Theories of the Origin of God

At     one time it seemed that science had disposed of the Creator God. Human beings try to explain and seek     rational solutions to problems. When reason fails, they try to rationalize.     Adherents of all creeds try to explain the edicts which no longer make     sense. Muslims find reasons for polygamy. Fundamentalist movements flourish     among all the people of faith.

They     started to worship gods as soon as the faculties evolved sufficiently.

Al faiths express     the fear and attraction of the unknown.     Humans have attributed transcendence to phenomenon they did not understand.     Only Buddhists deny the supernatural.

God has     always meant something different to each group of people. The concept harbors inner contradictions.     Ideologies have succeeded each other. Fundamentalists try to revive ancient     modes and norms. They insist that their prophets had a close communion with     God.

Priests who lived     among the people, not in monasteries, were called secular.  Secularism     in the sense of not accepting religious creeds, evolved when most of the     mysteries of nature yielded to scientific solutions. It takes knowledge and     an open questioning mind to acquire Western human liberalism and is a     function of education, affluence and free society.

Atheism has had     different historic connotations. The establishment always branded the     followers of a new religion atheist as they did not worship the existing     deities. It has come to its own only in the last two centuries when they     rejected all known creeds.

Monotheists have     accepted on God, but Christians added the concept of Trinity. Muslims may     not try to visualize him. Jews may not even utter the word.

After seemingly     receding, the idea of God is making a comeback in the West. It is     overwhelming the Muslim societies and getting to be more and more.

The conception of     God made himself known to prophets in an exquisitely agonizing experience.     The prophets of Israel and the prophet of Islam felt physically     overwhelmed. It mimicked the throes of the Big Bang, on a human scale.

Myths have a way     of creeping back into religion, in spite of the official dogma. Monotheists     initially rejected the myths of their pagan neighbors, but they had to     adopt them in the end. Some mystics have seen god as a woman. In Arabic,     al-lah is masculine, but the word for the inscrutable essence of     God-al-dhat-is feminine.

In “The Origin of the Idea of God,”     Father Wilhelm Schmidt wrote in 1912, “in the beginning, human beings     created a God, who was the first cause of everything and the ruler of     heaven and earth. He had no temple or priests and no images; He was too     exalted for an inadequate human cult. Gradually he faded from human     consciousness as had become so remote, people decided, they did not want     him any more”. Schmidt suggested primitive monotheism had preceded     polytheism. Belief in one Supreme deity, sometimes called Sky God, as He     was associated with heaven, is still common in many African tribes. According to Schmidt, in ancient times, He was     replaced, due to his remoteness, by more attractive gods of the pagans. 1

The German     historian of religion, Rudolf Otto in his ‘The idea of the Holy’,     published in 1917, says that the ‘numinous’ was basic to religion.     When people began to worship gods, they were not seeking a literal explanation     of natural phenomenon. The stories, paintings and carvings expressed their     wonder and wanted to link the phenomenon with their lives. 2

When agriculture was developing in the Paleolithic     period, the cult of Mother Goddess worshipped the fertility, which for the     first time in human existence gave the hope of a consistent supply of food.     Carvings of naked and pregnant women have been found all over the place in     Europe, Mid-East and India in archaeological digs. She was later     amalgamated with other gods in pagan pantheons, though she remained one of     the most powerful, in fact more than the Sky god. Her names were Inana in     old Sumeria, Ishtar in Babylon, Anat in Canaan, Isis in Egypt and Aphrodite     in Greece. The myth was metaphorical, meant to describe a complex and     elusive reality.

In ancient times, people seemed to believe that they     could become truly human, only if they somehow participated in divine life.     It was said that gods had taught men how to build cities and temples, which     were replicas of god’s own places in the heavens (1)-3. In ancient Iran,     the belief was that every single person or object in the human world (getik)     had an archetype in the sacred world (menok). Resting on the Sabbath     is an imitation what many believe, god had done.

Abraham left     Ur between 20^th and 19the centuries BC and settled in Canaan.     There is no contemporary record of Abraham, but according to scholars, he     may have been one of the wandering chieftains (or even the name of a tribe)     who led their people from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean region at the     end of the 3^rd millennium BC. These people are called Abiru,     Apiru or Habiru in Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources and spoke West Semitic     languages. Hebrew is one of them. They had merchants, mercenaries, tinkers     and private and government servants in their ranks. The Book of Genesis     shows Abraham serving as a mercenary to the king of Sodom, was in frequent     conflict with the authorities and after the death of his wife, Sarah, he     bought land in Hebron, on the West Bank. The     Book of Gensesis-4

There were three     waves of early Hebrew settlements in Canaan, in what is now Israel. The one     Abraham led was about 1850 BCE. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob led the second     wave and settled in Sheeham, now Nablus on the West Bank. Jacob’s sons     became the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel and migrated to Egypt     during a famine.        The third wave was     that of Hebrew refugees from Egypt, who claimed to be descendants of     Abraham and arrived in Canaan in about 1200 BCE. They claimed to have been     enslaved by Egyptians and were liberated by a deity called Yahweh, the God     of Moses their leader

German scholars developed a critical method of analysis     of the bible in the 19^th century AD, called higher criticism and     arrived at the conclusion that the first five books of the bible-Genesis,     Exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy had four different sources.     These were collected in the final text in the 5^th century BC     into what we know as Pentateuch. Religious scholars have harshly criticized     the method of critical analysis, but have not been able to come up with an     explanation of the two different accounts of key Biblical events as the     flood and Creation and why the Bible contradicts itself. The     earliest authors of the bible, whose work finds a place in Genesis and Exodus,     wrote most likely in the 8^th century BC. One is known as “J”, as     he calls his god, Yahweh and the other as “E”, because he uses the more     formal title, “Elohim”.

Both J and E     shared the religious perspectives of their neighbors, but by the 8^th     century BC, they had started to develop a distinct theology. Compared to that in Enuma Elish, J gives a     perfunctory account of the Creation (6)-6. It was not     till the 6^th century BC, that “P” in Israel shows real interest     in Creation, whose account appears in the first chapter of Genesis. J was     not quite sure if Yahweh was the sole creator of heaven and earth, but     perceived man and the divine as distinct.

J is not     dismissive of mundane history as profane and insubstantial compared with     the primordial time of gods. He hurries through the events of the Flood and     the Tower of Babel, till he arrives at the beginning of the history of     people of Israel.

He abruptly begins     with Abram, later named Abraham (father of multitude), whom Yahweh commands     to leave for Canaan and tells him that he will become the father of a     mighty nation that would grow to be more numerous than the stars in the sky     and his progeny will possess Canaan.

