A History of God
Based on Karen Armstrong's acclaimed book, this feature-length film guides viewers along one of humanity's most elusive quests.
For over 4,000 years, adherents of the world's monotheistic faiths have wrestled with the question of God. This extraordinary, feature-length film, based on Karen Armstrong's acclaimed book of the same name, traces that elusive and fascinating quest.
A History of God examines the familiar images of deity as presented in the Bible and Koran and traces the evolution and interrelation of the various Christian, Jewish, and Islamic interpretations of the divine figure. Through balanced analysis of historic and holy texts and extensive use of ancient art and artifacts, we'll follow the long road to today's understanding of God and what the journey--and the destination--have to tell us about humanity and its never-ending search for meaning and comfort.
From the time of Abraham to the present, this is a thought-provoking look at the God at the heart of the world's three great monotheistic religions. (Excerpt from bbc.co.uk)
There is no God but one God. ISAIAH wrote- "Jehovah said" There will Never be any God after me and no one was before me". Quran says- La illah ha Ill Allah- Means there is no God worthy of worship except him. So thats it!
and if Human beings still debate- so wait for the judgement hour, it draws near.
closer and closer mankind is on the path of destruction and the final judgement-
Re Christianity: Where's the female aspect? We're presented in the trinity with 2 guys and a bird. Has the feminine been air-brushed out of the Abrahamic religions, all masculine power hierarchies?
religion is really dangerous , we know of over 1000 religions and 10 000 gods , so I don't believe in any religion the same way religious people don't believe in the other 999
This woman is very silly to say that Abraham served many g-ds, g-d forbid to say such a silly thing. And what she quotes from genesis in no was insinuates this unfounded falsity
A brainstorm from my book I'm writing.
The mystery of nature is inconclusively complex in its nature and when, considering the cosmos to the simplest of life experiences, all inevitably have been wondered and spoken about through the ages. We have created degrees and schools of thought and studied the intilledual minds of free thinkers and philosophers trying to have some new principle in which we can define our existence. While one may choose to understand the feeling of love and another the quantum mechanics of the universe, our understanding of the truth remains undecided. Our history confirms that No matter the the lineage of time our wonder still remains. If these mysteries are so prevailing and thought provoking can there absolute certainty really ever be defined? if we cannot describe the existence of anything as absolute then why is God an absolute truth? Moreover, gods absolute truth is a reality for millions of people. Does it seem silly to question all we think, touch, see and feel yet God is left out inconclusive. By abolishing the concept of God then we will truly have the freedom to understand. Consider a mentally handicapped person or someone who is blind. They do not have the mental capacity or the physiological networks to understand their existence or even be able to see their existence. So does the mentally challenged person have a less meaningful life because they don't have the capacity to understand God? Does the blind person inability to see change their the sight of their own existence? So while those with a disability in life remain and their inability to be as we are changes nothing in their existence. They still remain as they are. So why has man not understood that they too have a disability in that they do not have the senses or mental capacity to ever define or understand the concept of God. If it the principle was there for us to conceive this then explaining the color blue to a blind person would be simple. Can the concept of colour really be described to a person with perfect sight let alone the blind ones. When considering nature and its workings it can be conceived as a machine that its inner working process occur and in turn allows us to exist. Now consider the working of a pencil, a pen, a clock, an automobile. While we may be able to disect, compare, analyze, hypothesize and relate some theory to which its mechanics tick we fail to conceive the concept of its creator. While we use these objects within our environment we do not ever have the notion for a second of the nature in the man or women or being who constructed it. We don't define the creators want for how we should truly use it, we don't consider why the creator wanted us to have it. We don't question weather we have the true knowledge of its use. This simple concept shows the true handicap of mans capacity to understand define gods absolute truth. As the ages pass the sectorial lineage the Catholicism and its absolute truth has sporadically grows to hundreds of different incisions of its truth. Seemingly, one would have to begin now to see the trending idea of religions followed question of truth just as the concepts of love have changed through the ages. Is it not clear that the religion that was defined as absolute truth has been questioned and its followers have created more fitting sects to describe their level of intellect. Based on the exceptence of the church to acknowledge the sects as equal truths not undermine its entire principle. Religion is simply a school of thought just as philosophy and its definition exists only because of not absolute truth but of mans inability to understand and question.
