Re: Parallel existence of other gods

In Kemetism some Gods created themselves through the power of word, and others were summoned by major Gods like Re.
And of course, there are those who were born as a result of interaction of 2 Gods. One of the most famous examples is Usir and Aset who gave birth to Hor.

I hope this information answers your question.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Good questions!

Here are my own thoughts on the topic.

In more than one place in the Bible it is stated that there is only one god. One great example is the following: "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." - Isaiah 43:10

The Qur'an agrees with this so much, it seems it's the one issue repeated over and over again. There is only one god, there are no other gods. This idea is not only found many, many times in the Qur'an but arguments are made for it over and over again. Here's one example: "Your god is one God: There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Very-Merciful." [2:163]

As for your final question...
We don't deny that other people worship other gods, we only deny the existence of these gods. That is, if I make the statement, Peter worships Zeus, I am only applying that Peter believes in a god called Zeus that he has chosen to worship. In no way am I saying that I also believe in the existence of that god.

Where did they come from? They are names that people have either made up with time, or they are things that already exist that people have taken as gods, such as the sun and the moon and so on. Of course, in the end, that's just my point of view. Others don't think what I worship exists, and that's fine, this is why we all have different religions.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Gleb, I am very much aware of the claimed origins of many gods in several pantheons. I was looking for an abrahamic perspective, though, which is why I've posted this in the Abrahamic section in the first place.

Dumuzi, your answer is very good! I've apparently missed that Isaiah quote. I'll have to reread that book.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I didn't pay attention to the sector... My mistake.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I have since found a number of passages in the bible which claim the Lord to be the only god:

1. "Yahweh, He is God; there is no other besides Him." Deuteronomy 4:35
2. Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other." Deuteronomy 4:39
3. "Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me." Isaiah 43:10
4. "O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You" 1 Chronicles 17:20
5. "For who is God, besides Yahweh? And who is a rock, besides our God?" 2 Samuel 22:32
6. "Is it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me." Isaiah 45:21

Now, this still leaves the question of where did the other 'gods' come from.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I once heard a theory that other gods are actually lower (not necessarily evil!) spirits and that Yahweh is the only actual god, if that makes sense. As a polytheist, I obviously disagree with this stance.

I know this isn't Abrahamic, but interestingly enough, there are sects of Hinduism which are monotheistic, but they are open monotheisms. In other words, there is one god who manifests in multiple ways, which explains why there are so many gods. Sometimes I wonder if Yahweh's like that.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I would think it would depend on how you wish to interpret the Bible. Gods in plural are talked about often in it, usually with some sort of statement of The Lord being a jealous god, or Him saying that He is better than other gods, or people being warned not to worship these other gods.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, let us make man in our image. Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, Behold, then man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.
Exodus 12:12 And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? Exodus 18:11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods. Exodus 20:3, 5 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. Exodus 22:20-28 He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed. (v.20)
Thou shalt not revile the gods. (v.28) Exodus 23:13-32 Make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. (v.13)
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. (v.24)
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. (v.32) Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Numbers 33:4Upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments. Deuteronomy 3:24 What God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works? Deuteronomy 5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Deuteronomy 6:14-15 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;(For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords. Deuteronomy 28:14 Thou shalt not ... go after other gods to serve them. Joshua 24:2-14 They served other gods. (v.2)
Fear the Lord ... and put away the gods which your fathers served. (v.14) Judges 11:24 Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? 1 Samuel 6:5 Ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods. 1 Samuel 28:13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. 1 Chronicles 16:25 The Lord ... is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 82:1-6 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, he judgeth among the gods. (v.1)
I have said, Ye are gods. (v.6) Psalm 86:8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord. Psalm 96:4 For the Lord ... is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 97:7 Worship him, all ye gods. Psalm 135:5 Our Lord is above all gods. Psalm 136:2 O give thanks unto the God of gods. Jeremiah 1:16 I will utter my judgments against them ... who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods. Jeremiah 10:11 The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. Jeremiah 25:6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Jeremiah 46:25 I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods. Zephaniah 2:11 The Lord will be terrible to them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

