The Definition and Existence of God

[ajaxfetish]

Yes, I must have some definition of a word before I use it, or else I wouldn't understand what I was saying. Duh.

No, but a dictionary is not the only place to get definitions from.

All through your post you seem to mistake "definition" for "dictionary", which obviously isn't correct. Two different words with two different definitions. Kind of proves my point how important definitions are, doesn't it?

And you seem to be mistaking the word 'definition' for meaning. Definition is a much more limited and technical term, explicitly laying out the limits of meaning a term can have. Our use of language is intuitive and subconscious, not logical and ordered as you seem to be implying. Definitions are for philosophy and debate, not for speaking to each other.

Aijsdisj fodjfidjg oakdoaskdos okg oss kgfj idjfjd.

Do you understand that? No? That's because these words have no definition: they don't mean anything.

It is not because those words have no definition that I don't understand them. If you'd written a string of words in Arabic, each having a definition, I would not have understood them, either. The reason I do not understand what you typed is that it is not in a language I know (or any language, for that matter).

On the other hand, I do understand the rest of your quote, though I doubt I could adequately define any of the following: Do; you; that; no; that's; these; have; no; they; don't; mean; anything. I'd feel a little safer trying to define more substantive words like understand, because, and definition, but even there I'd not be surprised to see someone perforate any definition attempt of mine with ease. I'd like to see you define them in a way I could accept without consulting sources beyond your own experiences of these words. I don't know definitions for any of these words, but I can use them and understand them, nonetheless.

edit:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And on the other hand, the following contains numerous words with no definition, and yet many speakers of English, myself included, can understand what's going on, and sense the meanings of words by their context and similarity to other words, in spite of never having seen them before, let alone having them defined.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll

Seeing ajaxfetish in here gave me an idea. Isn't it so ajax that the first principle of your gospel is to know the true nature of God? And the second, the true nature of Jesus Christ?
And wouldn't you say that your view of God or the triune Godhead is supposed to be the same view as that of the early Christians? As in pre-Nicea but not pre-Christianity?

Yes, Sigurd, I think you could say the first principle of my church is to know the true nature of God, and that our formulation of God's nature is different from most trinitarian formulations, distinguishing between three distinct persons, united as one in purpose and so acting as one God. And we would indeed claim that this view is supposed to be the same as that of early Christians. Of course, this and other tenets place us in a weird position between monotheism and polytheism, and early church writings sometimes suggest that Joseph Smith started within the trinitarian framework and only later moved outside of it.

Ajax