Math is on topic.
Silence Is Golden
No. Math is a useful (even indispensable) tool for the purpose of talking about the topic at hand. Plus, at this level of abstraction, math is indistinguishable from logic.
The Quiet One. No OTT. No unfunny. No squick. No crusades. Harmless and clean.
Oh My
Oh hey my thread grew...that makes me very happy...
I also remembered something that is important to Buddhism's view on the subject that I forgot to mention...
You, yes you, can become a god via the rebirth system. One becomes a deva via a great excess of positive kamma while one becomes an asura from being defined by pride, violence, and/or anger in their most recent past life.
Deva and asura live outside of our space-time dimension...thing. They live in an entirely separate realm of existence that still exists within the universe and the cycle of rebirth, Samsara. They can examine us from this dimension...thing and hop from it to ours. It is implied that humans can also perform the dimension hop though it typically involves outside help or extreme knowledge of how reality works which is typically not something humans have. Compared to the gods we know about as much as people in stone age or something. So they probably have flying cars and shit already.
Deva and asura, like all sentient beings, are made up of highly recycled souls and recycled bodies. Everything around us is just reformulated whatever the fuck. This includes souls. Souls merely grant sentience. They do not grant life. There is soulless life out there.
The gods that are worshiped can be reborn into their god hub form whenever they want. They can also, through knowledge and manipulation of the kamma system, be reborn as whatever the hell else they want. This sadly strips them of some of the god powers. Like the super strength and TOTALLY AWESOME LONGEVITY. They are also bound by the restraints of the brains of whatever creature they are reborn as. Meaning that if they were born as a human they would lose certain abilities due to the human brain not being capable of whatever the hell. They also gain whatever human brains have that god brains do not. They still retain knowledge of their past lives and so on because they are just one point away from winning the game. They have what is called The Divine Eye and as such can read and examine the universe, past lives, time, and kamma in a way most sentient beings cannot.
We've tried to write down simplified descriptions of what is seen through The Divine Eye. It looks like multiple flat layers of reality slapped on top of one another. And time is a series of cycles within a larger cycle.
This is a flawed view however. Because they still have perception the view is doomed to be flawed.
edited 17th Aug '11 6:57:48 PM by Aondeug
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
It is easier for me to beleive in a plurality of Gods than in just one.
For one, there would be a god of comedy I am sure. And a God of irony as well. (notice the difference in capitalization)
edited 17th Aug '11 7:25:34 PM by Baff
I will always cherish the chance of a new beggining.
God with a capital G is the Ultimate Being- that which is discussed by theologians and philosophers. The 3 O's God, the Ground of All Reality, perfect being, does not exist because He Is Existence- that sort of thing. The small g god's are finite, mortal beings, who are basically human beings writ large. Sure they have great power and knowledge, but they fight and argue amongst themselves. Often they serve as a metaphor for some concept, but they are normally just oversized part animals (Zeus, I'm looking at you). Our understanding of them does not grow over time. These type of Gods were regarded by some (perhaps most) of the early Christians as being demons in disguise. If you advocate destruction of the former you are basically committing existential suicide, if you advocate destruction of the latter you are probably following proper moral code. Oh yeah and omniscience means having the possibility of doing anything- anything does not cover illogical/impossible actions. And can we stay on topic and off mathematics? ANYTHING BUT MATHS.