No matter what GOD WILL only allow the elect to reveal Himself to and he will confuse those who don't believe and don't trust in Him,,,, trust of the matter is you will never know GOD unless you seek him out, SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE AND EVERYTHING ELSE WILL BE ADDED, call it what you want I'm a living testament of his true existence and he reveals thing to me still to this day and the power of his WORD created all humans before the foundation of the earth, I just pray everyone finds the CHRIST before he comes, very soon he's gonna crack the skies open and all living things on the earth will know who he is,,, so GOD BLESS ACCEPT HIS FREE GIFT OF GRACE and to all those who don't may HE have mercy on you....
This is hard to watch. Not because I disagree, but because there's so many propositions that have no backing.
It would have become more interesting if they would have included the hindu philosophy followed by Indians for several years...As per my information , it is one of the oldest religion human kind knew...The doc is excellent and well made..
IT'S 2012 !!! How the hell can ANYONE with a IQ over the limit that makes one smart enough to turn door nob, ever consider the possibility that there might be something like gods...for real? I mean.. wtf! Use your heads! I read your posts. You are smart people. You express yourself so well! (i can't, but english is not my native language) You are born in the a modern western world, for crying out loud! Take of the blindfolds and stop this madness. It's not sane! I bet you would believe i santa claus as well if someone brought you up kept the myth and made sure you get deceived every year! That is not so far of there! I've had it! Insane! Amen!
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** Good people will behave well. Bad people will behave badly.
However, it takes religion to make otherwise good people behave badly. **
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I can't understand the logic behind Abraham's story. God is supposed to be almighty, and he knew what would happen to Issac. God can foresee things. So God also would be able to foresee that Abraham about to sacrifice Issac, God stops him, shows him a sheep, then Abraham kills the sheep instead of his son. So the question here is, if God knew what would be the end of this episode, how he can order Abraham to perform such drama?
Such question arises in the story of forbidden fruit. God knows everything. God even knew that Adam and Eve would disobey God, and he would punish them. But Adam and Eve just fulfilled God's wish by eating the forbidden fruit. So how can God justify his punishment to mankind???
i really like this video its very detailed... but i would have like to learn more about the Islamic history. Thank You and inshallah we all come to a conclusion of peace and understanding of all beings. may God guide us to love and respect for one another.
Of course this should be titled "A History of the Concept of God". God itself doesn't have a history because he doesn't exist.
I am so tired of atheists preaching their religion of "logic" on here. Even if we did away with religion, people will make gods out of values (e.g., Logic). Are you too stupid to see the parallels between what you are doing and what a religious extremist is doing? STOP preaching your religion of logic on here, atheists. I just wanna watch a documentary, man....
awesome doc
Very interesting and thorough look at the Abrahamic conception of God. We often forget about the deep philosophical and revolutionary difference between the God of the big monotheism's in comparison to the God of the pagan dominated world.
I love documentaries that take us into the perspectives of worlds past...to see the perspective of the God(s) in the Mediterranean world compared to the now incredibly powerful Abrahamic conception of God is simply fascinating. And, most importantly, how it has shaped our perceptions as well.
Great doc.
An excellent program; a rational and clear examination of Abraham's concept of God.
God cannot discover, god can only betray new symptoms. The definition of miracle is an event that takes place that does not lie within reason of the observer. This ancient bible book wasn't ment for 2011, what makes anyone think it is? All within it happened, done, over, closed, fin. It even makes a bad history book because of it's many medaphors and contradictions. Religions were founded upon ancient jokes and hoaxes, and believed only by religions truth seekers? Kind words were taken and ditators turned them into a ruleing force to control ancient societies not 2011 societies. There's no expert on any of this, we hold logic as a tool of the future. Become open to a wonderful future that holds only comfort towords humanity, without outside interference.
Until mankind understands what place religion takes over in a human beings existance, an attempt to warn others of why it's happening begins. Why tell the same thing told to failing ancient societies, to a modern logical world? Man doesn't want to stay in his past, in that way restricts us to evolve onto higher ways of existing. But pathetic preachers unknowingly insist, while they just follow the words. Go, Research god hard, and try and find a live one, Go, look in every corner. Go, But you'll have to only acheive this by using written text. What does that tell the logical mind in todays world? The free logical free mind that doesn't want to be told what think, or believe. You'll enslave yourself by such an illogical practice as written religions, yet 2000year old beliefs are introduced to mankind as modern text. Grown men doing this is simply baffling.
