What do you believe about other gods besides your own?

[Rainbow Mage]

Curious?

 

[Willamena]

Well, if your "God" is the Only God, then there's no others gods to believe in.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Well, if your "God" is the Only God, then there's no others gods to believe in.

Unless your book says your one god is a jealous god. Then that makes no sense, because if there are no other gods, then there's nothing to be jealous of.

 

[Willamena]

Unless your book says your one god is a jealous god. Then that makes no sense, because if there are no other gods, then there's nothing to be jealous of.

Perhaps he's jealous of kitty-cats.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Perhaps he's jealous of kitty-cats.

That makes sense. That must be why he wiped out Sodom, but you won't find that in most Bibles. It's in the Unabridged Version.

 

[sojourner]

I believe that all of the different concepts of Deity are just that: Different concepts of the same Deity. Whether monotheistic, polytheistic, or henotheistic, we all express a certain understanding og the Divine nature. If I call Deity "God," and someone else calls Deity "Odin, Loki and Hera," and someone else refers to "Mother Earth/Father Sky" we're all talking about the same Deity.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I believe that all of the different concepts of Deity are just that: Different concepts of the same Deity. Whether monotheistic, polytheistic, or henotheistic, we all express a certain understanding og the Divine nature. If I call Deity "God," and someone else calls Deity "Odin, Loki and Hera," and someone else refers to "Mother Earth/Father Sky" we're all talking about the same Deity.

I like your understanding :yes:

 

[Reverend Rick]

If there are no other gods why the commandment to have no other gods before him?

 

[Justin Thyme]

I sort of agree with Sojourner on this. I believe in one God. My friend believes in a pantheon of gods but when we talk about the divine we are often in agreement. Where we differ is how we wrap our minds around the understanding of God. Her actions show me someone with the same attributes ascribed to a Christian. Since I'm taught that I'll know a tree by its fruits I have to assume that she has, as I have my mind wrapped around it, "accepted Christ as her savior." She would call it something different though. Whether she actually has or hasn't is up to God to decide.

 

[Levite]

I don't believe there are any other gods. I think that "other gods" are usually facets or aspects of the One God that people have erroneously presumed to be indepedent entities; or sometimes they are non-divine spiritual entities that people have erroneously concluded to be divine; or occasionally, they are simply manifestations of the person's own subconscious assigned externality and given shape by myths and legends.

As for God's commandment not to have other gods, or the characterization of Him as "jealous," I think the phrase elohim acherim ought to be translated with sarcastic quotation marks, as other "gods." In other words, we are not to worship anything besides God, even if we decide to call it a god, because there is no such thing. And I think the phrase el kanah actually doesn't mean "jealous God," but rather, "a God of zeal," in other words, a God who demands zealous worship. By which I think it means that we are expected to worship God, and our adoration or desire or preoccupation with other things-- material wealth, pursuit of pleasures, desire for power, fascination with aspects of cultures or rituals or heroes or what have you-- should never rise to a level that equals or surpasses our devotion to God.

 

[Eliot Wild]

What do you believe about other gods besides your own?

I believe that my God can beat up all the other gods. I believe my God can drink more, plays drums better, has larger genitalia, but He's also more sensitive and compassionate than other gods. I believe my God can out-sing other deities at kareoke night. And I believe in a game of one-on-one basketball, my God can stomp like dog crap any would-be god, goddess, demi-god, supreme being or divine creature that dares set foot on the court. My God, by the way, is known as Muhamad Ali-Bonham-Holmes-Donahue-Jordan.

 

[Mister Emu]

I believe other deities are a hodgepodge of different idea...

Some are entirely fictional, some are demonic, some are other possible entities mistakenly identified as deities, and some are misunderstandings of the one true God...

 

[Sunstone]

All the gods came into existence 12 nanoseconds into the Big Bang as emergent properties of the universe. I thought everyone knew that.

 

[ChristineES]

I have always had a hard time believing that The Son of God would only visit one people. I am convinced that He may have come, under a different name to other cultures, as well. Most religions are somewhat similar, but they have their differences as well. Since that is the case, then each of these "God incarnates" would be a bit different. I believe that God is much more merciful and open-minded than people are.

I think God will forgive me if I am wrong. And the same with others.

 

[fatima.zahra]

No I'm not believing on other Gods infect no other one there is just 1 and that 1 is Allah(S.W.T) if there is more Gods then every thing going to be disturb while day and night, air and sun even every thing moves in that specific circle.

 

[Dunemeister]

If there are no other gods why the commandment to have no other gods before him?

The later Jewish and Christian traditions say that there are forces of evil out there mascquerading as gods. Hence the Christian talk that Satan is an "angel of light." These evil forces are not real gods but they have the power to deceive and can perform "miracles" of sorts.

There is also the tendency to personify and reify forces of nature. Thus we get Ba'al/Zeus/Jupiter the storm god or Astarte/Aphrodite the fertility goddess or whatever. These are not gods but "gods," but these figments of our imagination can still take on the role of gods in our imagination. And when they do so, that leads us to social ruin.

This, at least, is part of the internal logic of the prohibition. I don't claim that this is anything like a complete explanation, but it is a part.

 

[MoonWater]

Victor Anderson, the founder of Feri Tradition(the Pagan path I follow) once said that "all gods are Feri gods". What he meant was the idea that while certain deities may be prominent in the Feri Tradition it is by no means limited to those gods and indeed any practitioner can bring in any god they wish to work with or perform Feri-esque rituals and prayer to any other gods or goddesses regardless of origin. Its simply the idea that religions are just different ways of communicating with the various different deities and divinities that are out there and that there is no need to feel restricted to certain individual ones simply because you follow a particular religion. In fact it was made very clear to me in my last Feri class that the gods we have been working with are not "THE feri pantheon", that Feri has no official pantheon, it's simply that the gods we have been working with are the ones most commonly worked with in Feri; other gods are just as welcome.

I hold to this belief as well.

 

[Quiddity]

Well, the scriptures speak of other gods. Angelic beings, demons, gods or whatever one choses to call them. Although I believe in these beings I don't think it applies to all religions. Some may indeed just be a concept or elevated hero.

 

[Gentoo]

As a semi-hard polytheist, I say that all Gods, then and now, exist in some way.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

My god is the same as all other gods, in that it is non-existent.