I note that some people have quoted the first commandment. That is interesting because if it is prohibited to have another god before God, then other gods must exist. It must also be remembered that Genesis referred to a plurality of gods throughout the creation sequence. "Let us make man in our image," "let him not eat of the tree of knowledge lest he be immortal like us," etc. Before anyone retorts that the reference was to the trinity, I submit that the trinity did not occur to Christianity until the Council of Nicea.

HUh? I thought the trinity always existed because God has always existed. The God the father,the son,and Holy spirit.

IMHO monoteism root has to find in Egypt.
Farao Amenophi the IV and he's Aton religion, he was the inventor of monoteism.
There is some good reading around like S. Freud's book on the Aton religion were Moses was a Aton priest set to exile. I do belive (IMHO) moses was a Amon priest who was put to exile by farao Akhenaton (Amenophi IV) there was many MONOLATRICK sect who followed the god Amon. Aton instead was a monoteistick god and that religion was imposed (as all the monoteistick religions) to the egyptian population. Many went to exile (includind Moses. Moses is a Egyptian surname it means sun of...like Tuth mosis son of Tuth) the followers of Amon they called them self son's of god and when they start praying they alwys said the word Amon (It's AMEN) in the beginning and at the end of the prayer. And the Amon god was also known with the word Nuk Pu Nuk and translated is I am the only who are...in short..I am!

Ok I dont have time to day, I will come into it another day.
But there is another funny thing, I don't know if u people knows about the Shardana people? well theyr was a people who lived in the mediterran many eons ago (maybe their was the original inhabitant of Sardinia, after all Sardinia is rich of ancient remains...not everybody know about the existence of EUROPES only pyramid build thousand of years ago by the sardinian) and they were also the farao mercenary. There are records were Amenophi the IV had a meeting with some shardana priest that tried to convince the farao to REINTRODUCE the ancient goddes cult [I tried to find something about this ancient religion but I failed..maybe mother earth Gea?] anyway i will not exclude that the meeting with the Shardana representative gave the farao the inspiration on the monoideism.

I personally think good is the entire unverse he is a infinite energy, but can take forms of people and objects... And that heavan is beyond space and time.....

i found this because i was interested to find out about the melkizadek 'angel/god'
i know that there are different theories about this
and also that melk = is from malik = king = angel
and zadek = earthly ruler = so it is about combining the energies of the earth and the sky into one to create balance and harmony on this earth
the irony is that the only way that i first came across melkizadek was because i was doing a 'chanelled prayer writing session' - you know i write some stuff that comes into my head and ask for 'god' or whatever the 'higher intelligence from the universe or my higher self can come up with' and this voice said = pray to the priests of melkizadek
then i found out some stuff about how with the mormons they also believe in melkizadek and they also have an order called the 'priests of melkizadek' and they are meant to represent men being honourable within the society and boys will become priests on reaching adulthood.

anyway.
i am interested to learn any more anybody else has to say.
my own personal belief about religion and about god or supernatural forces is that 'god and the whole pantheon of angels, devils etc included' are all like some sort of understanding of the energy or life forces in the universe, and from an anthropological point of view, different cultures will try to grapple and codify those unknown forces of the universe beyond ourselves in order to create archetypes that embody certain principles.
Whether or not there is one god or a million gods, the whole point is what they embody and I personally see them all as essentially part and parcel and connected with the whole thing, so a bit like the sense that the universe is like a big sea of energy that is all connected, and sometimes bits divide up and do different things, sometimes they create bits, sometimes bits get destroyed but it is all connected at the same time.
So the point about 'religion' is trying to tune into a sense of that, and any 'religion' is like a 'tune' or a 'radio wavelength' that will understand the 'cosmic principles' in given terms or conditions that that particular 'religion is attuned to'.
Regarding the point of whether or not there is one religion or not, that then becomes irrelevant, since actually most religions go through processes of absorbing, re-codifying, super-imposing themselves on top of other religions, just like the trees in a forest will grow from the compost of the plants and trees that went before.

