Sabri Oncu wrote, >> Um, as soon as we can figure out whether >> God does or does not exist........... >> >> Ian > >My dear Ian, > >This problem is not that difficult. I solved it when I was 14. I >realized that there was no difference between believing in the >existence or non-existence of God.
Sabri has framed the issue correctly. Both are beliefs. For the same reason as Sabri, I believe in God but not in a God or gods. The distinction is crucial. There IS a difference between believing in God and believing in "a" God or "the" God. God is a unique part of speech that cannot be a noun. The article makes God into a noun, which is grammatically absurd. It is like saying, in English, "I the go to store" or "She a eat apple." It is clearly, obviously ungrammatical. God is also not a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition or any other common part of speech. In fact, one might say that the linguistic function of God is precisely to stand as other to all the common parts of speech and thus to remind us of the incompleteness, the inadequacy of any conceivable utterance. God is the unique grammatical term for the ultimate unutterableness of being. Tom Walker
