109-457: Jordanes ( / dʒ ɔːr ˈ d eɪ n iː z / ; Greek : Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes , was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, widely believed to be of Gothic descent , who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on Roman history ( Romana ) and the other on the Goths ( Getica ). The latter, along with Isidore of Seville 's Historia Gothorum ,
218-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
327-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
436-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
545-469: A geography/ethnography of the North, especially of Scandza (16–24). He lets the history of the Goths commence with the emigration of Berig with three ships from Scandza to Gothiscandza (25, 94), in a distant past. In the pen of Jordanes, Herodotus's Getian demigod Zalmoxis becomes a king of the Goths (39). Jordanes tells how the Goths sacked " Troy and Ilium" just after they had recovered somewhat from
654-512: A god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference". Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator (not necessarily a God) would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old. Some theologians, such as Alister McGrath , argue that
763-648: A higher power or God after the experience. About a quarter of those afflicted by temporal lobe seizures experience what is described as a religious experience and may become preoccupied by thoughts of God even if they were not previously. Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran hypothesizes that seizures in the temporal lobe, which is closely connected to the emotional center of the brain, the limbic system , may lead to those afflicted to view even banal objects with heightened meaning. Psychologists studying feelings of awe found that participants feeling awe after watching scenes of natural wonders become more likely to believe in
872-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
981-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
1090-421: A means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups. Johns Hopkins researchers studying
1199-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
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#17327657425351308-516: A non-theistic religion, Buddhism leaves the existence of a supreme deity ambiguous. There are significant numbers of Buddhists who believe in God, and there are equally large numbers who deny God's existence or are unsure. Chinese religions such as Confucianism and Taoism are silent on the existence of creator gods. However, keeping with the tradition of ancestor veneration in China , adherents worship
1417-460: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
1526-400: A supernatural being and to see events as the result of design, even when given randomly generated numbers. Theistic religious traditions often require worship of God and sometimes hold that the purpose of existence is to worship God. To address the issue of an all-powerful being demanding to be worshipped, it is held that God does not need or benefit from worship but that worship is for
1635-410: Is omnipotent , omniscient, and benevolent. This belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Dystheism , which is related to theodicy , is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil . Omnipotence (all-powerful) is an attribute often ascribed to God. The omnipotence paradox
1744-553: Is "beyond" being and is both the source of the Universe and the teleological purpose of all things. Aristotle theorized a first uncaused cause for all motion in the universe and viewed it as perfectly beautiful, immaterial, unchanging and indivisible. Aseity is the property of not depending on any cause other than itself for its existence. Avicenna held that there must be a necessarily existent guaranteed to exist by its essence—it cannot "not" exist—and that humans identify this as God. Secondary causation refers to God creating
1853-558: Is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh, and often sees usage by Jews and Christians in the interjection " Hallelujah ", meaning 'praise Jah', which is used to give God glory. In Judaism , some of the Hebrew titles of God are considered holy names . Allāh ( Arabic : الله ) is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews meaning 'the God', while ʾilāh ( إِلَٰه , plural `āliha آلِهَة )
1962-475: Is an extraordinary intervention by God, such as miracles . Deism holds that God exists but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it, such as answering prayers or producing miracles. Deists sometimes attribute this to God having no interest in or not being aware of humanity. Pandeists would hold that God does not intervene because God is the Universe. Of those theists who hold that God has an interest in humanity, most hold that God
2071-476: Is beginningless. Some interpretations and traditions of Buddhism can be conceived as being non-theistic . Buddhism has generally rejected the specific monotheistic view of a creator deity . The Buddha criticizes the theory of creationism in the early Buddhist texts . Also, major Indian Buddhist philosophers, such as Nagarjuna , Vasubandhu , Dharmakirti , and Buddhaghosa , consistently critiqued Creator God views put forth by Hindu thinkers. However, as
2180-424: Is contradictory as that would entail opposing himself. Omniscience (all-knowing) is an attribute often ascribed to God. This implies that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, either their free will might be illusory or foreknowledge does not imply predestination, and if God does not know it, God may not be omniscient. Open Theism limits God's omniscience by contending that, due to
2289-625: Is derived from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form *ǵhu-tó-m was probably based on the root *ǵhau(ə)- , which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for God were originally neuter , but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism , the words became a masculine syntactic form . In English, capitalization
