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"Allah" is a proper name. You realize that, right? Yes, it means "God", but it's also a name. Just as Christians generically use "God" as a proper name.
Of course I realize that. That is the very reason I included it as an example in my post. Proper names, such as God, Allah, Thor, and Brian are all capitalized.
Nouns, such as god, hammer and boy are lower case.
So some use of the word “god” is very appropriate. After all, the alternative is to say Thor is God, which implies the Christian god (<<<appropriate use of lower case) has a hammer called Mjolnir.
In fact, the bible is very unclear, especially in the OT, as to the character of God. The language in fact often discusses multiple gods (no, not the Trinity), and only over time coalesces into one god.
ELAH is etymologically the same as ALLAH. In Aramaic, it is the plural for "gods", not god.
EL is singular
ELOHIM is a plural.
ADONAI is a plural
JEHOVAH which is essentially the say as YAHWEH or YHWH
There are many more examples. The point is, the writers of the OT didn't just write about one god, and the name attributed to them varies.
I believe that you are technically correct with the etymology of the word. However, languages do evolve, and it is a fact that the vast majority of English speaking Christians use the word God as a proper name for their deity.
Archaeology from the priests of the time or archaeology from someone else?
Individual people may have had their own thoughts about the god they worshiped that differed from the views of the theologians. There are some people in modern Christian societies who think Jesus's middle name was Harold. Imagine if people 3000 years from now dug that up and claimed that historic Christian prayers were to "Jesus Harold Christ".
There are many names in the OT for God. Typically descriptive names. They describe what he is, or how he interacts with people.
His name is Yahweh. That's the name his friends knew him as in the OT. It's translated in the ESV as "The LORD".
Yahweh is the alliteration spelling of YHWH. Explain how El went to Elohim? Which one is the feminine? Why do religions anthropomorphize their versions of a god (Hindus excepted)?
The prophet Isaiah, God is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children. The Book of Proverbs maintains that the feminine figure of Holy Wisdom, Sophia, assisted God during the creation of the world. Read Proverbs Proverbs 8:22–31.
There is no question the Church Fathers and Mothers understood Sophia to be the “Logos,” or Word of God. Additionally, Jewish rabbis equated the Torah, the law of God, with Sophia, which means that feminine wisdom was with God from the very beginning of time. So.... why do Christians call their version of god "he"?
The "problem of suffering" is a phrase that tells me the person doesn't understand the distinction between pain and suffering, they are interchanging words that don't mean the same thing.
I find it very interesting that none of the popular christian apologists understand the issue and therefore cannot resolve the problem.
Pain enters every life,
suffering entails a choice,
a decision is made that dictates whether the person in pain will suffer or not.
Those born with a genetic disease, did they have a choice? What about all those starving children in the world? Did they have a choice? Or those severely injured for life in a natural disaster, did they have a choice? Me thinks you don’t understand the concept of suffering.
Those born with a genetic disease, did they have a choice? What about all those starving children in the world? Did they have a choice? Or those severely injured for life in a natural disaster, did they have a choice? Me thinks you don’t understand the concept of suffering.
You do not understand the concept of suffering as opposed to just having pain or other disability. Suffering requires THINKING and feeling sorry about pain or disability in a negative way by comparing it to some other potential status. My favorite quote from the movie GI Jane reflects the difference.
"A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself."
You do not understand the concept of suffering as opposed to just having pain or other disability. Suffering requires THINKING and feeling sorry about pain or disability in a negative way by comparing it to some other potential status. My favorite quote from the movie GI Jane reflects the difference.
"A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself."
At least partly because it was focusing every fibre of its being on the task of keeping warm.
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Those born with a genetic disease, did they have a choice? What about all those starving children in the world? Did they have a choice? Or those severely injured for life in a natural disaster, did they have a choice? Me thinks you don’t understand the concept of suffering.
