Eric "The Heathen Patriot Tea Party Extremist" Lundrbeck said:
Gen. 1:26 "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness..."
This is a favorite quote amongst my fellow pagans that seems to point out that there is another God with God when He created man.
Who exactly is God talking to if there is only one God?
Surely you considered the answer that God was talking to his other creations? And as his creations they are not equal to him, are not all powerful creators, are not other gods.
I came across this conversation WAY late, obviously, but I wanted to add a couple thoughts. I would say that there is only one REAL God, one Creator of the Universe, that being YHWH, but there are many gods (small g), worshipped by many people. Those gods may be money, power, sex, onesself, or any of a number of things. If something is the central thing around which one's life revolves, and which one pays all adoration, effort, or devotion to.. it is your god. Mammon (money) is the god of many rather than being what it should be to a normal person.. simply a tool for monetary exchange.
In any event, The Commandment "Thou shalt have no other Gods BEFORE ME" could easily be seen as an admission that there are others.. simply that they are all lesser gods and that they are of lesser importance, power, and authority than the one TRUE God. Otherwise, why would the commandment not simply read "Thou shalt have no other Gods... PERIOD"?
Personally, it is not really an issue, since I worship only the one God, YHWH.. often pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah, since the actual pronunciation of YHWH is lost in antiquity even to hebrew scholars. I merely consider the question to be of trivial interest. Thoughts?
Translating from ancient Hebrew to English, there might be a different definition for the word "god" (little G). I always took that to mean false gods or other religious icons. I don't imagine God as a man with mega-superpowers sitting on a golden throne floating around in the sky, but rather a living, sentient entity that permeates the universe - one which has made us in His spiritual image. If what I suspect about God is true, there can be literally only one God, period. There literally isn't room in the universe for any other super-entity such as God. Maybe there are more, but not in *this* universe.
[Looking over my shoulder for Hassan Nurullah, who mysteriously shows up every time anyone posts in a theology thread...]