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#17327657425352398-414: Is most often framed with the example "Could God create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?" as God could either be unable to create that stone or lift that stone and so could not be omnipotent. This is often countered with variations of the argument that omnipotence, like any other attribute ascribed to God, only applies as far as it is noble enough to befit God and thus God cannot lie, or do what
2507-683: Is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
2616-762: Is no deity except God." In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in Father , Son ( Jesus ), and Holy Spirit . In past centuries, this fundamental mystery of the Christian faith was also summarized by the Latin formula Sancta Trinitas, Unus Deus (Holy Trinity, Unique God), reported in the Litanias Lauretanas . God in Hinduism is viewed differently by diverse strands of
2725-499: Is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance. Sacrifice for the sake of God is another act of devotion that includes fasting and almsgiving . Remembrance of God in daily life include mentioning interjections thanking God when feeling gratitude or phrases of adoration , such as repeating chants while performing other activities. Transtheistic religious traditions may believe in
2834-430: Is often thought of as incorporeal and independent of the material creation, while pantheism holds that God is the universe itself. God is sometimes seen as omnibenevolent , while deism holds that God is not involved with humanity apart from creation. Some traditions attach spiritual significance to maintaining some form of relationship with God, often involving acts such as worship and prayer , and see God as
2943-592: Is one of only two extant ancient works dealing with the early history of the Goths . Other writers, such as Procopius , wrote works on the later history of the Goths. Getica has been the object of much critical review. Jordanes wrote in Late Latin rather than the classical Ciceronian Latin. According to his own introduction, he had only three days to review what Cassiodorus had written and so he must also have relied on his own knowledge. Jordanes writes about himself almost in passing: The Sciri , moreover, and
3052-485: Is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites examples from Greek mythology , which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems. Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics' epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries. Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of
3161-501: Is only one deity, referred to as "God" (with uppercase g ). Comparing or equating other entities to God is viewed as idolatry in monotheism, and is often strongly condemned. Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic traditions in the world. Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid , meaning 'oneness' or "uniqueness'. The first pillar of Islam is an oath that forms the basis of the religion and which non-Muslims wishing to convert must recite, declaring that, "I testify that there
3270-415: Is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors claim, however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science and without invoking divine beings. A deity, or "god" (with lowercase g ), refers to a supernatural being. Monotheism is the belief that there
3379-780: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern God In monotheistic belief systems, God
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3488-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
3597-472: Is taken by exclusivists, who believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine, which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism . A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. The view that all theists actually worship
3706-489: Is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Muslims also use a multitude of other titles for God. In Hinduism , Brahman is often considered a monistic concept of God. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God , with early references to his name as Krishna - Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari . Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa
3815-587: Is the term used in Balinese Hinduism . In Chinese religion , Shangdi is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it and constantly bringing order to it. Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism . "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā- , nominative Mazdå , reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female) . It is generally taken to be the proper name of
3924-493: Is the universe and the universe is God and denies that God transcends the Universe. For pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza , the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature. Pantheism is sometimes objected to as not providing any meaningful explanation of God with the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stating, "Pantheism is only a euphemism for atheism." Pandeism holds that God
4033-459: Is the view that the truth values of certain claims—especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God , the divine or the supernatural exist—are unknown and perhaps unknowable. Theism generally holds that God exists objectively and independently of human thought and is sometimes used to refer to any belief in God or gods. Some view the existence of God as an empirical question. Richard Dawkins states that "a universe with
4142-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
4251-692: Is to the Wonderful Lord." Baha , the "greatest" name for God in the Baháʼí Faith , is Arabic for "All-Glorious". Other names for God include Aten in ancient Egyptian Atenism where Aten was proclaimed to be the one "true" supreme being and creator of the universe, Chukwu in Igbo , and Hayyi Rabbi in Mandaeism . The existence of God is a subject of debate in theology , philosophy of religion and popular culture . In philosophical terms,
