Is The Word God?

The Co-Evolution of Language and Religion

by H. Lee Seldon

Language evolved to describe the observable universe – to define objects, their attributes and behaviors, and also their relationships. Language, when it began to include grammar, allowed for explanations of these observations… but it also introduced questions. Thus, explanations were required.

Some questions could be answered quite easily with the existing language components, others could not… and for the latter, the concept of deity was created in language. Thus, human language led to the human concept of God as part of the description of the observable universe, the component that describes the inexplicable or indescribable.

All of the literature about God has one feature in common; it all uses language, the Word. The entire discussion about God or God's existence uses a medium which all of the discussants, including Richard Dawkins and Paul Davies, ignore – language. All of the holy books in all of the world's religions use language. Jesus taught through language, and because his listeners understood his language and trusted the speaker, they believed. The same is true for all of the prophets of all of the religions. Language has always been, and remains today, the "medium" for discussing God – yet authors both ancient and modern have often overlooked the crucial role of this medium when considering God.

But without the medium of language, there would be no concept of God and therefore no discussion.

This booklet has the reply to Chomsky's "language instinct" and to Dawkins' "God delusion". They are closely related. It also explains the God or Gods of religions past and present.

Book Reviews

Be the first to review this book

About the Author

H. Lee Seldon

The author is a nomad in more ways than one. Physically, he was born and raised in the USA (midwest), but left around the age of 25. He lived in Europe (Germany) for 15 years, then in Australia (Melbourne) for 19 years, then in Southeast Asia (Malaysia) for 8 1/2 years, and is currently (2016) sort of back in Australia. Intellectually, he started in the USA as a budding physicist (B.Sc.), but then decided to become a budding biologist (M.Sc.), then became a backpacker in India, followed by another go at biology (Dr. rer. nat. in West Berlin).

During a period of unemployment as a scientist, he became a budding physician (Dr. med. in Cologne, Germany). None of the buds blossomed into a long-term career, but he did earn money teaching IT (in Melbourne and Malaysia). During the times and careers in Berlin he did considerable research on how our brains learn to perceive speech. That not only made him understand how our brains learn, but also led to a study of language and languages, including "object-oriented" programming languages, which happened in Melbourne.

That in turn led to a study of "universal grammar" in Melbourne and Malaysia. The "aha!" experience about "The Word God" was in Malaysia. So after many years of wandering through the physical world and the experiential universe, he recognized the link between experience, language and religion. When we understand how our brains learn our experiences, and that language exists to communicate our experiences within the object-oriented universe, and what happens when language fails, then we finally understand the role of "The Word God".