Are the gods/goddesses real or fantasy?

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Are the gods/goddesses real or fantasy?

FOF = Friend of a Friend, i.e.: A very trustworthy friend of a friend of mine, who is a minister and part-time police officer and, therefore, very reliable, told my friend that... = Anecdotal

Different from

Experimental = controlled and repeatable tests = science

[sionnach]

Re: Are the gods/goddesses real or fantasy?

The difference between reality and fantasy in religion is not a clear distinction but rather a continuum. This is especially true of oral cultures where the recording of reality of the past was impossible so the knowledge/wisdom had to be passed down without the details of reality yet the stories still had a reality within them. The difficulty is how to recognize the symbolic from the reality that these people believed. Dagda is described as both grotesque and handsome. He is the father of the gods the keeper of the wisdom but worked for a race that overpowered him and later defeated by the Celts leaving them Ireland as he and his others entered the sidhe. How can a god with the power of life and death in a club be subjugated and later defeated unless he is more symbolic that an actual being. I believe the Irish tales contain both reality and fantasy, real and magic at the same time. Where did the power actually lie with the Celts. Is it solely in the gods or was the real power in nature and the land itself. To enter Ireland the Milesians must retreat past the ninth wave for safety, but how to they enter back to the land? When they land again Amergin calls on Eire the land itself represented as the goddess and recites a poem which calls on the land to support their defeat of the Tuatha de Dannan. Many of the battles are fought with magic but where is the source of the magic. From the stories it cannot come from the gods/goddesses but from the land/nature itself as the ultimate source otherwise the Milesians could never have defeated the Tuatha de Dannan. The danger in these tales is to take the details as reality of the gods and goddesses and be left with fantasy rather than see the symbolic blend of reality and fantasy.

[DragonsFriend]

Re: Are the gods/goddesses real or fantasy?

Are gods and goddesses real...

Do you know what a thought form is?
Are they real?
Even if "man created god" instead of the other way around that particular thought form has been given more power and abilities over the centuries than any other individual being in this reality.
Thought forms are real. They can interact in our space time (when given the power) and even manifest in the physical world.
The question of reality is moot, the more pertinent question might be; Is deity formed by man or is man formed by deity?

[sionnach]

Re: Are the gods/goddesses real or fantasy?

Are gods and goddesses real...

Do you know what a thought form is?
Are they real?
Even if "man created god" instead of the other way around that particular thought form has been given more power and abilities over the centuries than any other individual being in this reality.
Thought forms are real. They can interact in our space time (when given the power) and even manifest in the physical world.
The question of reality is moot, the more pertinent question might be; Is deity formed by man or is man formed by deity?

This reminds me of the book 1984 where the truth can be altered. The truth or reality can be altered as the thought form is altered. Thus there are no absolute truths to the world and what is real can change based on how the thought forms are altered.