In ancient times     in the Mid-East, Marduk, Baal and Anat were not expected to involve     themselves in the profane lives of their worshippers. Mana was     experienced in ritual and myth. The God of Israel, on the other hand,     interfered in the current events.

The bible is vague     on Yahweh, and gives conflicting answers. J contends that people worshipped     Yahweh since the time of Adam’s grandson, but according to P, Israelites     were not aware of him until he appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush. P, as     though not sure, has Yahweh explain that He was the same God as the God of     Abraham, who called him “El Shaddai” and did not know the name Yahweh.

We can not presume     that Abraham or Moses believe in their God as the current monotheists do.     It does not appear that Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson were     monotheists. It is, indeed, more likely that they shared many of the     religious beliefs of their neighbors in Canaan. It is quite possible that     the God of Abraham, the “Fear” or “Kinsman” of Isaac and the “Mighty One”     of Jacob were three separate gods. In fact it is highly unlikely that the     God was Abraham was the same as El, the High God of Canaan (9)-7. The     name is preserved in Hebrew names as Isra-El and Ishma-El.

Israelites found     the mana or holiness of Yahweh terrifying. On Mount Sinai, he would     appear to Moses in the midst of an awful volcanic eruption. Abraham’s God     is friendly and at times assumes human form. This kind of divine apparition     is called epiphany and was quite common among the pagans.

Certain mythical     individuals had met their gods face to face. The Iliad has many such     epiphanies. The gods and goddesses appear both to Greeks and Trojans. In     the Iliad, a charming young man guides Priam, and in the end turns     out to be god, Hermes (10)-8. As     late as the 1^st century AD, people of Lystra, now in Turkey     mistook Paul and his disciple, Barnabas for Zeus and Hermes.

Israelites,     looking back at their golden age, imagined Abraham, Issac and Jacob living     on familiar terms with their gods. El gives friendly advice like a chief. J     tells us in the Chapter 18 of Genesis that Abraham looked up and saw three     strangers approaching his tent by the oak tree of Mamre, near Hebron. He     invited them in to sit down and hurriedly prepared food for them. It     transpired that one of the three was Yahweh. The other two were angels.     When J wrote all this in the 8^th century BC, no one would any     longer expect to see God.

When Jacob was on     the way to Haran to find a wife, he fell asleep in a place called Luz near     the Jordan valley and dreamt of a ladder between the earth and heaven on     which angels were going up and down, akin to the ziggurat. At the top of     the ladder was El, who blessed Jacob and made the same promise to him he     had to Abraham, that his descendants would become a mighty nation. On     waking up Jacob realized that he had fallen asleep in a sacred place, “How     awe inspiring…this is nothing less than the house of God (beth El),     this is the gate of heaven” (13)-9. He had     fallen back to a pagan expression; Babylon, the abode of gods, was called     “Gate of gods” (Bab-ili). Following the pagan tradition, Jacob took     the stone he had used as a pillow, upended it and sanctified it with oil.     Luz was now called Beth-El, the house of God. Jacob struck a bargain
with the god he had met; adopt him as his elohim, the only god that     counted, in return for protection.

Abraham and Jacob     put their faith in El because he worked for them. God for them was not a     philosophic abstraction, the one who delivered mana proved his worth.

On the way back     from Haran, with his wives and progeny, Jacob had another epiphany. On the     West Bank, a stranger wrestled with him all night. In the morning he wanted     to leave, but Jacob would not let him till he revealed his name. During the     ensuing struggle, Jacob realized that his opponent was none other than El.     It is akin to Iliad, than to Jewish monotheism.

In asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, the Bible is following the pagan custom of     human sacrifice. The first child was frequently believed to be the     offspring of a god, who had impregnated the mother in an act of droit de     seigneur (the right of the chief to spend the first night with a bride     in his tribe, still practiced in Baluchistan, Pakistan). The god had     depleted his energy in the process, and the child had to be returned to him     to replenish his mana.

But this new god     was above the need for replenishment. It was only a test, he told Abraham,     only after Issac had carried the wood for his burning and Abraham had the     knife in his hand. It depicts God as a capricious sadist.

The tale of Exodus     is even stranger. Israelites were such good slaves; the Pharaoh was     reluctant to let go. God sent plagues, the Nile turned to blood, locusts     and frogs infested the land, and the country was plunged into darkness.     Unable to move the Pharaoh, God sent the angel of death to kill the     first-born son of every one, except those of the Hebrew slaves. The Pharaoh     gave in, but changing his mind, pursued them. At the Sea of Reeds, about to     catch them, God let the sea part to let the Hebrews cross, but closing the     waters, drowned the following Pharaoh and his army. The Pharaoh and other     Egyptians were his creations too and had given shelter to his favored     Hebrews when they were starving. He does not seem to have full control over     his creations, and had to send plagues. He behaves more like a tribal     deity. He would be known as Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of armies.

A rational     explanation of the tale would be that it was it was a mythical rendering of     the successful revolt of the Hebrew slaves against the Pharaoh (15)-11.

Israelis would     eventually transform Yahweh into a symbol of transcendence and compassion.     But the myth would continue to inspire a vengeful theology. The myth of     chosen people has inspired a tribal theology from the time of Deuteronomy     till the current Jewish, Christian and Muslim fundamentalisms, justifying     the horrors visited upon the victims-Palestinians, Lebanese and the     innocent civilians in Pakistan.

The clergy are the     beneficiaries as usual. Even as early as Deuteronomy, Israelites are     commanded to offer the first fruits of the harvest to the priests of Yahweh     (16)-12.

The God has     ordained social justice and fair play to the specific followers of the     monotheistic faiths. The clergy of the adherents of the creeds have chosen     to maintain status, quo, to support the establishment and palm off the     ordinary mortals with the ease and luxury of the hereafter, and wait in the     wings to grab the first opportunity of take over of the government.

Yahweh, called the     “the god of our fathers” by the Israelites, may in fact have been different     from El, the Canaanite high God, or he would not have to insist to Moses at     some length and often that he was indeed the God of Abraham, even though he     had originally been called El Shadai. Some academics have suggested that     Yahweh was initially a warrior god, a god of volcanoes, worshipped in     Midian, now Jordan 17-13.

Among the pagans,     gods were often merged; the god of one locality may be accepted as the same     as that of another. But Moses, after the Exodus was able to convince his     people that Yahweh was indeed the same as El, the God of Abraham, Issac and     Jacob.

Moses had fled     Egypt to Midian for killing an Egyptian, who was mistreating Israelites. He     had married there, and was looking after his father in law’s sheep, when he     had sighted a Bush that burnt without being burnt down. He went closer to     the Bush and Yahweh addressed him by name. This God is very different from     the God Abraham had shared a meal with. This one inspires terror and keeps     his distance. When asked to reveal His identity, he replies, “I am who I am     (Ehyeb asber ehyeb)” (19)-14.

