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God is a term used to refer to the supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe, source of all moral authority, and principal object of faith in Christianity and other monotheistic religions. Views regarding the nature of a supreme deity have varied considerably throughout history, and many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments both for and against the existence of God; atheism rejects belief in any deity, while agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable.
Some religious traditions attach spiritual significance to the relationship with God, and see God as the source of all moral obligation, with acts such as worship and prayer. God is sometimes described without reference to gender, while others use gender-specific terminology and pronouns. God is often thought of as incorporeal and independent of the material creation; pantheism posits that God is the universe itself. Most Christian churches define one God existing in three divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit. God is sometimes seen as the most benevolent, while deism holds that God is not involved in humanity, apart from creation.
God has been referred to by different names depending on language and cultural tradition, with titles also used to refer to different attributes of God. The God of Abraham depicted in the Hebrew Bible (later incorporated as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible) has been referred to by a variety of names, including Elohim, I Am That I Am and YHWH/Yahweh; these additional terms are often used to distinguish the Israelite God from other "false Gods" worshipped by non-Abrahamic religions.
God (commonly the God of the Israelites depicted in the Old Testament) has been directly referenced in numerous works by The Residents, most notably the 1998 concept album Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible, based almost entirely on hand-picked tales from the Old Testament, wherein God is mostly depicted as a wrathful deity, directly involved in the affairs of man and frequently prone to destructive acts of divine retribution.
God in the work of The Residents[]
The earliest known reference to God in the work of The Residents is in "I Hear Ya Got Religion", said to have been composed and recorded in 1969. Another song from their pre-history, "Om Is Where The Art Is" (from the 1971 demo tape The W***** B*** Album), features the refrain "Om is where the art is/God is where a fart is".
God (and his relationship with mankind) is the focus of "Godsong", featured on the 1977 album Fingerprince. The song begins by suggesting that God "never really did like man anyway/At least not after they started walking around on their hind legs/And talking on the telephone," and goes on to suggest that God only gave mankind the ability to think ("a trait that He'd long desired for Himself") so that they would think specifically about God, and that one of God's favorite things was mankind's "believing in Him, and then not believing in Him", with the narrating Resident concluding that "I think He liked believing in Him much better... but I'm not sure..."
The 1986 compilation albums Heaven? and Hell! feature images of God and Satan respectively on their front covers; when the two images are placed together, Satan is revealed to be the penis and testicles of God.
The title of the 1988 concept album God In Three Persons (and the album's later theatrical adaptation) suggests that - like the holy Trinity observed within most Christian churches - God works in three persons within the album's plot, represented by the three lead characters, Mr. X (a disgraced, opportunistic evangelist) and a pair of conjoined, genderfluid twins with miraculous healing abilities, who are ultimately permanently separated by X in a final, graphically violent act of sexual frustration.
A vengeful and violent God is depicted (usually through the eyes of His Israelite subjects and their neighbors) throughout the 1998 album Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible (as well as the live show and other supplementary material which followed the original album's release); perhaps reflecting the fact that the album's origins lie predominantly in the Old Testament of the Bible, God is referred to as "YHWH" (the English transliteration of the four-letter Hebrew name of God, יהוה) in the album's liner notes.
See also[]
- The Bible
- "I Hear Ya Got Religion"
- "Ohm Is Where The Art Is"
- "Godsong"
- Heaven?
- God In Three Persons
- Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible