{"id":316,"date":"2009-05-03T07:22:07","date_gmt":"2009-05-03T07:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/05\/sky-gods.html"},"modified":"2009-05-03T07:22:07","modified_gmt":"2009-05-03T07:22:07","slug":"sky-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/05\/sky-gods.html","title":{"rendered":"sky gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an unrelated post at Talk Islam<\/a>, my friend (and staunch atheist) Razib of GNXP blog<\/a> made an off-hand reference to “sky gods”. This is a term that atheists often use, in the context of dismissing belief in the divine. However, it’s a lazy terminology which applies more to polytheistic and pagan deities than monotheists, all of whom agree that God’s aspect transcends reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The phrase “sky gods” is more useful to Abrahamic deists like myself to denigrate pagan beliefs; is sort of stupid to use it against an Abrahamic deist. I am reminded of this exchange from the movie Conan the Barbarian:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conan<\/span>: Crom laughs at your four winds. Laughs from his mountain.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\nSubotai<\/span>: Ha, my god is stronger-he is the everlasting sky. Your god lives underneath it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nto which an Abrahamic deist might respond, “the One True God has no need of a home, nor is bound to sky or mud.” Of course, insulting Conan and Subotai on matters of theology might result in meeting God sooner than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an unrelated post at Talk Islam, my friend (and staunch atheist) Razib of GNXP blog made an off-hand reference to “sky gods”. This is a term that atheists often use, in the context of dismissing belief in the divine. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}