# Why did men create the false gods? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 1, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584 "2005-12-01T18:25:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ImaginalDisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e57/32.png) [@ImaginalDisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImaginalDisc)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/41 "2005-12-02T04:34:27Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > I don’t think that’s relevant. The claim was made that the statement “Thou shalt have no other gods…” denote a tacit acknowledgement that those gods exist. The burden of proof rests on those who make that claim… and for the reason that I cited earlier, the stated conclusion simply does not follow. I think that sound like a point for a Hebrew (the language) scholar, to interpret the original text. If I said “I have only one book, and no other books”, there could be others books around. But if I said “I have only one wife, and no other” that doesn’t suggest that I have other wives cluttering up the living room, only that I could. Any Hebrew scholars around? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/42 "2005-12-02T04:44:05Z")
> [@ImaginalDisc](#): > > If I said “I have only one book, and no other books”, there could be others books around. Maybe so, but it doesn’t mean that there ARE any other books. And that’s why we cannot conclude that ancient Judaism acknowledged the existence of other deities. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/43 "2005-12-02T04:56:14Z")
Not a Hebrew scholar but if the text is accurately translated, the fact that it says not to place other gods “before me” implies that other gods exist (or how could they be given preeminence?). Yahweh also calls himself a “jealous God” which would be senseless if there was nothing to be jealous of. The supporting evidence for henotheism (if not flat out polytheism) in Judea is pretty strong in the archaeology until about the 7th or 8th century BCE. Yahweh actually had a girlfriend at one point. There are hundreds of figurines and images of a goddess called Asherah who is identified in inscriptions as a consort of Yahweh, or as “Yahweh’s Asherah.” Like I said before, there is no strong evidence of a montheistic culture in Judea until post-exillic times. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/44 "2005-12-02T05:23:55Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > I presume you’re right (though the idea of making and then worshipping a _representation_ still seems pretty odd to me). Yet, reading the Bible, I get the impression that sometimes they _were_ believed to be, or believed to be believed to be, gods themselves. The idols are generally not worshipped- it is the idea behind them. Idols are used to focus worship, but are not usually items of worship outside of their symbolic value. Most polytheistic gods represent aspects of the world. Most polytheistic people recognize that worshipping an aspect of the world is a little tricky to get your head around, so they personify them and create physical reminders of them. There is a lot of metaphor in any religion, and polytheistic religions are a little more aware and okay with that than most montheistic relgions. It’s kind of like a communion host. Nobody worships them, even if they believe they are turned in to Jesus. And while many believe that communion hosts do become Jesus’s body, it’s a little more complicated and nuanced than that. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/45 "2005-12-02T05:33:00Z")
People pray to images of Christ or the Madonna as well. They aren’t literally worshipping those images. It’s just that focusing on an image is a way to facilitate a sense of communication. ---
**Author:** ![Sweet\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Sweet\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Mercury)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/46 "2005-12-02T06:53:16Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Would it wrong to interpret “thou shalt have no other gods before me” as a tacit recognition of the “other gods”? IOW, I’m your God, and even though there might be other gods, those gods are for other people. Not at all. Especially when at the very beginning the Bible states “And God said, let \*us \* make man in \*our \* image, after \*our \* likeness…” (Gen. 1:26) Who, here, is He addressing as His equal? Christian mythology described God and His angels, but considering the power we attribute to these angels, and that we consider them to be of divine nature, are there not similarities between these stories and the polytheistic religions of other ancient nations? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/47 "2005-12-02T07:15:27Z")
E. M. Forster wrote a short story about a man who dies and goes to Heaven, and finds all the gods there. He sees the old forgotten ones languishing because nobody worships them any more, but the ones still being worshiped are feeding on the energy from their worshipers. So this man finds another man (Forster was gay, you know), and the two men decide to leave this boring scene together, and their individual souls are reabsorbed into the world. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/48 "2005-12-02T07:19:45Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Not a Hebrew scholar but if the text is accurately translated, the fact that it says not to place other gods “before me” implies that other gods exist (or how could they be given preeminence?). People are fully capable of worshipping something that doesn’t exist. Heck, the skeptics here have often accused Christians of doing that very thing. The command not to place other gods before Yahweh does NOT imply that those gods actually exist. The Hebrews were not to worship those gods, whether they existed or not. It’s just that simple. