Prophets and Deities. What's the difference?

[fließendes]

In practical terms, is there a real difference between the Divine and its mouthpiece?

Mohammed was a human "divinely inspired" by Allah, so anything he uttered after his conversion is sacrosanct. The Bible is "divinely inspired" by God, so its assertions are beyond question. Buddha was a mere human seeking Nirvana, but since Buddhism doesn't have an old man in the sky Buddha has become a stand-in deity. (Granted, that's a simplification).

Any ideas on this?

BTW, the word prophet (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=prophet&searchmode=none) is derived from "to speak". The origins of the word god (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=god&searchmode=none) are fairly obscure, but deity (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=deity&searchmode=none) goes back to Zeus (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Zeus) and apparently the root dei- "to gleam, to shine." (God can make the sun come up, but apparently it takes a prophet to get him to talk. :Cheeky: )

[AthenaAwakened]

A pastor once explained to me what a prophet was. According to him, a very liberal theologian, the word prophet in the beginning meant one who speaks truth. Soon after it came to mean something more akin to fortune telling. He prefered to use the word in its original meaning. He expanded this definition to include anyone who speaks truth, particularly to power, and the prophet need not claim divinity, he (or she) need only to speak the truth.

Thank you for sharing the origin of deity. What if the original purpose of religion was get people to shine and then it was twisted into idolatry? What if the purpose was not have man genuflect to a god, have the "light" inside each of us shine for our fellow human beings to see. HUMANISM, the true "religion." What a hoot!

[Ojuice5001]

This does look as if the prophets, and their more institutionalized successors the priests, are trying to monopolize their authority to explain the gods' way with man. On the one hand, it's true that there are only a few revelations that are so successful that they attain the status of "sacred texts," like the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, the works of Hesiod, or so on. And on the face of it, it's plausible that the the humans who transmit these revelations are, as many of them claim to be, an elect group with special qualities.

On the other hand, the phenomenon of personal revelation is significant enough that no priest in the modern world can maintain that it's entirely unimportant. We know by now that all priests are fallible men, and at the same time there are people who have a strong link with the divine in spite of the priests, rather than because of them. So it does look like although the priest is someone special, he's not as special as he often claims to be. In other words, the priest is trying to preserve a monopoly on spirituality that he doesn't have. That's why you have Muslims claiming that Muhammed is definitely the last prophet, there couldn't have been anyone after him; or Protestants who fall into bibliolatry rather than admit that there could be knowledge of God that doesn't come from the Bible.

So there is a difference between the words of a god, and the words of his prophet and priest. However, the prophet and priest do their best to obscure this distinction, and at some periods of history they are quite successful. :devil1:

[Anat]

Different religions have different ideas about definitions of deity, prophet and the relationship between them (and these ideas may change with time if the religion lasts long enough).

One view is that the prophet is used as a tool by the deity, and while performing this function the prophet essentially loses or gives up free will - s/he is compelled to speak and has little control over the contents of hir speech. If one takes the biblical prophets - many of them objected to their mission, but they could not avoid it eventually.

[geddit?]

In practical terms, is there a real difference between the Divine and its mouthpiece?



The mouthpiece does the actual damage.

geddit?