The Other Gods

by AllAlongTheWatchtower 4 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  AllAlongTheWatchtower

  If the entirety of the bible is divinely inspired, and therefore everything in it is correct, doesn't that kind of set Christianity on it's ear? Think about it. Christianity is a monotheistic religion. It is even stated in the ten commandments; "thou shalt not have any other gods before me". Many places in the bible, in the old testament especially, specific 'lesser gods' are mentioned by name. Does that then validate, and prove their existance, as well as the Christian god?

  I'm a longterm atheist, so my bible knowledge is pretty rusty, but even I can recall at least a handful of the names of other gods besides "the god". Baal, Dagon, Ishtar, Molech...the list goes on and on. Never in the bible is it said "these are just the names of non-existing gods believed in by our enemies", they are just called gods. Obviously inferior gods, since none of the followers of these gods could ever beat the followers of Jah/JWHW/Eloim/Jehovah in a fair fight, unless "god" wanted them to because the Israelites had been naughty again. But gods nonetheless. So, ironically, it seems the very book that preaches the most in favor of monotheism, validates polytheism by admitting the existance of other gods.

  I remember one sermon I heard as a child, about how Moses threw his staff down and it turned into a snake, eating up the other staves-turned-snakes of the Egyptian magicians in Pharoah's court. In the sermon, it was explained that since the magicians were just 'false idolaters', they probably had only performed some sort of trick, pinching the snakes in some special snakecharmer method to make them go rigid and paralyzed, then walking around with them as if they were a walking staff, to be used later as needed to "prove" the validity of their god. Of course, at the time I was only around 9 years old, and I ate that stuff up like it was the biblical version of Merlin and King Arthur. But, if you take the bible at face value, why couldn't they have really performed a miracle, just as Moses did?

  As I said above, even in the ten commandments, it is stated "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me". If no other gods exist, WHY the need for this commandment? Apparently other gods DO exist, and you better stay away from them or you will be smited.
• 

  Narkissos

  Absolutely.

  What much if not most of the OT reflects is not monotheism but what is usually called henotheism or monolatry, i.e. there are many gods (= polytheism) but you have to worship only one. Because he is your god and he happens to be jealous (he wouldn't have to if the other gods didn't exist).

  True monotheism (there is only one god and the others do not exist) only appears in some circles around the 6th century BC, especially in Deutero-Isaiah (= chapters 40--55). While this stance has gradually gained prominence in Judaism and has played an important role in sweeping the other gods under the carpet, in the revisions of earlier narratives, it never completely eradicated polytheism. Moreover the development of demonology and angelology in post-exilic Judaism can also be construed as a resurgence of polytheism within (a henceforth relative) monotheism.
• 

  Rooster

  ***

  Rbi8Deuteronomy14:11-21***

  11

  "Any clean bird YOU may eat. 12 But these are the ones of which YOU must not eat: the eagle and the osprey and the black vulture, 13 and the red kite and the black kite and the glede according to its kind; 14 and every raven according to its kind; 15 and the ostrich and the owl and the gull and the falcon according to its kind; 16 the little owl and the long-eared owl and the swan, 17 and the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant, 18 and the stork and the heron according to its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And every winged swarming creature is unclean for YOU. They should not be eaten. 20 Any clean flying creature YOU may eat.

  21

  "YOU must not eat any body [already] dead. To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.

  "You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
• 

  Terry

  Imagine you are looking at a photo in a magazine.

  In the photo is a closeup of a television screen.

  On the picture of the television screen is a photo.

  In the photo is a man holding a magazine with a closeup of a television screen with a photo of........

  You get the idea.

  Now, ask yourself if you are actually looking at any content.

  Why do I ask such a disjointed question after such a recursive opening statement?

  Because I wish to make a point worth considering.

  When we read a bible today, we are looking not directly at any event at all. We are not directly confronting any person, place or thing. We are looking recursively at first one, then another and then another and another captured images--each of which is a freeze frame in time that added (+) and subtracted (-) content.

  Without understanding this we lose the context. There are so many layers superimposed upon earlier layers that all sense of reality is stripped away.

  Question: (There are two TV sets in a room. The TV set on the left has Tom and Jerry cartoons running. The TV set on the right has Regis Philbin talking about Donald Trump.)

  Q: Which TV set displays real content?

  You can say cartoon actually exist although the characters and events in them aren't real.

  You can say Regis Philbin exists but is only an image on the TV screen.

  So too with consideration of God, gods, patriarchs and especially reality in reading the scriptures.

  You have to know where you are to know what you are examining. You have to know how far each piece of "information" is removed from an actually existing reality and how much is imaginative fiction superimposed against a real background.

  In short, it is impossible to have any confidence when speaking about New or Old Testament persons or events.

  I'm flabbergasted people brush this fact aside and plunge right in asserting something is true or not.
• 

  Blueblades

  Allalong...I recommend the book "GOD" by Alexander Waugh. It addresses this very question. You can find it on Amazon.com. Look it up.

  Blueblades