrel about them, or even fight wars about them. A graven image can just as well be an engraved drawing or a written word as a two dimensional icon or a three dimensional idol. None of those must be worshipped. Grafein simply means to write in Greek--and is derived from the concept of scratching into stone or clay, on paper or even, by extension, on a computer screen or the internet. I am right now scraching cyberspace like some stupid chicken! We must never get hung up on words or concepts or technologies--otherwise I might as well ride a public camel home tonignt. The word God is of course a human word, as well as a word used by some very specific (Germanic) tribal groups, where the words for God and Good are virtually identical. Needless to say that was before the days when greed became equated with good--although by some in the temples of unchecked capitalism the God of Greed is indeed still worshipped. In other tribal groups, speaking different languages, the concept of God is covered by an entirely different expression, like El, Elohim and Allah in Semitic languages for instance: cf.: plim.org/1Allah.html -- Is there commonality between Elohim and Allah? Webster’s Dictionary gives the definition and etymology of Allah as follows. Allah is the Muslim name for the God. Allah is derived from two words al, which means the and ilah, which is related to the feminine Hebrew word for God, eloah. Now the Hebrew title or name for God is Elohim and it is the plural form of eloah. It is made plural by adding im, which is masculine. This corresponds to adding s to make a word plural in English. So the commonality between Allah and Elohim is eloah and ilah. According the Huston Smith’s book The World’s Religions (p. 222), it states: Allah is formed by joining the definite article al meaning ‘the’ with Ilah (God). Literally, Allah means ‘The God.’ … When the masculine plural ending im is dropped from the Hebrew word for God, Elohim, the two words sound much alike. Eloah (Hebrew feminine) is similar to Ilah (God). Both Elohim and Allah are titles and not names. The Canaanite root el refers to power, force or energy--thus its plural connotes powers forces or energies. When a mask or persona is given to the concept of power, force or energy, one gets a personality that is powerful. That is of course what the ancients meant by gods: elohim/energies maskerading as personalities. Note: A persona means mask in Latin: it is through (per) which energy may sound (sona): a per-sona, per-sonage or per-son. The Three Persons of the Trinity would consititute the three masks through which the energies sound and (in words) speak) to us, as human beings who made up the words, the masks and persons--and about which we often squabble, of course. Let me remind you here of the Danish architect and poet Piet Heins grook which I quoted in my previous journal entry at: sites.google/site/forthuyse/freedom-of-choice - Man is the animal that draws lines which he himself then stumbles over.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 22:24:18 +0000
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