God is telling     Moses to mind his own business.

The older sky gods     had been remote, the later ones like Baal, Marduk and mother goddesses were     close to mankind. Yahweh had widened the gulf between men and the divine,     once again. Moses had to warn his people, “…not to go up to the     mountains…whoever touches…will be put to death”. Pagans had worked out the     principles of justice, order and peace by themselves. Now the law is handed     down from on above.

In the final     version of Exodus, written about 5^th century BC, God is supposed     to have made a covenant with Moses on Mount Sinai around 1200 BC. The     covenant clearly indicates that the Israelites were not monotheistic yet.     The God told them to ignore all other deities and worship him alone.     Even the Ten Commandments say, “There shall be no strange gods for you in     my face” (21)-15.

Pharaoh Akhenaton     had imposed the worship of Sun God alone, but his successor had reversed     the policy. All gods could be a source of mana and to ignore them     did not seem prudent.

Yahweh was good at     war, but was not a fertility god. Once settled in Canaan, the Israelites     instinctively looked up to the cult of Baal. In spite of the prophets, the     majority continued to worship Baal, Asherah and Anat, in the usual way.     While Moses was up on Mount Sinai, the people made a golden bull, the     traditional effigy of El and performed ancient rites before it. People     wanted the holistic vision of unity among gods, nature and man.

After the Exodus,     Israelites had promised to make Yahweh, their elohim, and had been     made His special people in return. Essential to the whole idea of the     covenant was absolute loyalty. The ceremony of the covenant was conducted     after the Israelites had arrived in Canaan, by all descendants of Abraham     and was conducted by Joshua, the successor to Moses.

Israelites were     convinced that Yahweh was qualified to be their elohim (23)-16. But     they did not keep their word except in times of war. In peacetime, they     reverted to the worship of Anat and Asherah.

Following pagan     norms the temple Solomon built for Yahweh in Jerusalem was similar to the     temples of Canaanite gods. Among other spaces, it had a cube-shaped room,     the holy of holies for the Ark of the Covenant, a portable altar, a huge     bronze basin representing Yam, the primeval sea of Canaanite myth and two     forty foot free standing pillars representing the fertility cult of     Asherah. The Israelites continued using the ancient shrines they had     acquired from the Canaanites to worship Yahweh, and had frequent pagan     ceremonies as well. They began to imagine that the temples were the Replica     of Yahweh’s heavenly court.

The New Year     festival of Israelites began with a scapegoat ceremony on the Day of     Atonement. Five days later they had the Feast of Tabernacles celebrating     the beginning of the agricultural year. Some of psalms celebrated the     enthronement of Yahweh in his temple on the Feast of Tabernacles, which     were akin to the enthronement of Merduk reenacting his victory over     chaosKing Solomon had several pagan wives, who continued to worship their     own gods and his dealings with his pagan neighbors were friendly.

King Ahab ascended     the throne of Northern Kingdom of Israel in 869 BC. His wife Jezebel, a     daughter of the King of Sidon, was a fervent pagan. In order to convert the     people to the religion of Baal, she imported priests who quickly acquired a     following among her people. When a drought struck the land, a prophet named     Eli-Jah (Yahweh is my god”), sporting a hairy mantle and a leather loin     cloth, started wandering through the land, spouting curses on the people     for their disloyalty to Yahweh, and invited the king and his people to     watch a contest between Yahweh and Baal. The audience included 450     prophets. He then asked for two bulls, one for Baal and the other for him,     to be placed on alters. The prophets of Baal and the ones for Yahweh would     call upon their gods to send down fire to consume the holocaust. There was     general agreement.

The prophets of     Baal, dancing their hobbling dance, shouted the whole morning, gashing     themselves with swords, but “there was no voice, no answer…”

Eli-Jah then dug a     trench around the Alter of Yahweh, and filled it with water. He called upon     Yahweh. Fire fell and consumed the Alter and the bull. People, of course,     fell upon their faces and shouted, “Yahweh is God”.

Eli-Jah ordered     the seizure of the prophets of Baal, took them to a nearby valley and     killed them all (25)-20. After the slaughter, Eli-Jah went up the     top of Mount Carmel to pray. Eventually a cloud the size of a man’s hand     appeared. He sent his servant to hurry to the city, before the rain stopped     him.

Rain came in     torrents. Yahweh had taken over the function of the storm god, Baal, of     providing rain.

Yahweh, unlike     pagan gods, demanded violent suppression and denial of other faiths.     Frightened of the followers of the slain prophet’s revenge, Eli-Jah fled to     the mountain where Moses had met God. He experienced a theophany, and to     protect himself from the divine impact, was asked to shield himself in the     crevice of a rock (26)-21.

The story of     Eli-Jah was the last account of an encounter with Yahweh. It is an object     lesson in how people of faith did not hesitate in committing genocide for     the sake of their creed.

During the ‘Axial’     period of 800-200 BC so called because changing economic and social     conditions led to new ideologies. A new merchant class arose. Power was     shifted from the palace and the temple to the market place. Inequality and     exploitation became less tolerated. Taoism and Confucianism developed in     China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India. In Iran Zoroastrians and in Israel     the Hebrews developed new versions of monotheism.

The rationalism of     Plato and Aristotle is important in this respect, as all the monotheistic     creeds drew upon and tried to adapt the ideas to their own faith.

Aryans from Iran     invaded the Indus valley in the 7^th century BC and overcame the     indigenous population (their progeny hotly dispute this and claim that they     have always lived in India). They imposed their own religious ideas as     expressed in the Rig-Veda. We find a multitude of gods, offering     many of the attributes of their counterparts in the Mid-East.

But people were     coming to the realization that all the gods might just be manifestation of     one absolute power, the unification theory. Aryans like Babylonians were     trying to explain the then inexplicable as myths.

The Vedas only     tried to help people come to terms with existence. But the ideas of the     indigenous population, which had been suppressed, arose again and led to a     revival of interest in Karma. The concept that destiny was dependent on     one’s action made people unwilling to blame gods for their behavior.

Vedic religion had     been too involved in rituals, but interest in old Indian practice of Yoga     (focussing the powers of the mind to the special discipline of     concentration) was gradually re-emerging, and people became unhappy with a     religion, which focused on externals alone. They wanted to divine the inner     meaning of rituals.

