BothAndBlog Forum

Question about the Christian Trinity
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/632269

So the trinity is the idea that somehow God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are separate, but one. — Pinprick

That 3-in-1 doctrine was a rationalization of a logical contradiction. It was thought necessary to resolve some arguments among early Christians from different streams of Jewish and Apostolic influence. Some interpreted Father & Son literally, as two beings. But the abstract Jewish doctrine of divine unity (Monotheism) would not allow God to share god-hood with anyone else. Ironically, Yawheh was originally a son of El, in Hebrew theology. So, the Trinity was an attempt to justify Polytheism within the larger context of Monotheism.

And one result of that miraculous conception was to multiply sub-deities in the form of Christian Saints, playing the role of Roman gods. Consequently, Trinity -- like wine as the blood of Christ -- must be accepted metaphorically in one sense, and literally in another. Most people seem to be flexible enough in their beliefs to juggle such counter-intuitive notions, even though they don't really understand them.

Ironically, atheist Physicists must do a similar juggling act with Quantum non-mechanics, such as Wave-Particle duality, and Quarks as 3-in-1 sub-particles, that are never seen separately -- unlike Superman, who is never seen together with Clark Kent. In super-nature, and quantum probability, all things are possible.

POLYTHEISM BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD SMELL AS FISHY
01_Vola_Modern_Trinity.jpg

Wave-Particle duality — Gnomon
Nor a wavicle, either, but a quantum field. — PoeticUniverse

Yes. Physicsts must believe in a non-empirical invisible Field that is the essence of empirical Reality.
Note -- just kidding. Since I believe that invisible Information is the essence of reality, accepting the metaphor of a mathematical field is no problem. But it makes me hungry for breakfast.

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'
I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. ” ― Lewis Carroll

Another point to recall is that there are threefolds in many different religious traditions. — Wayfarer

Yes. Trinity seems to be a common mystical metaphor for unity within multiplicity. But, I prefer the concept of Unity as Holism.

How Ancient Trinitarian Gods Influenced Adoption of the Trinity :
https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/b ... he-trinity

Jewish Numerology (Gematria) :
In their eyes the number 3 was considered as the perfect number, the number of harmony, wisdom and understanding. ... It was also the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end – it was the number of the divine
https://wno.org.uk/news/three-is-the-magic-number

. Today's believers have a whole different understanding of God and Satan because the condition of our lives is so different. — Athena

Ironically, the Christian Trinity omits a significant deity from Old Testament : Satan. Originally, he was a heavenly prince, whose job was to serve as legal prosecutor in God's dealings with humans (including the temptation of Jesus in the desert). By contrast, the Holy Spirit was basically a messenger boy, who unlike an Angel, didn't take on human form.

The Roman Christians didn't have a name for the abstract concept of "four" (only a symbol : IV). But they could have used the Greek word "tessera" to describe a four-in-one deity : the Holy Tesseract. The Hindu pantheon included both good and evil gods. For example demonic Kali, who was the 10th avatar of Vishnu. What's the name for a 10-in-one deity?

↪Gnomon
I really appreciate the information you shared about the Trinity. I would be more interested in attending a church that presents such information instead of lessons for being good children based on fiction instead of math and science. — Athena

Persistent controversies over technicalities of Roman Catholic dogma may be interesting to Theologians and Philosophers, who like to argue over fine distinctions. But to the man or woman on the street, the Trinity concept may be accepted as Gospel, but understood as Metaphor.

As legal terminology, "The Trinity" allowed the church to reconcile incompatible literal meanings (Monotheism vs Polytheism) by the indisputable power of faith in inspired church authority. To say that 3=1 does not compute mathematically. But as a religious notion, it works mystically.

Likewise, in a practical sense, the bread (or host) of the sacrament is just baked dough. But as a mystical symbol it combines the mundane notion of eating bread with the sublime imagery of the apparent physical body on a cross, which is secretly only a vessel (host) for a supernatural spirit. Even philosophers cannot argue with poetic figures of speech. :joke:

PS__I was raised in a back-to-the-Bible fundamentalist church that did not accept add-on Catholic doctrines such as Trinity & Saints & Christmas. Ironically, some of us still celebrated Christmas, as a semi-secular holiday. So, I was always conflicted on that "holy day". With one crucial exception, our teachings were logical and subject to evidence. But the only true source of that evidence was a collection of ancient "scriptures", that were later compiled by the very church whose authority we rejected. :yikes: