Greetings,
I just registered so that I can add my two cents to CFI’s forms.  I am a primary care provider (Physician Assistant) here in the Northwest.  Essentially I determined, in 1971, that belief in a god was not rational and developed my own life philosophy, which as it turns out is very similar to that expressed by the Human Secular movement.  I did not know about Human Secularism until it was mentioned in our local newspaper, in the opinion section.  This was a couple years ago.

I do have an inquiry at this time.  I wonder why CFI uses “God” in its articles when it is evident that humans around the world worship a number of different gods.  There are other religions that do not worship the god worshiped by Jews/Christians/Muslims, even the different groups(sects) of the J_C_Ms act as if their god is not the god of the other groups.  Otherwise, why have Catholics & Protestants or Shiits & Sonnis had violent conflicts?  It seems illogical to me, that if you believe in the same god, that you should be able to live together in peace.  Perhaps this question belongs in another forum.

Welcome, Steve.  I don’t have an answer to any of your questions, but it does seem that even the various religious sects within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do worship different deities.  I don’t get it either.

Glad to have you here, Steve.  I certainly don’t know the official CFI answer, but in those few times when I have to use that word I never capitalize it and I use it as the generic.  That is, applying to any belief system that includes one or more deities. 

And, your point is quite correct that most groups that believe in THEIR god is sure that everyone else, no matter whether or not they believe in the same one are doomed, and at best completely misinformed and at worst evil and to be destroyed.  One of the reasons is that each group has their own versions or interpretations of the “holy writings” of that god.  It’s all really dumb, but what would you expect of people who believe in a being for which there is no physical evidence of any sort, and in readings that are internally inconsistent, often nasty, and often completely at odds with the reality we live in?

Occam

I imagine that CFI focuses on the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic “God” because that’s the one which impinges upon us the most. Not to say that Jews, Christians and Moslems necessarily worship the same God, BTW; that’s a different issue, and one that there has been both agreement and disagreement about over the millennia.

Steve Engard - 14 January 2009 07:35 PM

I do have an inquiry at this time.  I wonder why CFI uses “God” in its articles when it is evident that humans around the world worship a number of different gods.  There are other religions that do not worship the god worshiped by Jews/Christians/Muslims, even the different groups(sects) of the J_C_Ms act as if their god is not the god of the other groups.  Otherwise, why have Catholics & Protestants or Shiits & Sonnis had violent conflicts?  It seems illogical to me, that if you believe in the same god, that you should be able to live together in peace.  Perhaps this question belongs in another forum.

Yeah, I think it belongs in another forum.

CFI is better in scientific discourse than in philosophical one. It is better in finding evidence that in discussing theoretical reasons.

Whether they believe in the same god or not, I think is a hard question, and boils down to what “identity” is. After all, none of their gods probably exist, so how do we apply “the same” to non-existant entities?

No, I think Steve’s question does fall within the purview of this forum.  It could have been posted in the Religion section, but quite a few very good discussions start in the Introduction section when a new member poses an interesting question or submits a challenging idea.

Occam