Gurus (religious     teachers/divines) soon superseded gods in India. Humans claimed control of     destiny. Hindus and Buddhists sought new ways to transcend gods. During the     8^th century BC, sages began to address the issues in treatises     called Aranyakas and the Upanishads, together known as the Vedanta,     the end of the Vedas. By the end of the 5^th century     BC, there were about 200 Upanishads. Hinduism eschews systems and     holds that one interpretation would not be adequate. But the Upanishads     did offer a distinctive conception of godhood that transcended gods and was     present in all things.

People had felt a     holy power in sacrificial rituals of the Vedic religion. They had called it     Brahman. The priestly caste known as Brahmanas also possessed     the power. Brahman gradually came to mean a power, which sustained     everything. The whole world was a mysterious activity welling up from Brahman,     which was the inner meaning of all existence. The Upanishads     encouraged people to think that everything that happened became a     manifestation of the Brahman. Brahman is not a he or she. It     transcends all human activities and cannot meet them. It does not respond     to prayers or praise, does not love us or can be angry with us. It would be     entirely alien, except it is in us, sustains and inspires us.

The Upanishads     claimed that the new dimension of self was also the power that sustained     the world. The eternal principle in each individual was Atman, a new     version of the old holistic vision of the pagans and prevented god from     becoming an idol, a projection of our own desires. It is impossible to     speak to a God who is as immanent (30)-25     or even to think about it.

Reason is not     denied, but like gods, it is transcended.

The Yogi leaves     his family and social ties to seek enlightenment and seeks another realm.     Siddhartha Gautam, appalled by the suffering of the masses, became a     mendicant ascetic to discover the secret of ending the misery. He sat at     the feet of gurus and undertook fearful penances. But it was not until he     put himself in a trance that he gained enlightenment and the whole cosmos     rejoiced. There was hope of liberation from suffering and attainment of nirvana,     a state of bliss. The demon Mara tempted him to enjoy his bliss, but the     gods Maha Brahma and Sakra, the lord of devas, implored him to     enlighten the whole world and he spent the next  forty five years     tramping all over India, spreading the message. The Buddha believed that     the ultimate reality of nirvana was higher than the gods. Instead of     relying on gods, the Buddha asked his followers to save themselves.

He told his     disciples that all existence was dukkha, suffering. Things come and     go in a meaningless flux. Religion led to the myth of a divine. The Buddha     taught that it was possible to gain release from dukkha by living a     life of compassion. He insisted that he had not invented the system, only     discovered it. (Muhammad claimed that he was bringing the true religion     which the followers of Moses and Christ had distorted). Karma bound the     humans to an endless cycle of rebirth into a series of painful lives. But     reform of egoistic attitudes could change destiny.

Nirvana     literally means “cooling off or going out”, but in Buddhism, it plays the     role of God (32)-28. Nirvana     could not be defined as another human reality, because our words and     concepts are tied to the world of sense and change (33)-29. He asked his monks not to speculate about     the nature of nirvana. He could only provide them with a raft to     carry them to “the farther shore”. We could not understand nirvana.     Jews, Christians and Muslims are also asked not to speculate on the divine.

The Greeks, on the     other hand, were passionate about the rational. They called it logos.     Plato (428-348 BC) devoted his life to epistemology (study of the source of     knowledge) and the nature of wisdom. He spent much of his time defending     Socrates, who asked thought provoking questions of the people, but was     sentenced to death in 399 BC, on the charges of impiety. The 6^th     century BCE philosopher/ mathematician, Pythagoras, who may have been     influenced by the ideas of Indian philosophers, transmitted via Persia and     Egypt. He had believed that the soul was a fallen and polluted deity, which     had been entombed in the body and doomed to perpetual cycle of rebirth. He     taught that the soul could be liberated by ritual purifications and     believed in the existence of a divine unchanging reality beyond the world     of senses. His doctrines of eternal form were crucial to monotheists when     they tried to express their conception of God.

Plato’s eternal     ideas can be seen as a rational version of the mythical divine world. He     did not discuss the nature of god, though ideal Beauty and Good may represent     a supreme reality. Plato believed that the divine world was changeless. The     Celestial bodies imitate the divine world the best they could.

Plato’s divine     forms could be discovered within the self (34)-30.

Because humans     were fallen divinities, the forms of the divine were within them and could     be touched with reason, which an intuitive grasp of the eternal reality     within us. This would have a great influence on mystics.

Plato believed     that the universe was essentially rational. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the     first to appreciate the importance of rational reasoning as the means of     arriving at an understanding of the universe. He wrote a fourteen-volume     treatise known as Metaphysics (the term coined by his editor means     after physics) in which he attempted to understand truth. He also studied     theoretical physics and empirical biology. He did not agree with Plato’s     transcendent view of the forms, that they had prior and independent     existence.

He was, though     cognizant of the nature of religion and mythology. He pointed out that     people who had become initiates in mysticism did not have to learn any     facts, “but to experience certain emotions….” (35)-31.     He offered that tragedy effected a purification (katharsis) of the     emotions of terror and pity and that amounted to a rebirth.

The Greek     tragedies, initially part of a religious festival did not necessarily offer     a factual account of a historical event. History was more trivial than     poetry and myth: “The one describes what has happened; the other what might,     hence poetry is more philosophic…poetry speaks of what is universal,     history of what is particular” (36)-32.     The facts of the lives of Achilles and Oedipus, whether existed or not,     were relevant in Homer and Sophocles. Events which could not be endured in     life would be transformed them into pure and pleasurable experience in a     mythical drama.

In Physics,     Aristotle developed a philosophical version of the old emanation account of     creation. At the top of the hierarchy was the Unmoved Mover, which he     identified with God, who was pure, eternal, immobile, spiritual and     eternal. He was pure Thought and Thinker, engaged in an eternal moment of     contemplation of Himself; the highest object of knowledge. He     activates the world by a process of attraction, since all beings are drawn     to Him and thus causes all the motion and activity in the world.

Man’s human soul     has the divine gift of intellect, which makes him a kin to God and a     participant in the divine nature. It puts him above animals and plants. Man     is the microcosm of the whole universe, and contains the basest materials     and as well as the divine attribute of reason. It is his duty to become     immortal and divine by purifying his intellect.

Wisdom (Sophia)     was the highest human virtue; it was expressed in contemplation (theoria)     of philosophical truth, which makes him divine by imitating the activity of     God himself. Theoria was achieved by a disciplined intuition, which     resulted in an ecstatic self-transcendence. Very few people were capable of     acquiring this wisdom.

Aristotle’s God     had not created the world as that would have involved an inappropriate     temporal activity, and thus had little religious relevance. He remains     quite indifferent to the world because He cannot contemplate anything but     Himself. He does not guide or direct the world. It is questionable if He     even knows of the existence of the cosmos, which had emanated from Him as a     necessary effect of His existence.

