Friday, August 19, 2011

A Definition of God


A Definition of God

From the time of Plato there have been many attempts to define the term “god” as a way of understanding faith. In Plato’s “Republic” he seemed to imply by definition one god who was from the beginning creator, source of good and justice on an ideal plane. For the Greeks who believed in a great many gods that revelation started a long philosophical discussion.

“God is that being which there can be no greater than.”

That statement is often called an ontological proof of god. Given that there are beings – some greater than others – then the greatest has to be god. There for god could not be born or created or destroyed by any other. There can be by this definition only one god.

This provides a good start for a discussion on theology. How do we talk about god in the most basic sense no matter what our religion might say.

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