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Re: Taxonomy of supernatural beings

From:Pavel Adamek <pavel.adamek@...>
Date:Friday, September 20, 2002, 10:44
> > and it was the reason why I wonded > > how a man believing in jinns could be described as > > an atheist. > > Cos jinns aren't gods.
Some of them aren't, but some of them are. (The term "jinn" probably covers both elves and Ainur). Al-Lat, Uzza and Manat are old Arabic goddesses, and they are refered in Koran as jinns. This is terminological matter: the monoteism comes with concept of being who is on qualitative higher level, but uses for it the old word "god", so the old gods must be renamed to angels and jinns.
> Now, we come to a possible stumbling block when some > religionists take a jinn or an angel and worship it as > a God [e.g., Satanists].
This reminds me the Yezids (or whatever is the name spelled) who worship Satan, but they are doing so because they want to convert him. IMCO every true Christian shall love Satan. (MT 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;)
> I'm not sure why you differentiate between upper and > lower case gods. It makes very little sense to me. > They're the same thing, really.
I definitely dont think so. IMCO, there is much greater difference between God and god than between god and human. The being who is omnipotent and all-knowing cannot feel itself endangered and therefore he does not hate. Now compare it with those gods who are fighting each other. How could be the being who wrote the software for Big Bang the same thing as the temporary local ruler of Olymp? P.A.

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Padraic Brown <elemtilas@...>