In the the Axial     age, there was a general agreement that human life contained a transcendent     element that was essential.

The prophets of     Israel were simultaneously developing their own myths to meet the changing     conditions.

Emergence of one     God:

Ahaz took over the     kingdom after death of his father Uzzaih in 742 BC and under the influence     of his wifwe Jezebel, encouraged his subjects to worship pagan gods along     sideYahweh. The northern Kingdom of Israel descended into a virtual state     of anarchy. King Sargon II of Assyria would take it over in 722 BC and     deport the population. Ten out of twelve tribes of Israel were forced to     assimilate and disappeared from history.

Isaiah, a member     of the Judean royal family, while praying in 742 BC, in the temple Solomon     had built, had a vision of Yahweh, who was accompanied by two seraphs. The     seraphs chanted “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth…” (1)-33 Yahweh is other, other, other. Isaiah had     experienced the numinous, which Rudolf Otto in his “The Idea of the     Holy” has described the experience of transcendent reality as mysterium     terrible et fascinans-terrible and fascinating. There is nothing     rational about the experience (2)-34.     Unlike Buddha, Isaiah was not enlightened, but full of terror (3)-35.

One of the seraphs     flew towards Isaiah and purified his lips with a live coal, so he could     utter the word, Yahweh. Jews have since not been allowed to say the word     (4)-36. Christians diluted the     injunction by just not allowing utterance of the name in vain.

Unlike the Brahman     of Hindus, Yahweh could be described in human terms. The psalms describe     Yahweh enthroned in his temple as king, just as Baal, Merduk and Dagon did     (5)-37. Yahweh can speak and Isaiah can     answer him.

Yahweh asked     Isaiah, “Whom shall I send…” Isaiah volunteered, “Here I am, bineni,     send me”. It is a commission to act. Yahweh told Isaiah that he must not be     dismayed if people did not accept what he told them, “Go and say to     people:’Hear and hear again, but do not understand: see and see again, but     do not perceive” (6)-38.

Jesus would echo     these words seven hundred years later (7)-39.

In 701 BC, king     Sennacherib of Assyria would invaded Judah, impaled the defending officers     on poles, put the Jewish king in a cage in Jerusalem and deport 2,000     people.

Isaiah had had the     futile task of forewarning his people of the impending catastrophe. Yahweh,     unhappy with his favored people uses Sargon II and Sennacherib as his     agents, and was using Catastrophe to assert that he was becoming the Lord     and Master of history (11)-40.

Israelites would     not have been happy to learn that Yahweh had masterminded the campaigns of     Assyrians, as he had those of Joshua, Gideon and King David.

The trend     continues. Christians and Muslims are taught that God sends disasters to     test people’s faith.

Compared to the     God of Moses who gloried in triumphs, the God of Isaiah was a sorry figure,     “Israel knows nothing; my people understand nothing” (12)-41. He was revolted by animal sacrifices in     the temple.

The Axial     ideologies were insisting that religions be integrated with daily life.

The story of     Exodus had indicated that God was on the side of the oppressed. Empowered     Israelites had turned into oppressors (as Christians did after the creed     became official and Muslims did soon after achieving dominance).

Simultaneously     with Isaiah, two other prophets were preaching a similar message. One was     Amos. (16)-42. He invited the Israelites     to have a dialogue with Yahweh, which they regretfully declined.

Only a minority     follows the religion of compassion. Most religious people prefer decorous     worship in temples, mosques and synagogues to tolerance and compassion.

King Jeroboam I,     in the 10^th century, had set up two cultic bulls in the temples     sanctuaries of Dan and Beth-el. The Israelites were taking part in fertility     rites and sacred sex there two hundred years later (20)-43. Archeologists have unearthed inscriptions,     “To Yahweh and his Asherah”, so they had given him a wife too.

Prophet Hosea was     perturbed that they were breaking the covenant by worshipping other gods.     He made Yahweh say, “What I want is love (besed), not sacrifice;     knowledge of God (death Elohim), not holocausts” (21)-44. Daath comes from the Hebrew verb yada:     to know and has sexual connotations, like Adam ‘knew’ his wife Eve (22)-45. Baal had married the soil and people had     celebrated it with ritual orgies. Hosea asserted that since the covenant,     Yahweh had taken the place of Baal and had wedded the people of Israel     (23)-46. But he was still wooing Israel     like a lover, to lure her back from Baal (-47     A history of God p 47).

Yahweh had told of     Hosea to marry a whore (eshebeth zeuunim), because the whole country     had, “become a whore abandoning Yahweh” (25)-48.     His marriage with Gomer, a temple whore, reflected Yahweh’s relationship     with the faithless Israel. At the birth of the youngest of their three     children, Yahweh annulled his covenant: “You are not my people, and I am     not your God”.

Gomer became a     whore only after her children were born. That gave Hosea an insight into     how Yahweh felt on being abandoned by the Israelites. But Hosea still loved     Gomer and in spite of the religious injunction to divorce an unfaithful     wife, he bought her back from her new master. He felt that like him, Yahweh     was willing to give Israel another chance.

All religions are     replete with anthropomorphisms. Isaiah had seen Yahweh as king, Amos     preached that He had empathy for the poor and Hosea compared him to a     jilted husband.

The people of     Babylon and Canaan (according to Karen Armstrong-give     ref-49) had taken the effigies of gods as symbols of divinity. Yet     the prophets jeered at deities of their pagan neighbors (as Muslims do     those of Hindus and the concept of Trinity).

Pagans always had     room for another god. Hindus and Buddhists were encouraged to go beyond the     gods, rather than be consumed with loathing for alien ones. But the     prophets of Israel (and other prophets) were unable to take the tolerant     view. They harbored deep anxiety. They must have subconsciously thought     that there was a hint of paganism in their own conception of Yahweh (or the     black stone in Kaaba).

Yahweh was taking     over the functions of the elohim of Canaanites. Hosea was arguing     that he was a better fertility god than Baal. But he, even though     monotheists would insist transcended gender, was masculine and could not     take over the function of the goddess Asherah, Ishtar or Anat.

In earlier     societies before the Axial age women were often held in higher esteem than     men were. The prestige of goddesses reflects that. They at least regarded     themselves as equal of their husbands. Deborah had led an army, and     Israelites celebrated Judith and Esther, till Yahweh became the only God     (in the pre-Islamic tribal society women of the elite enjoyed nearly equal     rights. Muhammad’s first wife was her employer, and when he was on his way     to propose to her, a woman stopped him on the way and offered a hundred     camels as dowry, if he married her. He promised to look her up, if his boss     turned him down. Even after Islam, Muhammad’s wife Ayesha led an army     against his son in law, Ali)

When humans     settled on land, and property could be inherited which enhanced the idea of     legitimacy, the position of women deteriorated. Their position was     particularly bad in Greece, worse than that in the Orient. Women did not     have a vote in Greek Democracy; they had to live in seclusion and were     despised as inferior human beings.