4360-404: Is used when the word is used as a proper noun , as well as for other names by which a god is known. Consequently, the capitalized form of god is not used for multiple gods or when used to refer to the generic idea of a deity . The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions,
4469-466: Is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator , and principal object of faith . In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the universe or life, for which such a deity is often worshipped". Belief in the existence of at least one god is called theism . Conceptions of God vary considerably. Many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments for and against
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4578-428: Is wise, but can say that God is not ignorant (i.e. in some way God has some properties of knowledge). Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that one has to understand a "personal god" as an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe." Pantheism holds that God
4687-539: The Amali , I also, Jordanes, although an unlearned man before my conversion, was secretary. Paria was Jordanes's paternal grandfather. Jordanes writes that he was secretary to Candac , dux Alanorum , an otherwise unknown leader of the Alans. Jordanes was asked by a friend to write Getica as a summary of a multi-volume history of the Goths by the statesman Cassiodorus that existed then but has since been lost. Jordanes
4796-496: The Amali . That was ante conversionem meam ("before my conversion"). The nature and the details of the conversion remain obscure. The Goths had been converted with the assistance of Ulfilas (a Goth), made bishop on that account. However, the Goths had adopted Arianism . Jordanes's conversion may have been a conversion to the trinitarian Nicene Creed , which may be expressed in anti-Arianism in certain passages in Getica . In
4905-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
5014-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
5123-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
5232-624: The Sadagarii and certain of the Alani with their leader, Candac by name, received Scythia Minor and Lower Moesia . Paria, the father of my father Alanoviiamuth (that is to say, my grandfather), was secretary to this Candac as long as he lived. To his sister's son Gunthigis, also called Baza, the Master of the Soldiery, who was the son of Andag the son of Andela, who was descended from the stock of
5341-652: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
5450-401: The anthropic principle , and so would not learn of, for example, life on other planets or of universes that did not occur because of different laws of physics . Non-theists have argued that complex processes that have natural explanations yet to be discovered are referred to the supernatural, called god of the gaps . Other theists, such as John Henry Newman who believed theistic evolution
5559-403: The existence of God . Atheism rejects the belief in any deity. Agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable . Some theists view knowledge concerning God as derived from faith. God is often conceived as the greatest entity in existence. God is often believed to be the cause of all things and so is seen as the creator, sustainer , and ruler of the universe. God
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#17327657425355668-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
5777-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
5886-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
5995-481: The Goths after a history spanning 2,030 years. Jordanes wrongly equated the Getae with the Goths. Many historical records which originally related to Dacians and Getae were thus wrongly attributed to Goths. Arne Søby Christensen and Michael Kulikowski argue that in his Getica Jordanes also supplemented his Gothic history with many fictional events such as a Gothic war against Egypt. Caracalla in 214 received
6104-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
6213-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
6322-472: The Punjabi language. Vāhi (a Middle Persian borrowing) means 'wonderful', and guru ( Sanskrit : guru ) is a term denoting 'teacher'. Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all description. The most common usage of the word Waheguru is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other— Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh , "Wonderful Lord's Khalsa , Victory
6431-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
6540-432: The argument from morality is the argument from conscience which argues for the existence of God given the existence of a conscience that informs of right and wrong, even against prevailing moral codes. Philosopher John Locke instead argued that conscience is a social construct and thus could lead to contradicting morals. Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. Agnosticism
6649-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
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#17327657425356758-449: The atheist J. L. Mackie agreed that the argument is valid, they disagreed with its premises. David Hume argued that there is no basis to believe in objective moral truths while biologist E. O. Wilson theorized that the feelings of morality are a by-product of natural selection in humans and would not exist independent of the mind. Philosopher Michael Lou Martin argued that a subjective account for morality can be acceptable. Similar to
6867-568: The benefit of the worshipper. Mahatma Gandhi expressed the view that God does not need his supplication and that, "Prayer is not an asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness." Invoking God in prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Depending on the tradition, God can be viewed as a personal God who is only to be invoked directly while other traditions allow praying to intermediaries, such as saints , to intercede on their behalf. Prayer often also includes supplication such as asking forgiveness . God
6976-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
7085-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
