Theism and Deism

This is from a comment on: Atheism, the Capital Man


For those who are not familiar with the terms, a Theist (God in Greek-Theos) believes in a God who is "involved" with His creation. This is usually a Male God, often "plural, originating for the western cultures in the desert, nomadic, and later farming cultures of the Near East and Asia.

A Deist (God in Latin-Deus) believes in an intelligent Deity that is un-involved in the daily workings of "ITS" (Neuter) creation. For some, the Deity (latin-Deus) is a process, or a principle such as LOGIC (Greek-LOGOS as in Biblical John 1).

The latin, "Deus", was later translated to G-O-D or Gott by the Gothic (Germanic) Empire theologians who already had their name for the DIVINITY: Goth, Gott, and then the English G-O-D.

That is the same Gothic (Germanic) Empire that sacked Rome in the 4th century (After the Common Era (ACE)). The Goths were at that time being displaced from their homelands by the Huns of "Attila the Hun" fame. This was right after Constantine, with his Council of Nicea, had Christ placed as part of the "Trinity of The ONE (God)" as the second "person", the son of GOD, and "WHO" (a person) was there with the ONE (a number), LOGOS (logic), Yahweh/Elohim (I Am that I am....no name, no form) at the BEGINNING of TIME. This was done so Constantine could become a Christian and have his sins "forgiven" and thus avoid his "cause and effect" debt for the crimes of killing many of his family. That was a belief of the Pagans.

The folowers of Egyptian Bishop Arius (Arians-synchronistically similar to "aryans" of the later Nazis) rejected and opposed this theology at the Council of Nicea. This was seen as a corruption of the philosophical "ONE" God of Monotheism and the Duality (two) of other cultures (Zoroastrian) and into a TRINITY (three). Later the Goth would also reject this "Constantinean" theology but would later relinquish (flip-flop for political reasons?) and become "adherents" to the Nicene Creed (For Nicean Council of Constantine, Emperor of Rome)

A Deist is closer to an a-theist. A theist is closer to Magic and Fantasy.

In the Catholic Church philosophy and theology, that would be reflected in the views of Thomas Aquinas, follower of Aristotle and the Greek Atomists, versus Augustine, follower of Plato and his world view.

This is the Thomas Aquinas (supported and inspired by such philosopher as Rene Descartes (of "I think therfore I am" fame) , and Roger Bacon), who can be credited for the undermining of Church/State dictatorial control that brought about the "Protestant REFORMATION" of the Roman Catholic PYRAMID and freed the intelligentia, the scientific community, and that ushered in the Age of Reason, and the other physical revolutions, industrial revolution, the baron's revolution and the Magna Carta, French Revolution (petit bourgeois), Workers revolutions (unions) , and finally the electrical revolution, the quantum revolution, the electronics revolutions and the "information AGE"...And the INFONAUTS....

Other Theistic cultures and Theocracies also need their Reformation so as to move away from MAGIC and FANTASY to an "intelligent" and Logical ONE (number) or UNITY.

ONE (Deity) CAN'T BE A PERSON! To accept ONE or UNITY as a PROCESS or a PRINCIPLE, not a PERSON, would place the theists at the corrective decision point in the LOOP their "idols" (leaders) took centuries ago and again some many more centuries ago.

If theists (monotheists) accept FANTASY and MAGIC again, they should not expect a DIFFERENT RESULT as from the LAST TIME will they? That would define "INSANITY" would it not?

Faith (blind faith) inevitable leads to violence and even WAR!

Personal THEISM Hides FEAR (of being alone )

From: http://atheisme.free.fr/Votre_espace/Visitors_book.htm


For many who believe in a PERSONAL GOD (and hence a personal SATAN, LUCIFER, DEVIL), the "FEAR of Being Alone" is worse than the "fear of HELL"...IN HELL, one is "HOT" and not alone, as (apparently) MANY are the damned.


4d-don Said:

The first steps to "salvation" from the NEED for a personal GOD or THEISM, is to expose, deal with, and cure "SORROW", this loneliness, or sadness. (not the YEARNING which is POSITIVE). This Sorrow, is self-created as many (if not all) fantasies, but encouraged and guided by most RELIGIONS, through manipulation of our fear of being alone. It begins with the Proselytizer himself/herself being "afraid of being alone" and then CREATING or DISCOVERING a fantasy (anecdote, story, poem, song,) that relates or addresses that dis-ease and then presuming it in others through: generalized SCRIPTURES and other "Authorities" and then offering SALVATION from IT. And it is what the GROUP (Religions) offers.

If one is a "believer" in the first place, one, as part of the GREAT ONE (NUMBER), is "IN REALITY" never alone. It is not possible, and a fantasy, a delusion, or a false fear in itself.

The fear of DEATH, (another LORD who "comes like a thief") is the other facet of this fear of "the black hole" as opposed to the promised "HEAVEN" with the "white clouds", trickling water, green pastures, the fluffy little angels, and temperate heat, pleasant light and sound, "music", (no rhythm, ephemeral, no melody, so nothing to remember or "THINK OF"... just sounds but "NICE and SOFT")

Fantasies are nice but to believe them is ??

What's the difference between a Neurotic, a Psychotic, and a psychiatrist?

The neurotic builds castles in Spain, the Psychotic lives in them and the Psychiatrist collects the rent!!

In the case of RELIGIONS and GODS, THE PRIESTS collects the RENT for the POPES and the physical structure of RELIGION.