For a long time     Yahweh was not the only deity. In the council of gods, he accused other     gods of failing to meet the challenges of the times. In the olden days he     had been prepared to accept them as elohim, the sons of El-Elyon     (God Most high” 30-51), but they were no     longer any good.

In monotheist     parlance, idolatry becomes objectionable only if the image of god is     confused with the ineffable reality to which it refers. Jews, Christians     and Muslims worked at it and arrived at a conception closer to Hindu and     Buddhist visions.

King Josiah of     Judah was anxious to reverse the syncretistic policies of his predecessors,     who had encouraged the people to worship the gods of Canaan at the same     time as Yahweh. It came to a head in 622 BC. One of his predecessors     Manasseh had put up an effigy of Asherah in the Temple. Most Israelites     were devoted to Asherah and thought she was Yahweh’s wife.

Josiah had decided     to make extensive repairs to the Temple. During repairs to the Temple, the     High Priest, Hilkiah discovered an ancient MS, purported to be Moses’ last     sermon. Yahweh was so upset because they had failed to obey his     instructions to Moses.

The Book of Law     ‘discovered by Hilkiah is most likely the core of what we now know as     Deuteronomy. Yahweh had marked his people out of love, not because of any     merit in them and in return demanded loyalty and rejection of all other     gods. The author makes Moses say that would have no dealings with the goyim,     must make no covenant with them or show them any pity. Tear down their     altars, smash their standing stones, cut down their sacred poles and     set fire to their idols (The God of Muslims would similarly grant his     favors on the Day of Judgment, not on merit, but for his pleasure. That     makes all the paraying, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca an exercise in     futlity, like paying homage to a merciless maiden in hopes of favors).

The Deuteronomist     had not reached the point of monotheism. Yahweh ehad meant that     Yahweh was the only deity it was permitted to worship. Other gods were     still a threat. If they deserted Yahweh, the consequences would be     devastating (35)-52.

Josiah and his     people had so far managed to keep the Assyrians at bay. In 606 BC, the     Babylonian king Nebupolassar would crush the Assyrians and expand his     empire.

In this climate of     impending peril, the Deuteronomy had great impact. Josiah implemented a     reform; images, idols and fertility symbols of the Temple were removed and     burnt. He pulled down the effigy of Asherah and destroyed the apartments of     Temple prostitutes. All the pagan shrines were demolished.

Buddha had     serenely accepted the deities he had no use of. Here we have naked hatred     born out of anxiety and fear.

They rewrote     history as well (All insecure societies do it. Pakistan movement started     with the invasion of Sind by Muhammad bin Qassim in the 7^th CAD,     according to history text books in the country). The books of Joshua,     Judges and Samuel were revised to fit in the new ideology. A little later     they added passages to the Pentateuch giving the Deuteronomist color to the     Exodus Myth and to the older narratives of J and E, making Yahweh a     militant holy exterminator of Canaan (compare Islam’s pacific revelations     of the Mecca period with the aggressive ones of the medina period-get ref-53). Native Canaanites must no longer     live in their country (Palestinians must leave Israel and the West Bank).     Joshua is made to implement the policy with thoroughness (38)-54. The genocide was given religious     justification.

It makes God like     humans and is used to endorse ethnic hatred.

In the 11^th     and 12^th centuries, the Crusaders justified the holy wars     against the Jews and Muslims, as they were the new Chosen People.     Calvinists have convinced many Americans that they are the Chosen Nation.

Such beliefs are     more likely to flourish at a time of political uncertainty and reverses.     Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction to the decline of Muslims over the     last 5-6 centuries (Wahabism was a reaction to the foundering fortunes of     the Turks and ascendancy of Britain/France in Mid-East and Africa and the     British victory over the Moghals in India), especially since the fall of     the Ottoman Caliphate, establishment of Israel in 1948, the devastating     defeat of the combined Arab forces in 1967, the humiliating defeat of the     Pakistan army at the hands of the Indian army in 1971.

Bucking the trend,     the prophet Jeremiah revived the iconoclastic perspective of Isaiah; God     was using Babylon as his instrument to punish Israel. This was in 604 BC,     when Nebuchadnezzar took over in Babylon and would destroy Jerusalem in 587     BC and deport the Jews to Babylon (39)-55,     where they would spend seventy years of exile.

Unlike other     regions, the Mid-East of the time had not developed a broadly inclusive     ideology (44)-56. Israel was a tiny     enclave of Yahweh and not all Israelis accepted him. He was an external,     transcendent reality and needed to be humanized.  Jeremiah ascribed     human emotions to Yahweh, and makes him lament his own affliction,     desolation and homelessness. God was dependent upon man when wanted to act     in the world.

Once the     Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, Yahweh became more consoling. He would     save them as they had learned the lesson.

Jeremiah had been     allowed by the Babylonians to stay behind in Judah (46)-57. Some people blamed Yahweh for the     disaster. Women, especially claimed that everything had been fine as long     as they had worshipped Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven.

A priest, Ezekiel     was among the first batch of exiles. He had a shattering vision of a cloud     of light, which was shot through with lightening, in the midst of which he     seemed to see a great chariot pulled by four beasts, similar to the karibu     carved on the palace gates of Babylon. Each one had four heads, with the     face of a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle. The beatings of the wings of     the creatures was deafening…like rushing water…voice of Shaddai”. On the     chariot was a throne…sitting in state was a being… like a man…like the     glory (kavod) of Yahweh (49-58)     and heard a voice addressing him.

A violent image, a     hand stretching towards him carrying a scroll, covered with wailings and     moaning, conveyed the divine message. The prophet was commanded to eat the     scroll and make it a part of his body.

The story     illustrates how foreign and strange the divine world had become to     humanity.

The pagan world,     on the other hand, continued to celebrate the continuity between gods and     the world. Ezekiel called the old religion ‘filth’.

Some exiles in     Babylon felt that they could not practice their religion outside the     Promised Land. They had homicidal thoughts about Babylonian babies. A new     prophet, about whom nothing is known now, preached tranquility. His work     was added to the oracles of Isaiah, so he is called the Second Isaiah. The     Temple of Yahweh was in ruins. He declared that Yahweh was the only god     (53-59). He denounced the gods of goyim.

The new theology     was accepted because it was effective in preventing despair and offering     hope.

