the zillion names of god

There are no disagreements, there is only confusion about labels. There are no arguments about meaning, there is only a failure to understand the difference between the signified and the signifier. This confusion is especially relevant and important in relation to so-called disagreements about god or gods, and the nature and meaning thereof.

Both the pantheistic position and the panentheistic position are unassailable, logically, because they are constructed on the bedrock of axiomatic definition, and the truth of any axiom is as agreed in advance of its application. (Although if Godel is right then all positions are unassailable from within but may be assailable from without).

By way of explanation, let us define something, X, in terms of certain attributes. The definition links X inexorably to the attributes of X, which we ourselves set up, agree, define, create. We create the equation. We establish the axiom. We create the reality.

Consider the following axiom (or definition): There is X, such that Everything That Is, Was, Has Been, Will Be, Could Be (ETI), is X; including things, nothings, thoughts, memories, ideas, rocks, vacuums, quarks, recipes, logic, sealing wax, cabbages, possibilities... anything and everything.

Now let's give X a name. We can name X "Jehovah", or "Baal", or "Beelzebub", or "Lucifer", or "Shiva", or "Vishnu", or "Zeus", or "Aphrodite", or "Mary", or "Gaia" or "Allah" or "Kali" (pictured), or "My Grandmother's Fruitcake", or "A Piece of Snot on the End of my Finger". It doesn't matter what we name X. Having created the axiom in the first place, we can name X anything we like.

In fact, not only can we name X anything we like, we are also free to assign to X whatever attributes we deem fit. We could for instance assign to X attributes related to Ocean (eg wetness, tidalness, waviness, saltiness). And the name we assign to X could be "Poseidon" or even "Neptune".

We could also assign another set of attributes to another thing, Z, and assign to Z a set of attributes including the carrying of the universe upon ones back. And we could name Z "The Great Turtle" (and yes, it is turtles all the way down).

Of course, someone will inevitably say, "We call X in our language "god", and god is wet and salty". And another person from another tribe will say, "you are so terribly terribly wrong; we call Z in our language "god" and god has a very hard shell and can carry enormous weight". And then they will go to war. What a shame. Because they are both right.

None of it matters. There is no true disagreement, only confusion over the assignation of signifiers to that which is signified. In fact, nothing matters; only everything matters.

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eBooks by Cosmic Rapture
(for kindle, tablet, smartphone or e-reader.)

NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS. This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously and grotesquely illustrated.

AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?). We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS. A disturbing repository of quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS. An unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms, including but not limited to barbaric episodes of herring-flinging and kipper-kissing. A cacklingly bizarre read that may induce fatal hysteria. Not Recommended!

FIENDS & FREAKS and serpents, dragons, devils, lobsters, anguished spirits, hungry ghosts, hell-beings, zombies, organ-grinders, anti-gods, gods and other horse-thieves you wouldn't want to meet in a dark cosmos. Immature Content! Adults Maybe.

HAGS TO HAGGIS. An obnoxious folio featuring a puke of whiskey-soaked war-nags, witches, maniacs, manticores and escapegoats. Not to mention (please don't!) debottlenecking and desilofication, illustrated. Take your brain for a walk on the wild side. Leave your guts behind.