God is a metaphor. Or so goes a particular line of thought, as it struggles to make the idea of God meaningful. Metaphors, after all, are symbols used to obliquely describe a deeper reality, to give a ...

But in Ancient Egypt around 2,000 B.C., lettuce was not a popular appetizer, it was an aphrodisiac, a phallic symbol that represented the celebrated food of the Egyptian god of fertility, Min.

The triangle was a long-standing symbol of the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; sometimes in previous centuries God was even depicted with a triangular halo.

For almost two weeks, people had been asking the priest why God had allowed the attacks, had abandoned them. "This is what I've been looking for,'' he told Silecchia, what he'd been praying for.

The God Squad: The difference between signs and symbols. By Rabbi Marc Gellman . Dec. 6, 2013 1:37 PM PT . Share; ... they why not the most precious religious symbols of those holidays?

Berger explained that the Torah represents the original covenant God made with the Jewish people, the Israelites, revealed to Moses thousands of years ago at Mount Siani.

In our life together as the God Squad, Father Tom Hartman and I faced this issue for almost 30 years. I can sum up what we learned in five words: offer but do not impose.