Humans are the same, our beliefs and our cultures are maintained through our families, friends, places of education, work, the books that we read, and information networks, and those also evolve throughout the interactive process of being 'tested' and discussed.
What we 'believe' in whether or not we say it is a 'religion' or a 'philosophy' is basically something that becomes our 'guiding principle' in life, and the way that we 'conduct ourselves morally, in regards to how we define and control ourselves.

(isn't it good writing this stuff, I am clarifying all kinds of stuff in my brain during the process = hurrahh!)

anyway.

so = the point = is whether or not for example we define ourselves as suni muslim, shia, christian, jehovaist, ninja warrior, temple of doom cultist, atheist whatever.. the point is that what we 'practice' in our spiritual lives, in terms of how we manifest our spirit, is the most important part.

If we had no words.
We are just 'animals' then the words that define us mean nothing.
It is the actions that the words justify that are significant.
If someone says 'i am a christian therefore i can say to people go to hell if they don't go to church as me'
and then are rude to people then they are being arrogant *****s and using christianity as an excuse to be rude.

If they are saying 'mohamed is the only prophet and therefore in my belief that means that i can go around and sexually abuse women if they are not muslim because i only have to respect and be nice to muslim women and any other women are outside of islam so i can punish them sexually to relieve myself of my tedious boring life, then that's ok.

then they are weirdo sexual perverts and that is that.

if they are atheists who go around saying
'i am an atheist therefore i hate anyone who is a christian who went to all boy schools run by monks and they are all pedophiles'

then they obviously have an issue with pedophiles and maybe they had a bad experience at some point in their life.

i am just saying that religion is mostly a bunch of excuses for people's random psychotic behaviour towards each other.

am i
i dont know what i am saying
i am just saying what comes into my head
as spurred on by the divine creator

personally i think that
life reality the universe
that is something that is constantly evolving
therefore we are all part of the greater creative mind of the creative spirit of the creator and whatever that is
we cant call it male or female or anything
because the whole point is it is everything
therefore it is the sum of the whole
or probably something like the sum of the whole subtracted by the sum of the whole
or probably something a bit more complicated
or connected to some sort of black hole theory
and something to do with a donut

i had this theory i came up with a while back that the universe was evolving forewards in time at the same time as also a negative energy evolving backwards in time at the same time
and 'life being some sort of dynamic tension between the 2 in terms of yin yang interplay between negative and positive forces
that kind of thing
laurie anderson has a song about angels falling backwards through time

i once created a vision of my future self in my mind to come from the future to pick me up and pull me through the hard times
and it worked and it created an idea to hold to
psychically i think having 'images' or 'words' in our minds helps to create mantras to focus on that help us to survive
a bit like creating songs to sing to yourself while you are cycling or running or walking gives us focus and balance
i guess that is the point

anyway
do tell more about melkizadek

i was also going to say when you really really get into the theory of what actually christianity or any other religion is
you see that it is like a book that is constantly revised with various different characters thrown in and re-defined and names changed or given different attributes and what that say is more about the society of the time than about anything else.
but at the same time, i also see that as part of the creative principle of god, and I also see the interactive conflict between the different religions all trying to work it out, is also part of the dynamic interaction of what is god also.
because if god is totally then he is beyond all of us, on this tiny small insignificant planet in a very large and infinite universe, so therefore he is beyond any separate definition of any small bunch of people with very small brains collected in any small part of the world. So therefore, if they are protecting anything, maybe they are protecting some secret knowledge, maybe they are protecting themselves and their own survival and they are part of god too, and their truth is also part of the greater truth. and it is seeing how it all fits together which is the interesting but also very complicated and technical and interesting stuff.
comparative religion, and seeing the 'message beyond the divisions' all of that.
etc. most of it boils down to
'have a cup of tea' and chill out and sort it out.

I am a polytheist Druid. I follow the Irish pantheon, Tuatha-Dé-Danann. I believe there are many Gods and Goddesses which ones you follow depends on your path.
Here is a web site that lists the Celtic Gods and Goddesses.
http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic&Mytholo...oddess/main.htm

The God of the bible is male from start to finish the bible refers to God as Him.
Second I think that there are other Gods why else would God mention them if there were none?
Yes, it does refer to other Gods as false idols it would make sense seeing that the Christian God only wants you to believe in him. I am sure that money, cars, Etc can count as Gods too but I personally believe that he is talking about other Gods.

