Parallel existence of other gods

[Azvanna]

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.

Wow this is a really good reply. When it I read 'Let us make man in our own image' I always considered the words being said within the Trinity. I didn't consider God speaking to other Gods. Other people have probably said it, but the way you worded it made the light bulb light up.

[LaneyM]

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Wow this is a really good reply. When it I read 'Let us make man in our own image' I always considered the words being said within the Trinity. I didn't consider God speaking to other Gods. Other people have probably said it, but the way you worded it made the light bulb light up.

Thank you. My theology teacher back when I was a child wouldn't listen to us unless we articulated ourselves to his liking. I'm afraid I was put into a Christian school by the government when I was a child to try to make me a good American. The problem with trying to force a non-believer to believe is that more often than not they learn your religion better than you have and they can use it against you. I am not a Christian, but the title of this post intrigued me.

[Alienist]

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

Yahweh claims to be the only true god but that can be easily misinterpreted. I believe he meant he was the only one who offered the best path, not that he was the ONLY deity. I always thought the bible stated quite clearly that there are other deities. Yahweh commands them to worship no other deity except him. If there were no deities except him, he wouldn't have made a rule saying" Don't worship other deities" so it's clear there are others. They even mention other deities' names in the Old and New Testament so it's certain there are other deities.

[Dumuzi]

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

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

There are no other gods. Monotheists believe these gods are just a creation of humans. If I as a monotheist say that person A worships X. It doesn't mean I believe X exists, I'm just saying that's what person A worships.

[Mephilis]

Re: Parallel existence of other gods

This probably doesn't help, but I feel that there have always been many gods. Eventually, one god decided that he didn't like the others and proceeded in a (rather successful) campaign to convince the world that he was always the "only god". I know it was a question directed to monotheists, but i was raised as one.

Revelations mentions Apollo, I do believe. I would look for it and quote it but is a rather long book....

[Orecha]

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.

This interpretation works really well in English but unfortunately falls apart when you look at the Hebrew:
וַיִּרְאוּ בְנֵי-הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת-בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם, כִּי טֹבֹת הֵנָּה; וַיִּקְחוּ לָהֶם נָשִׁים, מִכֹּל אֲשֶׁר בָּחָרוּ
The important part here is בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם (b'not ha'adam, "the daughters of man"). It literally reads "the daughters of Adam." Therefore the בְנֵי-הָאֱלֹהִים (b'nei ha'elohim, "the sons of God") cannot be the sons of Adam if Adam is the father of the daughters mentioned. If Hebrew is anything, it is precise. These "sons of Elohim" are probably the other gods we're looking for; after all, their children were the "mighty men," "the men of renown." It's a good old fashioned story of Greek heroes with divine fathers and mortal mothers, teaching men to do awesome acts violence and kill anything that moves (stab first, ask questions later). God doesn't like how this is progressing and hits the cosmic reset button. The "flood" is also a huge mistranslation/misinterpretation that people kind of ran with, but that's another story.

The interesting part about your analysis is the other humans that weren't Adam and Eve. There is support for this in pre-Jewish Israelite thought. Adam was seen as the first complete man, but not the very first human. Humans were created, then Adam. So, right on there!

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To answer the OP, my religion, Orach Qad'moni, is a revived Abrahamic paganism, of sorts. We believe that Y'howah is the one true reality, source of all things and material of all things. The elim, the gods, are, like us, parts of Y'howah and created by Y'howah, and for that reason, we don't worship them any more than we do people or dogs. That doesn't mean that they aren't powerful, just that we recognize that their power is derived from the Source of All. That's why we sometimes call Y'howah by the name El Elim, "The God of the gods" or "the God that even the gods worship." So we only give honor to Y'howah, making us monolatrous panentheists. Our point of view is: why get water from a muddy marsh beside a factory when you can go straight up the river to the spring? Yeah, water is water, but I prefer mine fresh and unpolluted.

We've got 4 main views of other cultures' deities. They can be any of the following, but we generally don't hold judgments as to which culture's is which:

1. a misunderstood view of the panentheistic Y'howah
2. the elim-- nebulous and very powerful beings, incredibly long-lived but mortal all the same
3. lower beings, like k'doshim (angels), ach'rim (demons), or humans, posing as gods
4. byproducts of human imagination

I hope that helps.

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Revelations mentions Apollo, I do believe. I would look for it and quote it but is a rather long book....

Revelations 9:11. And it's Apollyon, actually, which means "the destroyer." No relation to the famous sun god, I'm afraid, except for possibly etymologically if they're both from the Greek root word ἀπόλλυμι, "to destroy" (Apollo may not be, though, as his name seems to have been a loan word possibly from Luwian, making him a god originally from the area of Troy). Apollyon is a translation into Koine Greek of the Hebrew Avadon (or Abaddon, as known in English). The Book of Revelations styles this character as an angel of destruction (as for whose side it's on is debated), but Israelite religion viewed Avadon as a place, a realm outside of our own. The Sar ha'Avadon was the angel in charge of the region, which actually may be what Revelations is referencing.