7194-460: The doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is syncretism , mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement. Fideism is the position that in certain topics, notably theology such as in reformed epistemology , faith is superior than reason in arriving at truths. Some theists argue that there is value to
7303-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
7412-470: The effects of the "spirit molecule" DMT , which is both an endogenous molecule in the human brain and the active molecule in the psychedelic ayahuasca , found that a large majority of respondents said DMT brought them into contact with a "conscious, intelligent, benevolent, and sacred entity", and describe interactions that oozed joy, trust, love, and kindness. More than half of those who had previously self-identified as atheists described some type of belief in
7521-434: The existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method . Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argued that science and religion are not in conflict and proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called " non-overlapping magisteria " (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural , such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non - empirical and are
7630-415: The existence of deities but deny any spiritual significance to them. The term has been used to describe certain strands of Buddhism, Jainism and Stoicism . Among religions that do attach spirituality to the relationship with God disagree as how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind. There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view
7739-589: The existence of other deities. Transcendence is the aspect of God's nature that is completely independent of the material universe and its physical laws. Many supposed characteristics of God are described in human terms. Anselm thought that God did not feel emotions such as anger or love, but appeared to do so through our imperfect understanding. The incongruity of judging "being" against something that might not exist, led many medieval philosophers approach to knowledge of God through negative attributes, called Negative theology . For example, one should not say that God
7848-399: The existence of ugliness in the universe. This has also been countered by arguing that beauty has no objective reality and so the universe could be seen as ugly or that humans have made what is more beautiful than nature. The argument from morality argues for the existence of God given the assumption of the objective existence of morals . While prominent non-theistic philosophers such as
7957-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
8066-645: The ground of all being, immanent in and transcendent over the whole world of reality, with immanence and transcendence being the contrapletes of personality. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation , and the "greatest conceivable existent". These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides , Augustine of Hippo , and Al-Ghazali , respectively. Jainism has generally rejected creationism , holding that soul substances ( Jīva ) are uncreated and that time
8175-588: The history of Rome , but his best-known work is his Getica , which was written in Constantinople about 551 AD. Jordanes wrote his Romana at the behest of a certain Vigilius. Although some scholars have identified this person with Pope Vigilius , there is nothing else to support the identification besides the name. The form of address that Jordanes uses and his admonition that Vigilius "turn to God " would seem to rule out this identification. In
8284-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
8393-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
8502-430: The laws of the Universe which then can change themselves within the framework of those laws . In addition to the initial creation, occasionalism refers to the idea that the Universe would not by default continue to exist from one instant to the next and so would need to rely on God as a sustainer . While divine providence refers to any intervention by God, it is usually used to refer to "special providence", where there
8611-425: The letter to Vigilius he mentions that he was awakened vestris interrogationibus – "by your questioning". Alternatively, Jordanes's conversio may mean that he had become a monk , a religiosus or a member of the clergy. Some manuscripts say that he was a bishop, and some even say bishop of Ravenna , but the name Jordanes is not known in the lists of bishops of Ravenna. Jordanes wrote Romana , about
8720-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
8829-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
8938-460: The nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future and process theology holds that God does not have immutability , so is affected by his creation. Theologians of theistic personalism (the view held by René Descartes , Isaac Newton , Alvin Plantinga , Richard Swinburne , William Lane Craig , and most modern evangelicals ) argue that God is most generally
9047-491: The needs of humanity at different points in history and for different cultures, and as part of a scheme of progressive revelation and education of humanity. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism , i.e., the belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism , where everybody is seen as equally right; an example being universalism :
9156-433: The origin of the universe to argue for the existence of God. The teleological argument , also called "argument from design", uses the complexity within the universe as a proof of the existence of God. It is countered that the fine tuning required for a stable universe with life on earth is illusory, as humans are only able to observe the small part of this universe that succeeded in making such observation possible, called
9265-545: The preface to his Getica , Jordanes writes that he is interrupting his work on the Romana at the behest of a brother Castalius, who apparently knew that Jordanes possessed the twelve volumes of the History of the Goths by Cassiodorus . Castalius wanted a short book about the subject, and Jordanes obliged with an excerpt based on memory, possibly supplemented with other material to which he had access. The Getica sets off with
