What Does "God Bless America" Mean?

[tsig]

Maybe "craves" wasn't the right word. "Desires" perhaps, but the idea is that people are obliged to give him worship - he is the Supreme Being after all - and so any act of supplication is pleasing to him.

My experience isn't in Jewish theology, but I'd explain it by saying that you're telling god what you hope his will is. In fact you're telling yourself what you hope his will is.

I might speculate that ancient Jews probably realised that praying for particular things failed to work more often than it succeeded, and, being Jewish, developed a workaround that still provided same result to the human doing the praying, but could not be construed to be technically asking for something. They've probably got some rule or other against it. And you know the Jews - whenever there's a rule saying that they can't do something, they come up with a workaround.

God doesn't have human qualities such as ego. However, it is proper and good to give him praise, simply because he created everything and is the reason you exist.

In reality, prayers don't benefit the nonexistent god, they benefit the person doing the praying. It's like a mental exercise. The prescribed Catholic prayers (Hail Mary and Our Father) cause people to find satisfaction in the ritual. People like ritual. Protestant - especially Baptist and Pentecostal and Evangelical - prayers are freeform, where you get to express your feelings out loud. That also gives some people comfort.

The weirdest form of praying that I ever participated in was speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia. While you jabber, what's actually happening is that the Holy Spirit is working within you to provide you words in the language that is spoken in heaven. You don't need to know what you're saying in that language, because you trust that the Holy Spirit knows what you want to say and causes you to say it. So you get the satisfaction of the ritual and the comfort of expressing your feelings out loud, without ever having to actually say anything.

How can something be pleasing to a being without any human qualities.

Glossolalia is just babbling.

 

[arthwollipot]

How can something be pleasing to a being without any human qualities.

It's a metaphor. They want you to think that what you're doing pleases god, rather than saying that you do it because you have an obligation to the all-powerful deity. Of course, some sects do say exactly that.

Glossolalia is just babbling.

Speaking in tongues is weird, yes. But dismissing it as "just babbling" ignores almost every interesting detail about the phenomenon. For example, when I was doing it, it really did feel like it was involuntary. I would simply open my mouth and this... stuff... would come out of it. I felt that I had no control over it. Is that not interesting to you?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

How can something be pleasing to a being without any human qualities.

Glossolalia is just babbling.

And praying may make you feel better but it is completely useless in modifying reality.

I attended a funeral service for a friend on Saturday. And was surrounded by at least a 100 other folks, believers all (I just have to assume). I made the right soothing noises and nodded profoundly at everything that was said around the table at the reception afterwards. These are almost universally good people. I would not be so unkind to tell them they are all confused if not actually deluded.

It's a sad, sad Universe.

 

[steve s]

God doesn't have human qualities such as ego.

But he does experience jealousy.

for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 20:5

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

But he does experience jealousy.

for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 20:5

It was explained to me at the Church of England school that I went to as a child that the meaning of "jealous" had changed since God said that and didn't mean what we eight-year olds thought it meant. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what it now meant.

 

[Lucian]

But he does experience jealousy.

for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 20:5

It was explained to me at the Church of England school that I went to as a child that the meaning of "jealous" had changed since God said that and didn't mean what we eight-year olds thought it meant. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what it now meant.

It hasn't changed that much. According to the Oxford English Dictionary:

In biblical language, said of God: Having a love which will tolerate no unfaithfulness or defection in the beloved object. (Definition 4c)

 

[Lucian]

What Does "God Bless America" Mean?

It means, "May a mythical being sacrifice your artificial political construct."

Not wiki-ing or reading the thread might prove embarrassing, but IIRC 'bless' is related to Old French 'blesser,' or wound, draw blood(?). If correct would make sense for it to be adopted as a term, relating to Jesus' ordeal and then drifting into other metaphorical derivations.

I'm a little disappointed that someone with an Old English username and a slightly wonky* Old English title doesn't know that "to bless" derives from Old English "bletsian," which probably predates the Anglo-Saxons' conversion to Christianity and is probably related to "blood." It apparently referred to making something (like a pagan temple) holy through blood. It got repurposed after the conversion. The Anglo-Saxons tended to use existing words as much as possible to translate Christian concepts rather than borrowing words from Latin (with the exception of technical terms related to the mass--like "mass," for instance). So we get "halig gast" for "spiritus sanctus," pagan "god" and secular "frea" and "hlaford" for "deus," "haelend" (related to "healing," I think) for "savior" or "christ."

"Bless," borrowed from French "blesser," is a completely separate word. It means, as you say, "to wound," but it has been obsolete for centuries.

*Old English had no definite article, only demonstrative adjectives. Since "cniht" (boy) is masculine and nominative, it would be "se cniht." The present participle of "leornian" is "leorniende," so "the learning boy" would be "se leornienda cniht."