IS there really only one God?

We were having a discussion in my World Literature class and my professor brought up the idea that Judaism was originally a polytheistic religion. He said that the hebrews were in Egypt during Akhenatens reign and that the Hebrews(being for the most part slaves) took a lot of the Egyptian religions ideas and implemented them in their own.

(For those that don\'t know, Akhenaten was the husband of Nefertiti and the pharoe that implemented a strict monotheistic viewpoint on the nation. He said that there were no other gods but the sun god Ra.)

My professor also added that the "God" they chose was actually their war god. This was for the fact that the Hebrews were always warring or battling with someone. They thought that their enemies would be frightened because they pray to only one god, a war god.

ANother thing he said to do was read the bible. Anyone who reads the the first few books of the bible can easily see that God is a vengelful, jealous, and destructive entity. Did anyone else read the passage where the little children were not listening  during a reading and God sent some bears out of the woods to maul them?

Thoughts? BTW, I am not arguing the validity of religion only the history of it.

[videoholic]

Or you could present this as

Is there even one god?

Originally posted by Gohan
I am not arguing the validity of religion only the history of it.

there can be only one

*insert tacky music here*

[videoholic]

Ah..  So in history these people may have been worshiping nothing.  Or maybe they weren\'t..  Bah, already over my head.  I\'m going to go play Madden.

Originally posted by mm
*insert tacky music here*

/me snaps fingers.

Oh yeah.

I was always told that early man had basically a polytheastic view on god. At least, those are earliest known religeous doctrines we\'ve found. They\'ve either all morphed into Monotheastic religeons or been killed out by politics and fanatics.

Personally, I can\'t say I have any special claim to knowing what, who, and how many God really is. I believe in god, and I think behind all the worlds religeons he\'s basically the same person or persons... but just shows a different face or is given a different face by different people from different areas in different time. Our modern Catholic god really dosen\'t resemble the god Jesus preached about.

I jus try to stick with what I\'ve be taught, have an open mind, and try to be a good person. That\'s it. It does sicken me tho, to see some people can just make up god\'s rules on the fly and dupe people into beliving in them so strongly that they\'re willing to kill or die for that belief. Pergatory, for example, was made up by some monks in the middle ages. It was FABRICATED by men to fit the social climate of it\'s day.. since when did men become powerful enough to simply create a realm of "gods" kingdom.. and how can people actually believe that as devine truth when there\'s solid PROOF that god didn\'t even create it??

Ugh..

Forget it.. I don\'t even wanna get into this.

I was always told that early man had basically a polytheastic view on god. At least, those are earliest known religeous doctrines we\'ve found. They\'ve either all morphed into Monotheastic religeons or been killed out by politics and fanatics.

What happened was the early Christians moved around some holidays or claimed certain holidays were the same as pagan holidays.  Example: I heard that Jesus was born during the spring, but the day got moved to winter to have it coincide with the winter solstice.  Easter is the spring equinox.  Traditions held in pagan religions were incorporated into the Christian traditions like the Christmas tree.  It was originally a pagan tradition to decorate a pine or evergreen during the winter in hopes that the gods would change the seasons back to spring soon.

Rya, I\'m glad there is someone out there who recognizes that some of the traditional christian holidays were/and are derived from pagan holidays.  i.e., yule, spring equinox.  I am not pagan, but I am very pagan friendly and wish society wasn\'t brainwashed to think pagan = devil worship.  I claim unitarian universalism with christian leanings.

It\'s hard for me to even begin to come to a conclusion about how many gods may or may not exist.  In fact, I have an easier time believing that humans likened "gods" to people, just so we could have some sort of understanding.  The higher power(s) that exists, is most likely beyond our comprehension.  I sincerely hope to gain that understanding, but I doubt things will ever become completely clear with my human perception.

Ah, yes that is sort of far-fetched, but it\'s something I think about.  I cannot bring myself to believe that there is a "man" somewhere surrounded by angels and bright lights who has a list of the naughty and nice things that people do.

I cannot bring myself to believe that there is a "man" somewhere surrounded by angels and bright lights who has a list of the naughty and nice things that people do.

I wonder if God could ever misplace said copy of list... Would (s)he [it] just randomly choose?  Interesting thought...

/me waits for thread to go 10 pages before he replies.

Oh, I know Rya. Nearly all of the major Catholic religeous holidays (that are built on celebration and not pennance anyhow) are merely mixes of other religeons holidays that the chruch "coincided" with their own holidays to make conversions easier. Valentines day, for example, started out as day of orgy in the name of Dyonysis.. people wanted to celebrate it even after being converted so the church made Valentines Day, named after St. Valentine who was martyred for helping young lovers to marry into a Christian union. If it wasn\'t for the festival of Dyonysis.. we would never have a Valentines Day.

Mardi Gras is probly the most recent addition to that right? It started out a Creole holiday brought over from Africa durring the days of slavery. The catholics changed it into a religeon ceremony.. even tho most people use "Fat Tuesday"(?) as jus an excuse to get drunk and see some boobies.

Has anyone heard of the planet Nibiru(the theory of the 12th planet)?Anyone who knows what I am talking about it would be nice to post.

It\'s really hard to think in the number of GODS when you don\'t believe in any GOD.

[CHIZZY]

Originally posted by Adan
It\'s really hard to think in the number of GODS when you don\'t believe in any GOD.

Amen, brother!