That would pretty much point out an issue in nomenclature: what, exactly is a god? Is it a certain class of being regarding power, or is it a being which is being worshipped? I don't think it's wise to go there. Still, that was an excellent answer. Thanks.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Yes, as a pantheist I have no definition of what the writers of the Bible thought a god was. I just know that they did write about multiple gods being present in text. For me it is an interesting gathering of myths and legends from the Bronze Age so I am not qualified to say what they meant when they wrote it.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I think the best answer to this question would actually be from study of various regions and their social constructs. More of an irreligious standpoint. The gods of various cultures "came from" what each culture thought was important and how they lived and what the climate was like. In my experience, this view is more or less accepted by monotheists.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Hekla, this was asked in the Abrahamic sub-section, because I'm interested solely in answers relying -on- Abrahamic religions, meaning nothing but the Jewish, Christian and Muslim doctrines.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

That's what I was referring to. Hence my last sentence.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

I don't class myself specifically as practicing a Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic faith, but I do work with deities and spirits from those pantheons and I'm answering this from the perspective of a person who has researched the mythology and works with the entities. My knowledge of the Biblical texts as I learned them growing up Catholic is supplemented by my knowledge of the pre-monotheistic Middle Eastern and Mesopotamian religions. So with some context in place... my thoughts...

Giving the number of times that the Bible and Tanakh talk about 'gods' in the plural, and the number of times that YHVH mentions himself as though he is not the only god, I'm inclined to think that the modern monotheistic interpretation of Biblical texts is a product of the compilation of the modern Bible. By that I mean that the further back you go, and the more you branch out into the ancient texts that are not a part of the commonly accepted Old Testament (let alone the New Testament), the more references you find about YHVH not being the only god in existence.

However, I reconcile the whole 'no other god before me' thing by viewing those sorts of statements as a mandate that YHVH will not accept polytheism as a part of the practice of HIS worshippers. Remembering that polytheism is actually the worship of multiple deities. It is possible to believe in multiple deities but only worship and revere one of them... and there are actually TWO ways to do this... 'henotheism' and 'monolatrism'. I personally don't think that the Biblical texts are suggesting monotheism as a requirement, only henotheism or monolatrism (though I think it leans more towards monolatrism... where other gods exist but they are simply not worthy of worship).

It is, of course, modernly accepted that the Judeo-Christian faiths are monotheistic and that is the only way to practice them. I'm not convinced that is strictly accurate, though. I also know a great many Christians who are actually very pantheistic in their belief in 'God', which is actually in contrast to much of what the Bible tells us. From the Bible and Tanakh (I've never read the Qur'an so I don't know what it has to say on the matter) we can assume that YHVH is transcendent and individual, not immanent and permeating the universe. Yet many modern Christians adopt pantheism as a basic spiritual standpoint... they just don't call it that or necessarily recognise that's what they are doing. So we have monotheistic Christians and pantheistic Christians... why not monolatristic (not sure that's actually a word but you get my point). In my opinion that's actually the more accurate of the three; and is the form most likely to have been practiced originally.

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Often this question is answered in the interpretation of Genesis 6:2

the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

Many pagans and Christians alike believe this to be that the sons of God are the children of Adam and Eve, created by God on a small area of an already populated planet. The daughters of humans are from the people that were here before God came along with Adam and Eve.

Others see the daughters of humans as being the humans that other gods put on earth after God created it. As God mentions multiple gods before this it is acceptable to interpret this passage in this matter. If humans were created by these other gods that, according to the written word of God, Himself, existed it would stand to reason that they would worship their creators instead of the God of the Bible.

Some pagans point to these daughters of humans as where their origins come from instead of from God's created humans, Adam and Eve. The Bible has a very detailed (and, in my opinion, boring) lineage line from Adam and Eve on down and there are not enough women in this line to account for all the wives of the various son's of God listed in the lineage. So it stands to reason that not all of us are offspring of Adam and Eve, but some of us come from these daughters of humans that are spoke of by the writers of the accepted Christian Bible. Since Christianity does not allow for evolution, this would mean that other gods would have had to create these daughters of humans.