"God is not the name of God, but an opinion about Him."

[Fool]

I take the quote to mean that any word is utterly insufficient to describe divinity. The best we can do is throw out words which paint a picture which is still far from reality.

So Muslims have 99 Names of Allah. Zoroastrians have more, I think 101 names of God. There are many Avatars, God becoming man, in the East. And so forth.

This analogy comes to mind: How would a dog describe a human: the provider, the lover, the snuggle, the petter, the punisher, the walking companion and so forth. All of these and many more would be aspects of what it means to be a human, from the dog's perspective.

The Saga of the Aryan Race

 

[Fool]

That your opinion of God takes greater authority than His name when it comes to determining His character. That God is who you believe Him to be.

Name Above All Names


Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,

 

[james blunt]

"God is not the name of God, but an opinion about Him." The quote is often attributed to Pope Sixtus I, but it is more likely to have been said by an anonymous Pythagorean philosopher.

What, if anything, does the quote mean to you? How do you interpret it?

Greatness of deeds

God


Or , a wise man .........me..........I.............am...........smarts............manipulative............


Who is me ?


I am the first to realize my own mind potential ..........


I was there in the beginning , I taught you civilized .

I am Jesus ,

STOP IT !


I have empathy for all life ..........


I live as Jesus in all those who have empathy for all life for I am God in hiding of fear of you destroying this minority body of unselfish acts .

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

"God is not the name of God, but an opinion about Him." The quote is often attributed to Pope Sixtus I, but it is more likely to have been said by an anonymous Pythagorean philosopher.

What, if anything, does the quote mean to you? How do you interpret it?

If we take the quote at face value, it's rather circular.

"God" is a proper noun, and in that sense, it's used as a name. Obviously, it's not like we can check God's passport to see what his "official" name is. Still, "God" is a name for God as much as any nickname is a name for the person to which it's applied.

Edit: "God" isn't the name for God, but it's a name for God.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

God is not a name, it is a reference, an understanding of the nature and characteristics of a being that the word points to. Titling a being as God is not a naming, but a statement of certain ideas held by the speaker about the being that is so titled.

The grammar of how we use the captialized word "God" generally only works if the word is a proper noun (i.e. a name in some sense).

 

[PureX]

If we take the quote at face value, it's rather circular.

"God" is a proper noun, and in that sense, it's used as a name. Obviously, it's not like we can check God's passport to see what his "official" name is. Still, "God" is a name for God as much as any nickname is a name for the person to which it's applied.

Edit: "God" isn't the name for God, but it's a name for God.

I think people who choose to conceive of God as a persona use the term as a name. While people who chose to conceive of God as an ideological placeholder use the term like they use any other word-label. And to further confuse things I think most people conceive of God in both these ways at various times and under various circumstances. And yet still use the one term; "God". So tht we rarely have any idea what they are actually referring to when they use the term.

But I don't think this is what the quote in the OP was about. I think the quote was about the difference between the reality of God and our various perceptions/conceptions (opinions) of what God is.

 

[questfortruth]

Are atheists right that the phrase "God Almighty" is a proper name, but simply the word "God" is a common noun?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I think people who choose to conceive of God as a persona use the term as a name.

Anyone who uses "God" as a proper noun uses it as a name. I don't assume that everyone who does this does it for the same reasons.

While people who chose to conceive of God as an ideological placeholder use the term like they use any other word-label. And to further confuse things I think most people conceive of God in both these ways at various times and under various circumstances. And yet still use the one term; "God". So tht we rarely have any idea what they are actually referring to when they use the term.

We may not know their motivation, but we can tell by their grammar whether they're using the word as a proper noun, singular common noun, mass quantity noun, etc.

But I don't think this is what the quote in the OP was about. I think the quote was about the difference between the reality of God and our various perceptions/conceptions (opinions) of what God is.

The quote in the OP was rather wonky and circular.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Are atheists right that the phrase "God Almighty" is a proper name, but simply the word "God" is a common noun?

"God" (capitalized) is a proper noun. It's a common noun when it isn't capitalized (i.e. "god"). You can also tell which sense a person intends by their use of - or lack of - articles, i.e.

- "I believe in God" vs.
- "I believe in a god" or "I believe in the god."

 

[David T]

"God is not the name of God, but an opinion about Him." The quote is often attributed to Pope Sixtus I, but it is more likely to have been said by an anonymous Pythagorean philosopher.

What, if anything, does the quote mean to you? How do you interpret it?

Since i understand the term in context to experience i have no idea what this actually means. It makes no sense so could you please explain it..

