THE initial difficulty is in defining the word “God.” It is equally impossible to intelligently affirm or deny any proposition unless there is at least an understanding, on the part of the affirmer or denier, of the meaning of every word used in the proposition. To me the word “God” standing alone is a word without meaning. I find the word repeatedly used even by men of education and refinement, and who have won reputation in special directions of research, rather to illustrate their ignorance than to explain their knowledge. Various sects of Theists do affix arbitrary meanings to the word “God,” but often these meanings are in their terms selfcontradictory, and usually the definition maintained by one sect of Theists more or less contradicts the definition put forward by some other sect. With the Unitarian Jew, the Trinitarian Christian, the old Polytheistic Greek, the modern Universalist, or the Calvinist, the word “God” will in each case be intended to express a proposition absolutely irreconcilable with those of the other sects. In this brief essay, which can by no means be taken as a complete answer to the question which forms its title, I will for the sake of argument take the explanation of the word “God” as given with great carefulness by Dr. Robert Flint, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, in two works directed by him against Atheism. He defines God (“Antitheistic Theories,” p. 1,) as “a supreme, self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous and benevolent being who is distinct from and independent of what he has created;” (“Theism,” p. 1,) as “a self-existent, eternal being, infinite in power and wisdom, and perfect in holiness and goodness, the maker of heaven and earth;” and (p. 18,) “the creator and preserver of nature, the governor of nations, the heavenly father and judge of man;” (p. 18,) “one infinite personal;” (p. 42,) “the one infinite” being” who “is a person—is a free and loving intelligence;” (p. 59,) “the creator, preserver, and ruler of all finite beings;” (p. 65,) “not only the ultimate cause, but the supreme intelligence;” and (p. 74,) “the supreme moral intelligence is an unchangeable being.” That is, in the above statements “God” is defined by Professor Flint to be: _A supreme, self-existent, the one infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, unchangeable, righteous, and benevolent, personal being, creator and preserver of nature, maker of heaven and earth; who is distinct from and independent of what he has created, who is a free, loving, supreme, moral intelligence, the governor of nations, the heavenly father and judge of man._