(4d-don / November 11, 2007 - 03:34 am)

Judas, The Comeback

This is from NEWSBLOG in the Guardian of
April 7, 2006 1:45 PM

(See my comment below)

With the happy news that Judas, one of history's most vilified traitors, was just following orders and not such a bad guy after all, it seems as good a time as any to cast a backwards glance over some of the great rehabilitations of our time.

Judas: this is what really happened

Julian Borger and Stephen Bates
Friday April 7, 2006
The Guardian

After being reviled for almost 2,000 years as the embodiment of treachery, Judas Iscariot's side of the story was finally published yesterday. Thanks to a newly discovered gospel in Judas's name, we now know what his excuse was: Jesus made me do it.

The Gospel of Judas, a fragile clutch of a leather-bound papyrus thought to have been inscribed in about AD300, was unveiled yesterday in Washington by the National Geographic Society, and it represents a radical makeover for one of the worst reputations in history.

According to this version of events, not only was Judas obeying orders when he handed Jesus to his persecutors, he was Christ's most trusted disciple, singled out to receive mystical knowledge.

According to the 26-page gospel, copied in the ancient Coptic language apparently from a Greek original more than a hundred years older, Jesus told Judas: "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal."

In the days before the fateful Passover holiday, Jesus also told Judas: "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." The line, according to biblical scholars, suggests that Jesus chose Judas to help him achieve his destiny by liberating him from his earthly body.

"It's a striking contrast with the negative portrayal of Judas as the quintessential traitor," said Marvin Meyer, a biblical scholar from Chapman University in California who helped translate the gospel. "The figure of Judas is often portrayed as the evil Jewish person who turned Jesus in to be killed."

It is unlikely, however, that the documents are about to trigger a total rehabilitation for the Iscariot name, with shrines in his name and readings from his gospel at church services, let alone a film treatment by Mel Gibson.

The initial reaction from Christian scholars was wary. Even if the gospel is authentic, they said, it appears to be the work of a particular 2nd-century sect, the gnostics, who had different beliefs from the mainstream church and who were long ago declared heretical.

The leading biblical scholar and translator of the dead sea scrolls, Professor Geza Vermes of Oxford University, said: "The document is of interest for the ideas of the gnostics but it almost certainly adds nothing to our understanding of what happened 150 years before it was written."

But the Gospel of Judas is bound to focus more attention on the gnostics, whose belief that they possessed secret knowledge leading to salvation resonates with new-age mysticism. Another gnostic text, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, discovered a century ago, has been given a dose of publicity lately by The Da Vinci Code.

The manuscript also serves as a reminder that the four gospels in the New Testament were not the only versions of Jesus's life in the early Christian era, according to Bart Ehrman, a religious studies professor at the University of North Carolina, at its unveiling yesterday. "In the struggle among Christian groups to win converts only one emerged victorious," he said. "It declared itself orthodox and all others heretics."

The Gospel of Judas is known to have existed before AD180, when it was denounced as heretical by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon. But it was thought to have been lost when the gnostics were vanquished in the struggle of ideas in the early years of Christianity.

The papyrus manuscript, also known as a codex, was found in an Egyptian cave in 1978. It circulated among antiquities traders for a while before it was locked in a safe deposit box in Long Island, New York, by a collector. It was bought in 2000 by a Swiss dealer, who realised its importance and its rapidly deteriorating condition and handed it over to the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Basel the next year.

"The manuscript was so brittle, it would crumble at the slightest touch," said Rodolphe Kasser, a Coptic expert called in to help reconstruct it.

It has taken five years to reassemble the fragments, translate the manuscript and authenticate it. Radiocarbon dating by the University of Arizona showed it was likely to have been written between AD220 and 340.

Scholars in Britain pointed out that the document appeared to have been written several decades after the last of the gospels in the New Testament - that of John - and at least a century after the death of Judas Iscariot.

The Rt Rev John Pritchard, the Church of England Bishop of Jarrow, said: "I don't think it changes anything about the truth of the Christian faith. There has long been a theory that Judas wanted to flush Jesus out, to declare a rebellion and drive the Romans out and killed himself when he realised he had got it wrong, but we don't know that and neither did whoever wrote this document decades after the event. This is not something to put your faith on."

By the time the Gospel of Judas was written the basic content of the New Testament was in place; the criteria for choosing the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as opposed to any of up to 30 alternatives, were their authenticity and direct authorial links to men who knew Jesus. Other texts, including presumably this one, were sifted out over succeeding centuries.

According to the Gospel of Judas, Jesus tells him: "You will be cursed by the other generations - and you will come to rule over them."

The first half of that prophecy has certainly come to pass. The second, even after yesterday's revelations, still seems a long way off.

· The Gospel of Judas will be shown on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday at 9pm

4d-don commented:

Hi Christians...

Amazing again that the gnostics resurface millenia after they were massacred by the "orthodox catholics" in the name of Christ. The (intellectual) slaughter still goes on as so-called officials of the orthodox churches, without knowing anything of importance on the subject, and not versed on the subject, reject the authenticity and even the hypothesis that the document could be accurate, out of hand. Is that the best "expertism" has to offer, and what or who should we put our faith in? A judgement without a trial? Christ would have wished better for his Apostles, even for Judas and Mary Magdalen. And what about the other of the original 12. Were they also "edited" out because of the content of their writings?

For the love of "Christ", have a heart for Poor Judas, and Mary Magdalen et al and let them have a "legacy" beside that of a traitor and a whore, all built on the rambling and ravings of power-hungry and corrupt Orthodox Imperialists of the 2nd and 3rd Centuries. The so-called "Holy Roman Catholic Church" the remnants of the Holy Roman EMPIRE!

Have a Heart and become Christ-like if not Christians...

4d-Don