 

[David T]

Since I'm an atheist, I don't see any inerrant source for the proper name for a god.
So it's left up to the believers to say what name(s) they've given to (or believe was
given by) their god (or gods)

So they are your experts? Havent spent much time in church have you!!!!!

 

[Revoltingest]

So they are your experts? Havent spent much time in church have you!!!!!

All people are expert in what they personally believe, feel & know.
I don't challenge gays about their sexual orientation, trans folk
about their gender, or believers about what they name their god.

Time in church....
I once had a part time job in a Methodist church as a sexton.
(No, @columbus, it's not what you think. More of a janitor.)

 

[David T]

I think so. Westerners are sort of - nuts when it comes to the word God.

Edited To Add And names too. The various forms of the name Jesus, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, English, Italian, etc. can upset them greatly. And the "proper" English name for Jehovah is supposed to be the Hebrew? Where does that come from?

I totally disagree with "sort of" far to nice.

 

[David T]

All people are expert in what they personally believe, feel & know.
I don't challenge gays about their sexual orientation, trans folk
about their gender, or believers about what they name their god.

Time in church....
I once had a part time job in a Methodist church as a sexton.
(No, @columbus, it's not what you think. More of a janitor.)

I actually only understand the term in context to experience i dont really understand this believe thingie people talk about. Seems like a rather problematic issue actually located in a particular region of the cranium self labeled "higher functioning" region. I see zero evidence of that actually! Simce "believe, not believe, agnostic" has zero impact on whether the sun rises or sets i see no correlation to reality in any of it. What is this believy, not believie, agnostic thingie?

 

[Earthling]

I totally disagree with "sort of" far to nice.

Well, I'm talking about unbelievers as well as believers.

 

[David T]

Well, I'm talking about unbelievers as well as believers.

I posted on that. The nicene creed is a facinating moment in modern western culture. If we read it, culturally we tend to skip over the intro. We go into the body of the statement and argue over that. Btw as far as i know the creed was the first instance of a modern technology in application used here in this technology. Its called copy/cut/paste.

The major problem with the intro it places all reality in the human brain specifically the self labeled region called "higher functioning" i see zero evidence of that label being fact. That partucular region as far as i can tell is the locality of nearly all mental disorders that arent say viral, or degenerative types of diseases and ussues as well.

 

[Earthling]

I posted on that. The nicene creed is a facinating moment in modern western culture. If we read it, culturally we tend to skip over the intro. We go into the body of the statement and argue over that. Btw as far as i know the creed was the first instance of a modern technology in application used here in this technology. Its called copy/cut/paste.

The major problem with the intro it places all reality in the human brain specifically the self labeled region called "higher functioning" i see zero evidence of that label being fact. That partucular region as far as i can tell is the locality of nearly all mental disorders that arent say viral, or degenerative types of diseases and ussues as well.

I don't understand why you place such significance on the Nicene Creed. It was a politically motivated attempt at unifying the church by a bunch of apostates.

 

[Mister Emu]

The grammar of how we use the captialized word "God" generally only works if the word is a proper noun (i.e. a name in some sense).

People regularly use titles as placeholders in natural conversation, that doesn't make them names. Within the family we might say "I'm talking to dad" or "I'm going to see mom"; when I worked in a corporate environment, I often used Boss or Boss-man as a placeholder when speaking of or to my supervisor.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

People regularly use titles as placeholders in natural conversation, that doesn't make them names. Within the family we might say "I'm talking to dad" or "I'm going to see mom"; when I worked in a corporate environment, I often used Boss or Boss-man as a placeholder when speaking of or to my supervisor.

If you're using a word as a proper noun, then you're using it as a name. Maybe not an official name, and maybe not a name that's accepted or recognized by anyone else, but still a name.

 

[sealchan]

"God is not the name of God, but an opinion about Him." The quote is often attributed to Pope Sixtus I, but it is more likely to have been said by an anonymous Pythagorean philosopher.

What, if anything, does the quote mean to you? How do you interpret it?

You can't begin to claim to know God by merely uttering His/Her/Its name...if you think you can then you are sorely mistaken.

On a deeper level, God is a mystery defined inadequately by any name or description. The Bible is full of stories about a God who appears to be anything but omniscient, omnipotent or omnipresent let alone perfectly Good, yet that is the presumed understanding we are to have. Why is the Bible unable to rationally describe God as such? This deep irony points directly to the profound mystery of God and how, again, inadequate any name for God and all that that name means in human language or thought is.