What kind of God would allow His people to believe a lie? If there is really only one true God and people are worshipping false gods, then he would not be a God of truth and would allow his people to be subjected to a delusion.

Some say that other gods are actually demonic beings, existing in opposition to God. One cannot serve two masters. Either serve truth or don't. One can't do both. They will always be in conflict with the other.

Is having people brought together the most important thing? Are relationships more of a priority than truth? The conflicts between ideals of different religions will never cease as long as the truth remains relative to an individual's perspective. In order to obtain a sense of uniformity, there must be a degree of objective truth to bind them together, otherwise, they will always be in conflict over who's "god" or ideas are superior. We might look at the contradictions between the Roman Catholics (from the authority/governing position, not necessarily all those who adhered to that church) and Protestants during the time of the Reformation. Although they both claimed to worship the same God and both proclaimed Christianity, one clearly was not in accordance with Scripture which is the foundation of the Christian religion. Therefore it was almost as if they were not even serving the same God at all, because they did not hold the same things to be objectively true.

Making us all worship one god is a good way to bring people together. But the problem is, it creates antagonisms against the "others". And that's a major problem with religion, — Wheatley

It is a problem only with monotheistic religions, and among those only with those who are concerned about others. Stop generalizing about "religion".
E.g. the Romans had their pantheon, and any captured tribe simply got to add their gods there. Problem solved.

It is a problem only with monotheistic religions, and among those only with those who are concerned about others. Stop generalizing about "religion".
E.g. the Romans had their pantheon, and any captured tribe simply got to add their gods there. Problem solved. — Nobeernolife

Well without writing a 10 page paper with banal people, your concise and correct answer is a wonderful starting point. Intelligent people who deal with dumb people don't like to be pushed around by dumb people atleast to some extent. God is an intelligent person and we and the ancient israelites are dumb. God can only handle us dumb people to some measure before he pulls out the old belt.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." God doesn't want anyone to worship anybody but him, but why?

I don't understand why a god with a high self-esteem would need to be worshiped in the first place, but putting my incredulity aside, a person who worships other gods isn't a terrible person.

Making us all worship one god is a good way to bring people together. But the problem is, it creates antagonisms against the "others". And that's a major problem with religion, it causes conflicts.

Thoughts? — Wheatley

Well, look at it from a parent's eyes; after all, good is projected as a fatherly figure. Being a normal parent, for better or for worse, comes with the an overwhelming interest for the wellbeing of your children. Hazarding a guess, I feel parents often do warn their children, "don't trust anyone but me" So, god too, assuming we are his children as claimed, can be excused for saying, "thou shalt have no other gods before me"; in fact, if god is what they say he is, he's required to make this statement for our benefit.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." God doesn't want anyone to worship anybody but him, but why?

I don't understand why a god with a high self-esteem would need to be worshiped in the first place, but putting my incredulity aside, a person who worships other gods isn't a terrible person.

Making us all worship one god is a good way to bring people together. But the problem is, it creates antagonisms against the "others". And that's a major problem with religion, it causes conflicts.

Thoughts? — Wheatley

What kind of interpretation are you looking for when you ask that sort of question?

We might take the legend as promoting a robust ideal of unity in judgments of truth, value, personal integrity, and community, for instance.

Is that the sort of interpretation you're looking for? Or are you asking for a psychological analysis of an anthropomorphic deity in an ancient tale?

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." God doesn't want anyone to worship anybody but him, but why? — Wheatley

I often use this quote from Exodus 20:3 when having debates with my Christian friends. I use it to point out the implication that the Christian god is a jealous god, and jealousy is a human behavioral trait. Thus, indicating that their perfect god is not so perfect. The statement also stands in opposition to the Christian god being the only god, and not necessarily being the best god. If the Christian god did exist, and he is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, he would never make such a request. He would have no need to do such. However, a god that was contrived by man would have the need to do so, in order, to protect and maintain his assumed power and influence over mankind. It is hard to imagine that the supposed all powerful biblical god, that created heaven and earth, would worry about his creations not believing in him. Of course many will fall back to the default position of free will, but that path should be taken up in a different thread. Thanks for presenting an interesting question!

It could be that it would be bad for us to worship other gods since they are not really gods. This being from the monotheist perspective. Our worship would be tainted by a confused idea of what is going on.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." — Wheatley

I guess it's OK if the other gods are behind him. :smile:

Good question.
The God of the Bible is a benevolent tyrant. Plato said the gods do not argue therefore there has to be one God. Seems petty.

Exclusivism isn't religion, but the human ego masquerading as religion