If there is a god then there has to be only one right?

[Diceroller]

Am I right in thinking that to have more than one god would've seen us evaporated from life a long time ago? Here's why I think this, If there are more than one god then wouldn't they be likely to argue over everything and then possibly destroying us in anger before resurecting us ad infinitum? Have any of you seen the movie Clash of the Titans or maybe it was Jason and the Argonauts where the gods couldn't agree on anything and there was a lot of anger, revenge and punishment, wouldn't this be a likely scenario if there was a whole group of gods?

[jomifl]

If god is running things on earth he/she it is making a pigs ear of it.

[Lonnie]

God said, 'Thou shalt worship no other God before me'. so was he saying there may be other Gods, but I'm the No1 God?.

The Bible also refers to God as Elohim, I believe that is Plural, so we are still talking about Gods as opposed to God.

[jomifl]

Lonnie, dont bother with what the bible says, we established conclusively on AB a few weeks ago that it complete tosh.

[wildwood]

Sounds like new religion; Zeusism.

[Diceroller]

well-run companies chug along smoothly with everyone knowing his or her job, and with no more than intelligent, structured debate about what to do next.
I disagree with the exeption of maybe a company like Google jno as within the very fibre of these *Well run companies* You will always have the lower rung workers at the base who are not haqppy with their jobs and hate their managers or supervisors and even those on the higher echelons are sometimes unhappy with events sometimes leading to breakdowns, suicides and thsometimes trying to bring their company down with them so transfer this to the god scale and it's plain to see that more than one god could be a catastrophe but a conversation I had this morning made me think again as a point was pointed out to me that who's to say that a God/Gods/Aliens that created us would have the same emotions as us or even the same way of thinking, so as you can see the jury is still well and truly out.

[chakka35]

Yes, lonnie, the Jews used to worship several gods, depending on what part of Israel they lived in.
When they decided to adopt monotheism they promoted the god of southern Israel, JWYH (Jaweh, Jehovah) to be 'God' with instructions that he alone should be worshipped from that moment. So 'God', far from being timeless and eternal, is only about three thousand years old.

All very silly.

[Lonnie]

jomifl, you have to 'worry' about what the Bible says, because whether you believe it or not, its the written word.

I know that chakka35, but if you want to go further, then the Idea of one God actually came from Egypt, incidentally, where Moses also came from.

[KARL]

Erm, actually, there ARE more than one God, they walk among us and generally mate with each other (or sometimes an assistant, but extremely rarely others) to create more gods (check the lineage) - we mere mortals call them doctors (their assistants are called nurses).

[Souldarkness]

Not all Doctors ...Surgeons.. and Cats of course ...

[jomifl]

Lonnie. Can you elaborate on why a 'written word' is more significant than an 'unwritten word'?

[Lonnie]

jomifl I'll try, but remember this is my personal take on it.

The unwritten word, by definition, is word of mouth, and can be changed as it passes from one person to another.

The written word, once codified, like the Torah, King James Bible, and Koran, cannot be changed,

So im my opinion, the written word is more important, and therefore more significant.

[wildwood]

Lonnie, there is an untold amount of versions of the Ten Commandments. It makes you wonder how reliable 'written in stone' really is.

As for the bible... everyone can find passages in it to suit their believe. In the modern versions, the mass murders and atrocities inflicted on humans by that God is often written in such a way that the victims are portrayed as deserving the punishment and are very different from early bibles.

[Lonnie]

wildwood, in answer to your reply, almost anything can be interpreted, to suit the individual, I don't argue about that, its fact, but there is only one original version of the Ten Commandments, but lets look at this a different way.

God said, 'Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy'

He also said, 'Thou shalt not seethe the Kid in its Mothers milk'

From those two quotes came the laws about working, and the Kosher laws.

How do you suppose they came about?,

[jomifl]

Lonnie.. sorry to disilluion you but the current 10 commandments are not the original ones. As I have already mentioned a couple of times, the original tenth commandment was 'Thou shalt not boil a kid in it's mothers milk'. How relevant to toay's kid boiling culture, a pity it was replaced.

[Lonnie]

jomifl
, I'm not sure where you got that from, the word is 'seethe' not 'boil, and it was never one of the Ten Commandments. It was a commandment but not one of the Ten. I think you've got it mxed up somwhere, also, its that particular commandment that gave birth to the Kosher Laws

[starone]

I thought this was going to be if there is a God (as in the power of good) it stands to reason there will also be a Devil (or the power of evil). I would think if there were a number of gods then they should be above quarrelling among themselves. How could they rule the universe if they did not agree. Maybe that is why the different gods were supposed to be responsible for different things - Venus the goddess of love etc.

[jomifl]

Thank you Lonnie for that correction.. so can we settle for simmer or marinade instead of boil..and why and on whose authority have the other commandments been left out, weren't they once written?

[starone]

I read somewhere (and I can't remember where) that the ten commandments were only the most important of a great many more. I don't know where you can find them but it could be like our laws now of which there are so many that it would be impossible to keep track of all of them. There may be a book of the laws?

[Lonnie]

jomifl, This is getting good, Lets see, 'Seethe' in todays language, and English, as yopu correctly point out, does mean the things you have said, remember, we are talking about things that were written how many Thousands of years ago?, in a now dead language..

Howsomever, It was the Rabbi's, it got to a point where the religion was being changed, and too many meanings put to what was said/written, they got together, and decided what God meant when he'd said something, then codified it so it then couldn't be changed. In writing.

But find someone who practices the Jewish religion, and ask them what 'seethe' means regarding 'thou shalt not seethe the Kid in it mothers milk' I think you'll be surprised at the answer.

Thats why the written word has more significance than the spoken

[chakka35]

lonnie, woud you please explain again why, as a fixed rule, the written word has more significance than the spoken. I can think of numerous examples where that is self-evidently not true.

And before you place so much weight on bible writings wouldn't it be a good idea to tell us who the writers were? No-one else knows. In fact, in the whole of the bible the only real contributor who can be identified is Paul (Saul of Tarsus) who cerainly wrote some of the epistles attributed to him. The rest of the bible is anonymous.