No Other Gods Before Me?

[Skeptisma]

Okay, here is my dilemma. Perhaps someone could help me with this, or put on a theist hat and pretend, but this is seriously troubling to me.

In the 10 Commandments - god makes sure to be perfectly clear that he only wants you to worship him/her/whatever and that you must not have any other gods. Now, being an omniscient god, is this admittance that there ARE other gods out there? Because, if there are not, then what would be the point of even wasting several commandments for nothing? I'm super curious if there's any sort of apologetic argument for this.

I hope this makes sense, and I am well aware that I may not get a rational answer considering the subject, but I have to try!

[Minimalist]

god makes sure to be perfectly clear that he only wants you to worship him/her/whatever

Uptight mofo, ain't he?

[fr0d0]

Yes there are other gods. Actual named gods that people have described, and stuff such as shopping, which is an infatuation deterring from the real God.

[DiRNiS]

Okay, here is my dilemma. Perhaps someone could help me with this, or put on a theist hat and pretend, but this is seriously troubling to me.

In the 10 Commandments - god makes sure to be perfectly clear that he only wants you to worship him/her/whatever and that you must not have any other gods. Now, being an omniscient god, is this admittance that there ARE other gods out there? Because, if there are not, then what would be the point of even wasting several commandments for nothing? I'm super curious if there's any sort of apologetic argument for this.

I hope this makes sense, and I am well aware that I may not get a rational answer considering the subject, but I have to try!

I think theists would normally reply that he is just making clear he is the only god and there are no other gods to worship but him and he would punish anyone who worships any false gods (as in non-existent gods).

But of course, the 10 commandments (which have different versions depending on the religion), were not written by any god but by men of the time. They have even been slightly altered and updated to reflect more recent times and to suit the purposes of particular religions.

Don't get too caught up questioning biblical quotes. After all, it is a fictional book. Questioning stories of the bible is like questioning whether J. K. Rowling originally meant to make Harry Potter a boy or a girl. OK, probably not a good example but I'm sure you get the idea.

[Minimalist]

deterring from the real God.

The Almighty Dollar is the only real god.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes there are other gods. Actual named gods that people have described, and stuff such as shopping

Yes. Shopping is immoral. Boo on shopping. 'Tis the handiwork of the devil.

@ the OP. From Yahweh's POV, whether other gods exist or not, others are wasting their time worshipping them.

[Quest of knowledge]

Okay, here is my dilemma. Perhaps someone could help me with this, or put on a theist hat and pretend, but this is seriously troubling to me.

In the 10 Commandments - god makes sure to be perfectly clear that he only wants you to worship him/her/whatever and that you must not have any other gods. Now, being an omniscient god, is this admittance that there ARE other gods out there? Because, if there are not, then what would be the point of even wasting several commandments for nothing? I'm super curious if there's any sort of apologetic argument for this.

I hope this makes sense, and I am well aware that I may not get a rational answer considering the subject, but I have to try!

The Judeo-Christian god and creation myth, with Lucifer included up to the first 5 chapters of Genesis was one of the religions invented in Babylon. The Babylonians invaded Palestine (then Phaelistine or Philistine) and gave them the religion with the addition of Exodus, Le…, …, Deuteronomy. These books made many Phaelestinians believe that they were not invaded by a foreign government, but by the countrymen of their “forefathers”. Abraham was supposed to have been born in Ur, which is a city of modern day Iraq, as is the city of Babylon. Many Phaelestinians converted because they felt no power to resist the Babylonians and it was much easier to accept defeat when defeated by your “own people”.

The conversions proved a great strategy for the Babylonians because at that point is when the Philistines (Palestinians) and the Jews started to fight against each other (really against themselves) rather than fighting off the Babylonians. The whole story of how the Jews ended in Phaelestine (Palestine) is a ridiculous epic of continuous silliness, but like Hitler said a lie is more believable the bigger it is and the more times you say it. Here it is in short: Abraham leaves Ur, Babylon (now called Iraq) wonders around Iraq and Jordan. His lovely children sell his son Josef as a slave. Josef ends up in Egypt. He becomes the Pharaoh’s right hand man. His starving brothers go to Egypt to buy grain. Josef forgives them and gives them “immigrant status in Egypt”. The Jews reproduced too quickly for the liking of the subsequent Pharaohs and the Jews were ordered to kill their babies.

The Pharaoh’s daughter finds a baby in a basket in the Nile and raises him. The baby was a Jew named Moses who then decides to “part the waters” of the Red Sea to take all the Jews to the Sinai Desert. There Moses gets the Ten Commandments from god. The story says that the Jews were worshiping the god Tamus (I am not sure about the English spelling at this moment) who was a bull and that it was the god of the Palestinians. Obviously, the Babylonians did not know the area well because the Sinai cannot and does not support life and there is archeological evidence that no large group of people have ever lived there. That means that the Jews would not have met the Palestinians there and that the Jews never spent any time there (let alone 40 years). The story the Babylonians told the Palestinians says that eventually god promised Palestine to the Jews and gave it to them. It worked very well for the Babylonians because the ones that bought into their religious indoctrination would feel a stronger sense of entitlement (god gave them Palestine) and would not view the Babylonians as invaders because Abraham (who never existed) was a Babylonian.

Ezra who was the Babylonian governor of Palestine/Israel during the second Babylonian invasion of Palestine wrote the book of Ezra as a contemporary story at the time and wrote the book of Daniel as a story that took place during the first invasion to make the Jews believe that Babylon was Jewish friendly. There is absolutely no historical evidence that Abraham existed, that Daniel existed, that any large group of Jews lived in Egypt before the first invasion of Palestine, that Moses existed, that there was any large gathering of people in the Sinai Desert, that there was any large influx into Palestine of a culture different that that of the Palestinians’ other than Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and later Arabic.

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Okay, here is my dilemma. Perhaps someone could help me with this, or put on a theist hat and pretend, but this is seriously troubling to me.

In the 10 Commandments - god makes sure to be perfectly clear that he only wants you to worship him/her/whatever and that you must not have any other gods. Now, being an omniscient god, is this admittance that there ARE other gods out there? Because, if there are not, then what would be the point of even wasting several commandments for nothing? I'm super curious if there's any sort of apologetic argument for this.

I hope this makes sense, and I am well aware that I may not get a rational answer considering the subject, but I have to try!

The Palestinian people call themselves Phalesteens and do not have the sound “p” in their language (currently Arabic). The country was called Phaelestina by the Greeks, and the Romans (who did not use ph to produce the “f” sound) dropped the “h” and called it Palestina. The Bible is full of contradictions, inconsistencies, and nonsense regarding events (that includes two conflicting stories about creation in Genesis), protagonists of events, ciphers, and a host of other statements it makes. The Ten Commandments is no different.

[DeistPaladin]

The Almighty Dollar is the only real god.

primary holiday is Chri$tma$

[Skeptisma]

*sigh* Perhaps I wasn't exactly clear - or some of you have just chosen to go the alternate route regardless, but I was specifically looking to find an apologetic for that particular claim. I hadn't heard one as of yet and was just curious. Obviously there are contradictions in the bible and yes, I know, god didn't write the ten commandments... that wasn't my point. =\

Ah well.

And, Quest, I'm not sure why the wall of text was necessary but... tl;dr. Thanks anyway.

[Mr Olefemi]

When god say do not worship other gods,he isn't saying that there really are other gods,he is saying that he is the only god.What he means is do not worship false gods.