There are gods and there is God

From Anthony:

There are gods and there is God.

The notion of gods exists in all cultures and societies. They are but personification of the natural forces we have to deal with in order tosurvive. The forces could be external, e.g. wind, thunder, etc., or they could be internal, i.e. psychic.

The notion of God is a different animal. It is a belief of the three monotheistic religions, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One characteristic of this belief is the motto 'Mine is the only truth' or more crudely, my way or the highway.

The Vedic and Hindu religious culture of India also had their notion of God, but that is another story.

What is interesting is that the Chinese never developed this anthropomorphic notion of God. We were quite happy to keep it open and abstract and simply call it Tao（道）. The drawback to this is that in time of crisis, we don't have someone upstairs to give us comfort.

Maybe that is why Einstein said belief in God is childish. But in terms of spiritual development, the human race is indeed childish. So in a sense we get the beliefs that we deserve.

Nietzsche once said, "God is dead", but God said, "Nietzsche is dead".

Einstein said, "God is childish", but God said, "Einstein is childish".

So you see, God always has the last word.