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/49 "2005-12-02T14:21:15Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > E. M. Forster wrote a short story about a man who dies and goes to Heaven, and finds all the gods there. He sees the old forgotten ones languishing because nobody worships them any more, but the ones still being worshiped are feeding on the energy from their worshipers. So this man finds another man (Forster was gay, you know), and the two men decide to leave this boring scene together, and their individual souls are reabsorbed into the world. T. Pratchett wrote a longer story about a god who decides to incarnate in order to check up on his worshippers, and finds that all the belief is being foccused on the Church and not on Him, so all the body he can manage is a rather elderly tortoise. Eventually his one true believer is saved by what appears to be a miracle and he gains enough energy from the resulting belief to manifest as a more godly supra-human (Pratchett isn’t gay, you know) and the believer lives the rest of a long and blessed life in peace, and meets Death in the afterlife rather than going on to any kind of Heaven. /price of tea in China ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/50 "2005-12-02T14:43:06Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > People are fully capable of worshipping something that doesn’t exist. Heck, the skeptics here have often accused Christians of doing that very thing. > > The command not to place other gods before Yahweh does NOT imply that those gods actually exist. The Hebrews were not to worship those gods, whether they existed or not. It’s just that simple. How can you put gods that don’t exist “before me?” How can Yahweh be “jealous” of gods that don’t exist? And what about all of the other internal and external evidence that the Hebrews were not originally monotheistic? Never mind. I can’t argue with faith positions. I already acknowledged that. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/51 "2005-12-02T15:02:43Z")
Boy, that God is sure one Omnipotent Mf. Jg.1:19 “And the Lord was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.” Ummmm… ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/52 "2005-12-02T15:22:39Z")
Diogenes: Re: the “other gods” line in the Ten Commandments: of course some things worshipped by other peoples existed. Some nations worshipped the sun. Some worshipped certain totem animals. Some worshipped anthromoprhizations of those things. The issue of “before me” is that they may not be considered to have any power independent of G-d. G-d is the source of all powers both natural and supernatural and only he should be acknowledged by the Israelites at all. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/53 "2005-12-02T15:24:43Z")
Good point. The pagans worshipped those items and regarded them as “gods,” even though they weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/54 "2005-12-02T15:26:05Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > How can you put gods that don’t exist “before me?” By believing that they exist, even though they don’t, and then worshipping them. It’s that simple. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/55 "2005-12-02T15:31:50Z")
Here is a flood of support for bible writers beliving in more than one god. One guess for what site I get it from. Ps.97:7 “Worship him, all ye gods.” Ps.82:1 “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, he judgeth among the gods.” Num.33:4 “Upon their gods also theLORD executed judgments.” Ex.22:28 “Thou shalt not revile the gods.” Is.45:5-6 “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” One of these does not belong. ---
**Author:** ![Angels\_Flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@Angels\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angels_Flight)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/56 "2005-12-02T15:57:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Leviosaurus/** > Can you post a screenshot of the stone tablet? It sounds like it would make good wallpaper for my desktop. Un fortunately (ain’t it always the way) it was lost in a shipwreck. But I just got a new tablet, even more puzzling. [new tablet](http://www.texaschapbookpress.com/magellanslog58/judgments.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/57 "2005-12-02T16:25:42Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > It’s kind of like a communion host. Nobody worships them, even if they believe they are turned in to Jesus. And while many believe that communion hosts do become Jesus’s body, it’s a little more complicated and nuanced than that. Actually, Catholics do worship the consecrated elements. From the [Catechism of the Catholic Church](http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1378.htm) > [@](#): > > Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. “The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession.” The Latin term for the veneration given to God, and the consecrated elements, is latria, as opposed to the veneration given to saints (dulia), and the Virgin (hyperdulia). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/58 "2005-12-02T16:28:09Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Diogenes: > > Re: the “other gods” line in the Ten Commandments: of course some things worshipped by other peoples existed. Some nations worshipped the sun. Some worshipped certain totem animals. Some worshipped anthromoprhizations of those things. The issue of “before me” is that they may not be considered to have any power independent of G-d. G-d is the source of all powers both natural and supernatural and only he should be acknowledged by the Israelites at all. This is an apologetic response, not an analytical one based on an objective examination of all other evidence. An unbiased investigation of Palestinian archaeology as well as some internal evidence within the Hebrew Bible itself shows that it is _highly_ likely that montheistic Judaism emerged from what was originally a henotheistic culture. This is an uncontroversial assumption among students of the ancient Middle East but I understand and acknowledge and appreciate that millions of people are going to dispute it. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/59 "2005-12-02T16:33:04Z")
> [@Angels'Flight](#): > > Un fortunately (ain’t it always the way) it was lost in a shipwreck. > But I just got a new tablet, even more puzzling. > [new tablet](http://www.texaschapbookpress.com/magellanslog58/judgments.jpg) God wrote that with his own hand? Wow. I never thought God’s handwriting would look so much like Photoshop. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584/60 "2005-12-02T16:47:46Z")
> [@Leviosaurus](#): > > God wrote that with his own hand? Wow. I never thought God’s handwriting would look so much like Photoshop. Of course God wrote it with his own hand. He just made it _look_ like Photoshop to weed out the evil doubters and atheists. Testy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-men-create-the-false-gods/333584.md?page=4)