Randon Musings

Theists talk about god all the time. God this. God that. Yet what do they mean by god? As an atheist I am happy to define god as “a supernatural entity with unspecified yet impressive powers which exists only on the mind of men”, yet I expect theists would be unimpressed by this definition.

The problem I have is that theists themselves don’t seem to have a definition which can actually be used to describe something, either for gods in general or for particular gods. Individual theists seem to have individual definifions of their particular god, often similar to others who profess to worship the same god yet seemingly never exactly the same.

Apologists in general seem to start from the presupposition that god exists and that we all know what is meant by the word “god”. I’m afraid that we don’t, and this difference in definitions makes genuine discourse problemmatic if not impossible. When talking with theists I get the feeling we are indeed talking about very different concepts and while this is the case there is little chance of any real understanding.

So, is there a definition out there that both theists and atheists can accept as adequately describing the word “god”? Definitions of particular gods might be a bit more difficult, but would certainly make dialogue easier. It would be good to be able to get on the same page and have a real conversation.