9374-502: The proper domain of theology . The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world. Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their 2010 book, The Grand Design , that it
9483-497: The question of the existence of God involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence ) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection"). Ontological arguments refer to any argument for the existence of God that is based on a priori reasoning. Notable ontological arguments were formulated by Anselm and René Descartes . Cosmological arguments use concepts around
9592-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
9701-406: The religion, with most Hindus having faith in a supreme reality ( Brahman ) who can be manifested in numerous chosen deities. Thus, the religion is sometimes characterized as Polymorphic Monotheism . Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god at a time while accepting the validity of worshiping other deities. Monolatry is the belief in a single deity worthy of worship while accepting
9810-476: The risk in having faith and that if the arguments for God's existence were as rational as the laws of physics then there would be no risk. Such theists often argue that the heart is attracted to beauty, truth and goodness and so would be best for dictating about God, as illustrated through Blaise Pascal who said, "The heart has its reasons that reason does not know." A hadith attributes a quote to God as "I am what my slave thinks of me." Inherent intuition about God
9919-479: The same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in the Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The Baháʼí Faith preaches that divine manifestations include great prophets and teachers of many of the major religious traditions such as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Bahá'ú'lláh and also preaches the unity of all religions and focuses on these multiple epiphanies as necessary for meeting
10028-524: The source of all moral obligation . God is sometimes described without reference to gender , while others use terminology that is gender-specific. God is referred to by different names depending on the language and cultural tradition, sometimes with different titles of God used in reference to God's various attributes. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus . The English word itself
10137-519: The spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā means 'intelligence' or 'wisdom'. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā- , from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh 1 , literally meaning 'placing ( dʰeh 1 ) one's mind ( *mn̩-s )', hence 'wise'. Meanwhile 101 other names are also in use. Waheguru ( Punjabi : vāhigurū ) is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means 'Wonderful Teacher' in
10246-513: The spirits of people such as Confucius and Laozi in a similar manner to God. Some atheists have argued that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined and embellished over generations. Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons
10355-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
10464-529: The term remains an English translation common to all. El means 'god' in Hebrew, but in Judaism and in Christianity , God is also given a personal name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh . In many English translations of the Bible , when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Jah or Yah
10573-400: The titles "Geticus Maximus" and "Quasi Gothicus" after battles with Getae and Goths. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It
10682-526: The war with Agamemnon (108). They are also said to have encountered the Egyptian pharaoh Vesosis (47). The less fictional part of Jordanes's work begins when the Goths encounter Roman military forces in the third century AD. The work concludes with the defeat of the Goths by the Byzantine general Belisarius . Jordanes concludes the work by stating that he writes to honour those who were victorious over
10791-430: The world because it makes those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father. Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups, they may have created gods as
10900-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
11009-402: Was a separate entity but then became the universe . Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe. God is often viewed as the cause of all that exists. For Pythagoreans , Monad variously referred to divinity, the first being or an indivisible origin. The philosophy of Plato and Plotinus refers to " The One ", which is the first principle of reality that
11118-474: Was acceptable, have also argued against versions of the teleological argument and held that it is limiting of God to view him having to only intervene specially in some instances rather than having complex processes designed to create order. The argument from beauty states that this universe happens to contain special beauty in it and that there would be no particular reason for this over aesthetic neutrality other than God. This has been countered by pointing to
11227-505: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
11336-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
11445-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
11554-524: Was selected for his known interest in history and because of his own Gothic background. He had been a high-level notarius , or secretary, of a small client state on the Roman frontier in Scythia Minor , modern southeastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria . Jordanes was notarius , or secretary to Gunthigis Baza , a nephew of Candac and a magister militum of the leading Ostrogoth clan of
11663-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
11772-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
11881-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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