Is the god in the West taking lessons from the god in the orient. The god in the holy bible is not agreeing with allah and is not too compromising. I one god mentioned by another? I'm no expert, like the hands of the government, they don't shake on anything. There's certainly no connection between any gods conversing together, but that's the motive of operation of text.
Who knows maybe the next chapter in the history of the concept of God will be a fusion of the idea of God with the Hindu Brahman: Both Extensive and Intensive! Trancendalist,monist, pantheist and absolutist philosophies have long been moving that way,as is science. When the term God causes negative reactions talk rather of the ongoing search for truth.
Asad - TL;DR and probably not true anyway from the first few sentences in your first post. opinions are not fact. just because you believe it doesn't make it true.
close your eyes and stop believing in everything. then open your eyes and look at what's around you. reality is what remains when you stop believing in it.
Pyrrhus - bad news? you better believe it, especially if you ARE a woman! XD! islam punishes women for men misbehaving and being unable to control themselves around women. that's enough for me!
GOD in the tend of MOSE was the chief of secret services of ancient Egypt. he was in line with the others priests and minister of pharaon when his pupet MOSE was doing miracles who him have told before and he was smile when MOSE was doing all the tricks with serpent etc in front of pharaon. after all the soldiers of secret services comanded by this person called GOD poisoned the yeast of all Egypt with a staphilocoocus and who died? all them with weak imunitary system who are the first born. the god is a secret society who eksist from the time when the humans adomesticated the animals. why not to domesticate and the humans in sellf??
sow and Jesus was a kamimkaze in hand of this secret society and you know who use the kamikazes, the secret services.
A relevant and interesting sequel to the subject of this forum, A History of God, can be found in Top Documentary Films' Science section. It is entitled "Dangerous Knowledge."
@Pyrrhus
Your arguments and the examples you cited from physics and biology were so profound and compelling that they warranted thoughtful consideration and hence a response. They rekindled my fascination with physics which I really enjoyed studying in high-school. Now, onto watching some more docs (before they get blocked on YouTube/Google etc.) in the ‘Science’ category here, starting with ‘The Universe’ series of the ‘History Channel’.
Have absolutely no idea about Fermat’s Last Theorem and Gödel’s theorem, as you’d expect. But they seem interesting and will read about them.
RELIGION IS BAD NEWS!
The profit will tell you what you already know: that you DOn't know!
He (and, invariably, he IS a 'HE') will 'reveal' to you that "the hidden domain of the unknowable" is (guess what!) unknowable!
He will tell you that "the hidden domain of the unknowable" is All-Compassionate, All-Merciful, All-Aware, All-Comprehending, All-Powerful, in short: All-Everything!
But we, being not 'All-anything', do not know (cannot know) what these attributes are nor what they mean. They are, by definition, beyond our understanding. All that 'revelatiing' tells us absolutely nothing.
So what's left?
What's left are the RULES (hadith!).
The rules we CAN understand:
- DOn't do this; DO do that.
- Be kind (except when...)
- Don't eat this; do eat that.
- Bow down five times daily.
- MEN (but not women) MUST attend mosque.
- MEN must treat 'THEIR' women well.
- Women (not their rapists!) WILL be punished, for being raped!
- And homosexuals? (Their treatment is too unspeakably horrible to even mention.)
- All this (and much, much, much, much, more!).
That's religion for you!
And they're all alike!
Jews stoned all kinds of people to death for any number of reasons, the central reason being:
"It is the will of God."
God?! Sounds more like DickCheney to me!
And Christians are no better.
Any believer, in any religion, can disguise the horror with beautiful quotes of Love and Peace. Any believer can find whatever (s)he wants to find, whenever (s)he wants to find it, in any 'holy book' you care name.
Bad people do bad things, but only religion can make good people do bad things. If you don't believe me, then read HERstory (if you can stomach it!).
If monotheism is a step up from polytheism, then zerotheism tops'em all!
Believe in anything you like, Asad, just don't hurt me. This might not be as easy as you think. Sometimes a refusal to hurt someone can result a religion hurting YOU. If you cannot (or will not) see this, then we are all doomed.
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And so I repeat (and I am right!): RELIGION IS BAD NEWS.
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