On the Sunday about working on Sunday, this is just picking & choosing of what you want to believe out of the bible. This is why modern day Christians to not believe in the OT because it is not their bible. They only refer to it when they want to make a point.


I don know believe & never have believed that you need ANY religion to teach your kids morals if you do then don’t have any more kids because you’re a lazy parent & you don’t know how to instill good behavior in them for yourself & your trying to use fear to keep your children in line.

There is nothing, not a thing, that can point out anything having to do with an unseen creator. In the bible now, Melchizedek is the priest that met Abram after he slew 4 kings and demanded 10% of the spoils and that became our tithe. We go to work and defeat Satan and then we give 10% of the spoils to the priesthood. Malki-Tsedek was the King of Palestine, King of Shalem, a peaceful King.

I'm sure if there is life in other places then they believe in their own Gods as well. As to whether these Gods are real or not, I don't know.

Maybe there's one main God and he has tons of lesser Gods work for him. Like regional managers or something. Maybe there's just one God total. Maybe there's a family of Gods. Maybe there is no God.

Anyway on the: "You shall have no other gods before me”

If you notice, he said BEFORE me. He did not say you couldn't have other Gods, they just can't come before him. He wants to be the number one top dog.

And, I might have missed the memo or something but has the Christian God come down recently to tell us that certain rules no longer apply?

I don't understand how people can pick and choose what they believe. If you're really a true Christian then you will follow all of his rules. All of them. No matter what.

Because saying "this rule doesn't apply anymore" means you are putting words in God's mouth.

If I were God I'd be pretty ticked off that everyone kept bending, changing, and discarding things I said to suite their wants. If the Christian God is real then 99.9999999999999999% of the population is going to hell (including Christians).

i think a true god would be seperate of all the galaxies and the universe he created. the creator does not become a part of the what he creates. I also believe there is only one god,, due to the harmony in the universe and the balance in nature, and all living things have similarities at molecular levels and dna etc to an extent, showing the signature of one creator, if there was more than one, they would compete, thus chaos and difference at all levels. the fact we dont have the latter, shows only one god.

Hey, you're right the bible does say that. BUT you musn't read the bible as a cooking book (please don't take this as an insult, it jsut a way to explain my point). The bible is a book written by believers for believers about God. It describes the experiences which the jews (in this case) had in terms of religious experiences. They were very crafty writers, using many, many symbols to explain the things they couldn't describe. When reading the bible, people shouldn't look for the facts. Its about the experiences that can teach us valuable things, for example how we can show our love to God in the fullest ("He who saved us from Egypt, the slavehouse"). This is what the 10 commandment are about. They are guidelines, not rules. Therefore, the fact that the bible says this don't make them facts in our world.
The thing which makes God such a special thing in retrospect to all the other gods is that God never wanted anything in return. He just loved mankind en that is why we love him back. The other "gods" where personifications of "normal" acts of nature. In our search for meaning in life, we turned to our imagination which gave us comfort in "bribing" these personifications. The God of the jews never asked for anything. He loved us anyway, but a lot of people admire this and therefore love him back. But beware, watch how represent God in your imagination. You shouldn't depict God as a god. Meaning that you idolize him. The jews used a lot of different kinds of ways to depict God. A burning bush, a cloud, ... True, sometimes he is depicted as a man (Genesis 18), but that was to show how strong the love between God and Abram was, like a loving realtionship between two persons.
Now, finally , I get to my contribution to this post . Every god created is created by our own imagination, I for that matter reject all religious worship of stone "idols".But I do acknowledge something described in the bible as somthing more. God to me is in everything and everywhere. Only, the reason we call him God right now here in the West is because of our religious background. The muslims worship Allah which is just another name for God. Asians with an Buddhist society cannot form an image of God like we do. This isn't because they are inferior to us. They were just never "given" the image we have. But if you dig deep into every religion which hasn't sprouted just out of desire, you will find the same entity. So to me there can only be one God.
Greetings to all