When Cyrus     conquered the Babylonian empire in 539 BC, he did not impose Persian gods,     but worshipped at the Temple of Merduk and also restored the effigies of     the people conquered by the Babylonians. In 538 BC, he allowed the Jews to     return to Judah. Most of them elected to stay, and according to the bible,     only 42,360 left. They imposed their new Judaism on the people living     there. This entailed insertion of the Priestly tradition (P) written after     the exile, and gave its own interpretation of events as given by L and E     and added two books, Numbers and Leviticus. Nobody could actually see God     as J had suggested (60-60).

The most famous     contribution of P was the story of creation in the first chapter of     Genesis, which borrowed heavily from Enuma Elish. He began with the     waters of the primordial abyss (tebom, a corruption of Babylonian     Tiamat) from which Yahweh had fashioned heavens and earth. But there was no     battle of gods, or gradual emanation of reality, Yahweh did it by an     effortless act of will, as gods of later creeds would do. Men and women did     not share the divine nature as in the Babylonian story of creation, but     they had been created in the image of God. As in Enuma Elish God     worked for six days and rested on the 7^th day.

In the East,     Temple building had been an act of imitatio dei, enabling the humans     to take part in the activity of gods. During the exile, many Jews had found     consolation in the story of the Ark of the Covenant, the portable shrine in     which God had set up his tent.  The new Temple was therefore central     to P’s Judaism.

Sabbath was an act     of imitation of God. In old paganism, every human act was imitation of the     acts of gods. The cult of Yahweh had produced a huge gulf. Now the Jews     were invited to come closer to Yahweh by observing the Torah. Deuteronomy     had listed obligatory laws, including the Ten Commandments. In time it had     been elaborated into 613 commandments (mitzvot). The era of     prophecies ended with the end of Exile. There     would be no more direct contact with God.

During the 4^th     century BC, Jews came under the influence of Greek rationalism. Alexander     had defeated Darius of Persia in 332 BC, and the Greeks had started to     colonize Asia and Africa. The Jews were surrounded by Hellenic culture.     Some were apprehensive, while others were excited by theatre, philosophy,     poetry and sports. They took to all, the language, gymnasia and names. Some     joined the Greek army as mercenaries, and translated their scriptures into     the language-the Septuagint. Some Greeks came to worship Yahweh, calling     him Iao, along side Zeus and Dionysus. The Jews had evolved synagogues     (meeting houses) in place of Temple worship during the exile. There was no     ritual or sacrifice in the Synagogue. It was more like a school of     philosophy. Some Greeks joined the Jews in syncretistic sects. There were a     few instances of mergers between Yahweh and one of the Greek gods.

Most of the Jews,     though, held aloof. Jews who claimed that these gods did not exist were     branded ant-social atheists. In the 2^nd century BC, there was a     revolt when Antiochus Epiphanes, the Seleucid, tried to Hellenize     Jerusalem. Jews started producing their own literature. In the 3^rd     century BC, the author of the Book of Proverbs suggested that Wisdom was     the master plan of god on earth (70-61).     In the 2^nd century BC, a devout Jew, Jesus ben Sira makes wisdom     stand up in the divine Council and sing her own praises (71-62).

About 50 BC, in The     Wisdom of Solomon, a Jew from Alexandria, exhorted Jews to resist the     seduction of Hellenic culture, that the fear of Yahweh (fear of Allah among     Muslims), not Greek philosophy, was true wisdom (72-63). The God of Aristotle was indifferent to the world,     whereas the god of the Bible was passionately involved in human affairs.     Yet whenever monotheists fell under the spell of Greek philosophy, they     tried to adopt its God to their own.

Philo of     Alexandria (30 BC to 45 AD), an eminent Jewish philosopher was one of the     first to do that. He was a Platonist and wrote in Greek. He did not see any     incompatibility between his God and that of the Greeks. He even tried to     rationalize the historical books of the Bible into elaborate allegories. He     solved the problem of how God revealed himself to prophets by making a     distinction between the essence of God (ousia), which is beyond comprehension     and his activities in the world, his powers (dynameis) or energies (energeiai).     P and Wisdom writers had done essentially the same things. He interpreted     the story of Yahweh’s visit to Abraham at Mamre with two angels, as an     allegorical presentation of God’s ousia (74-64).     Philo hypothesized that God had made a master plan (logos) of creation     which was akin to Plato’s realm of the forms. He suggested that religious     contemplation had much in common with other forms of creativity (76-65).

Romans, while     spreading their empire to the Middle East and Africa had been seduced by     Greek culture. But they had not inherited the Greek hostility to Jews, in     fact favoring them to Greeks. By the 1^st century CE; one tenth     of the population of the empire was Jewish. Romans were looking for new     religious solutions. Local gods were seen as manifestations of the one God     of the monotheists. Romans were reluctant to be circumcised, but were     enamored of the high moral code of Judaism. They often became honorary members     of the synagogue and were called the “God Fearers”.

In Palestine,     fanatics fiercely opposed the Roman rule. In 66 AD, they rebelled and     managed to keep the Roman forces at bay for four years. In 70 AD, the Roman     forces under the new emperor Vespasian conquered Jerusalem, burnt the     Temple and exiled the Jews, once again. Various sects had sprung up, some     of which like the Essene and Qumran had dissociated from the Temple,     believing that it had become venal and corrupt. They had a “Temple of the     Spirit” and instead of sacrifices, they held communal meals and baptismal     ceremonies.

The most     progressive among the sects were Pharisees. They were passionately     spiritual, believing that the whole of Israel was meant to be a holy nation     of priests that god could be present in the humblest homes as in the     Temple, and therefore, they observed the special laws that applied to the     Temple in their homes as well. Jews could approach God without the     intercession of priests. They could atone for their sins by loving and being     kind to neighbors. The New Testament depicts them as ‘whited’ sepulchers     and hypocrites. That is a blatant example of rewriting history for a     ‘higher cause’. (77-66).

By 70 AD, they had     become the most respected and important of the sects among the Jews. One     rabbi Yohonnan had been smuggled out the burning city of Jerusalem was     allowed by the Romans to found a self-governing community at Jabneh, to the     west of Jerusalem. Other communities sprung up and threw up scholars known     as the tannaim, including Yohonnan, the mystic Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi     Ishmael. They updated the Mosaic Law, codified an oral law and compiled the     Mishnah. Another set of scholars known as amoraim, began a     commentary on the Mishnah, which came to be known as the Talmud. Actually     two Talmuds were produced, the Jerusalem one, completed by the end of the 4^th     century AD, and the more authentic Babylonian one completed by the end of     the 5^th century AD.

