At the beginning of history the people had many gods, they had a god for everything. Then civilizations arose and of course they had their favorite gods, there were the ones that were all god and then there were the half god half man gods and they veried in strength. However there was one small civilization that had only one God and he was all powerful and would defend his worshipers with a vengeance. So my question is, what is the probability this one all powerful God was just their way of posturing so as to keep their enemies at bay.
2006-07-08 09:51:47 · 12 answers · asked by Ibredd 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Because He was the only existent one in the beginning and created all things. All other "gods" are just men, made up dieties or idols.
2006-07-08 09:55:34 · answer #1 · answered by rltouhe 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Actually, they only had ONE god, El at the beginning (not to be confused with El of El and Asherah) and then when the Flood came and destroyed man, there was still one God. After the flood the worship of many Gods started in Babylon (founded by Nimrod) the great-great grandson of Noah (thru Cush) a black man and the first recorded King in the Bible. He and his wife, Semiramis are the creators of the Isis/Orisis myth as well as Ptah, Zeus/Hera, Semiramis had herself (she had been a whore) declared a virgin before her childs birth and then sacrificed him to renew the Sun on December 25th (sound familiar)? This is why God calls Babylon the root of all false religion. For more information about Babylon read The Two Babylons by the Rev. Alexander Hyslop (a priest).
Only the Jews were worshipping a Monotheistic God, and El finally gave his name to the at the Mount when they received the 10 Commandments as "I AM" or JHVH or YHWH (both are equally correct in the ancient Hebrew text) so his name would be prounounced Jehovah or Yahweh. This is also called the Tetragrammaton. He DID defend the Israelites with a vengeance, stopping the sun, creating earthquakes, tumbling walls 12 feet thick, raising the dead, killing giants. If he hadn't been real, the Israelites would have been wiped out long ago, without his interference. They went up against army after army that outnumbered and outsavaged them time after time and won each time.
Just like each plague in Egypt. Each plague represented a "curse" against one of the Major Egyptian Gods, but the Egyptian Gods couldn't defend Egypt from the Israelites God's curse, could they?
2006-07-08 17:08:28 · answer #2 · answered by AdamKadmon 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the probability is zero. As a Catholic, i believe firmly in the Bible. God performed many miracles. The exodus has been proven to exist before in other sources than the Bible. How do u explain that, other than a working of the one God? In my personal opinion, the other gods were a way of posturing. Remember the worshipers of Baal vs. Elijah, the worshiper of the one true God. The worshipers of Baal were unable to light the fire to sacrifice the bull, but God lit the sacrifice at Elijah's request. Perhaps, tho, the angels that turned to the devil became the gods in your question. They may have altered their form, and because only God is all wise, powerful, omnipresent, etc, the angels may have only been a little of each quality. For example, greek myth says athena is the god of wisdom. Maybe God created an angel in reflection of his wisdom before he/she turned to the devil. The same may apply to the other "gods" as well.
2006-07-08 17:09:05 · answer #3 · answered by runner4life100 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I don't know for sure that it was used directly as a form of posturing, but I personally think it was used either wittingly or unwittingly as a psychological method of gaining a higher position. If you have a god of grain, god of the sky, goddess of love, goddess of war, etc., then how powerful is a god that combines the powers of all the gods? Of course, he is the most powerful god there is, and he can defeat all of the other gods by dividing and conquering. (Yes, polytheism came before monotheism, so the story would follow in this direction.) The following statements: "My god is more powerful than your gods," "Your gods aren't real, but mine is," and "If you don't believe in him, he'll wreak vengeance on you!"; these are all forms of psychological warfare that take place through the minds of deists. Thus, it came to be used as a way of gaining cultural superiority.
2006-07-08 16:56:45 · answer #4 · answered by Kestra SpiritNova 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
More likely, their enemies would have found their concept of a single, unnamed G-d, simply represented by the verb "to be", as utterly ridiculous and meaningless.
Monotheism is significant as an intellectual development useful in understanding the world in abstract, but universal terms. It is related to the concept of a "theory" in science, a universal conception that summarizes a wide range of phenomena. Having such an abstract conception allows us to think in terms of universal patterns in phenomena that, often, are more powerful than more superficial and obvious patterns. Gravity, for example, instead of individual Gods controlling the motions of sun, moon, planets and stars.
2006-07-08 17:01:05 · answer #5 · answered by jkraus_1999 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are refering to the Jews then they did not invent God... God invented them. God chose Abraham and Sarah to begin the nation of Israel. This was to be the line that was, and did, lead to Jesus The Christ.
Even though the Nation of Israel rejected Jesus the Jews remain God's chosen people
God did do some "smiting" on behalf of Israel, for sure.
But He also punished Israel for it's shortcomings.
For The Nation of Israel and for those of the Christian Faith, there is only one God and there has always been only one God.
I accept honest questions from honest seekers concerning the Christian Faith. Or, you can check me out at:
http://pages.zdnet.com/mikevanauken/mikesinternetoutreach
All honest seekers are welcome
2006-07-08 17:02:46 · answer #6 · answered by IdahoMike 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the one god came to drive out the many gods the god of abraham you speak of abraham when he was but a boy his father was a maker of idols and he work in his fathers shop selling idols of the many gods one day abraham got the idea that gods made by hands where not gods and start smashing idols infront of the customers the king of the land at that time order him killed abrahams dad repleaced him with a sick boy of abrahams age and abraham fled the country to be the grandfather of israel and speak with the one true god know take the greeks for example they had idols to every god under the son they even had a alter but no idol to the unknown god incase they left one out St. paul was able to convert the greeks to christians easy by saying his god was there unknownn god but as to postuer in your question no
2006-07-08 17:00:02 · answer #7 · answered by abramelin_the_wise_mage 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if you stop and think for a moment, a god that rules over only one realm really isn't a god, take Demeter for example, goddess of the moon and the hunt. if she really was a god, wouldn't she be able to control everything? Only one God is Omnipotent.
2006-07-08 17:02:21 · answer #8 · answered by reicharua 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, when a ruler wanted to conquer another one and none of his loyal subjects wanted to they needed something to get the people involved. The Ruler would say “They are heathens, they don’t believe in our way of life and that is wrong, we most change them to protect are selves.” So that’s what Bush did. Wait, what was the question?
2006-07-08 17:16:33 · answer #9 · answered by s_an_dubois 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The real question is what is this one gods reason for us?
2006-07-08 16:55:11 · answer #10 · answered by Kaela 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