The spirituality     of the Rabbis, that God was an intimate presence within mankind, has been     described as a state of mysticism (79-67).     They could feel him in rushing wind, a blazing fire and clanging of a bell.

Theological ideas     about God are still private matters in Judaism and are not enforced by the     clergy.

Jews were     forbidden to utter his name (83-68). One     of their favorite synonyms was Shekinah, derived from Hebrew shakan,     to dwell in or pitch one’s tent. Shekinah was conceived as the presence of     god on earth (88-69).

The image of     Shekinah helped exiles to feel God’s presence, wherever they were. They     were encouraged by their Rabbis to see themselves as a united community.

The Talmuds tell     us that some Jews started wondering if God could make any difference in     such a dark world (95-70).

The spirituality     of Rabbis became normative in Judaism, but it was for men only, since women     could not become Rabbis, study the torah or pray in the synagogue. Women’s     role was to keep the ritual purity of home. In practice, they were regarded     as inferior. Men were commanded to thank God during the morning  prayer     for not making them Gentiles, slaves or women. (-71     A woman was commanded to take a bath after the menstrual period     to prepare herself for the holiness of sex with her husband).

Rabbis taught that     it could even be sinful to avoid pleasures such as sex and wine, which God     had provided for enjoyment.

Offenses against a human being were a denial of God. Murder was the     greatest of all crimes. “Scripture instructs us that whatsoever sheds human     bloodis regarded as if he had diminished the divine image. 100-72

Zionists obviously do not regard     Palestinians as human beings.

Bibliography/References:

1. Schmidt, Father William, “The Origin of the Idea of God”

                2. Otto, Rudolf, “The Idea     of Holy:  An Enquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the     Divine and Its Relation to the Rational”, trans. W. Harvey, (Oxford:     1923).

                3. Eliade, Mircea, “The Myth     of the Eternal Return or Cosmos and History”, trans. Willard R. Trask,     (Princeton: University of Princton Press, 1954).

                4. Genesis 2:5-7.

                5. find ref on Higher Criticism of the     Bible See chapter above

                6. Genesis 2:5-7.

                7. Genesis 17:1.

                8. Acts of Apostles 14:1-18.

                9. Genesis 26:16-17.

                10. Exodus 3:14.

                11. Mendenhall George E., “The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine”, (The     Biblical Archeologist, 25, 1962).

                12. Deuteronomy 26:5-8.

                13. Bihu, L. E., “Midianite Elements in Hebrew Religion,” 31, (Jewish     Theological Studies).

                14. Exodus 3:14.

                15. Exodus 20:2.

16. Joshua 24:24.

                17. find ref to Temple of Solomon.

                18. find ref to the new year festivities of     Israelites.

                19. find ref on Jezebel wife of     prophet/king Ahab.

                20. 1 Kings 18:20-40

                21. 1 Kings 19:11-13; 22.Jaspers, Karl, “The Origin and Goal     of History,” trans. Michael Bullock) 1-78, (London: Publisher, 1953).

                23. Will, Durant, “The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage,     Chapxviii,” (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954).

                24. Ibid.

25. Kena Upanishad 1 in Juan Mascaro  (trans. and ed.), “The     Upanishads,” 52, (Harmondsworth: Publisher, 1965).

26. Armstrong, Karen, “Buddha,” (London: Phoenix, 2002); Conze,     Edward, “Buddhism: Its Essence and Development”, (Oxford: Publisher, 1957).

                 27. Pickthal, Muhammad Marmaduke, “Meaning of the Glorious     Qur’an” version 2.03) The Koran 59-2.

28. Conze, “Buddism:     Its Essence and Development,”

                29. Udana 8.13, trans. and Quoted in     Paul Stientha, “Udanan,” 81, (London: Publisher, 1885).

                30. Plato, “The Symposium,”     trans. W. Hamilton, 93-4, (Harmondsworth: Publisher, 1951).

                31. Aristotle, “Philosophy,”     Fragment 15 (City, Publisher, Year).

                32. Aristotle, “Poetics” 1461     b, 3 (City, Publisher, Year).

                33. Isaiah 6:3.

                34. Otto, Rudolf, “The Idea     of Holy, An Enquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine     and Its Relation to the Rational”, trans W. Harvey, (Oxford: Publisher, 1923).

                35. Isaiah 6:5.

                36. Exodus 4:11.

                37. Psalms 29, 89, 93-Dagon, the god     of Philistines.

38. Isaiah 6:10.

                39. Matthew 13:14-15.

                40. Isaiah 10:5-6.

                41. Isaiah 1:3.

                42. Amos 3:8.

                43. Hosea 8:5.

                44. Hosea 6:6.

                45. Genesis 4:1.

                46. Hosea 2:23-24

                47. Armstrong, “A History of God,” p     47.

                48. Hosea 2:1.

                49. Armstrong, “A History of God,”

                50. Hodgson, Marshall G.S., “The     Venture of Islam,” vol: 1 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago     Press, 1974).

                51. Genesis 14:20.

                52. Deutronomy 28:64-8.

                53. The Koran, Early Verses, 42:48,10:99, 5:54, 4:137,     2:256, 2:256, There is no compulsion in religion; Later verses, Sura     8:12 The fires of hell will be fueled with the bodies of idolators and     unbelievers, Sura 72:15, Sura 4:55 Those who reject our Signs, We shall     soon cast into the Fire.
Sura 5:45 Jews and Christians are evil-livers. Sura 5:72 Muslims that make     friends with disbelievers will face a doom prepared for them by Allah, Sura     33:48 those who oppose Islam will be slain with a fierce slaughter. Sura     76:4.  Allah plots against non-Muslims.

                54. Joshua 11:21-2.

                55. Jeremiah 25:-9

                56. Taoism and Confucianism are complimentary. Buddhism borrowed a lot     from Hinduism.

57. Jeremiah 32:15.

                58. Ezekiel 1:4-25.

                59. Isaiah11:15-16.

                60. Exodus 33:20.

                61. Proverbs 8:22, 30, 31.

                62. Ben Sirah 24:3-6.

                63. The Wisdom of Solomon 7:25-26.

                64. The Life of Moses 1:75.

                65. The Migration of Abraham 34:35.

66. Shabbat 31 a.

                67. Jacobs, Louis, “Faith”, p 7, (London: Publisher, 1968).

                68. Mishna Psalm 25:6.

                69. B. Migillah 29a.

                70. Marmorstein, A., “The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, The Names and     Attributes of God,” p 171-74, (Oxford: Publisher,     1927).

                71. Armstrong, “A History of God,” p 77.

72. Ibid.

                72. Mekhilta on Exodus 20:13.

 
Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham