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talljasperman's avatar

If the bible says that God is a jealous God and he doesn't want any other gods before him, mean that there is a possibility for a human to become a deity?

Asked by talljasperman (21919points) July 24th, 2013

If only a false one in Gods eyes?

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21 Answers

Imadethisupwithnoforethought's avatar

Wait what? Yes, the way you structured the question.

Of course, you could set up false gods of anything, inclusive of humans.

PhiNotPi's avatar

It means that the Christian God demands that you worship him as being more important than other gods (such as the Roman gods or the Greek gods).

It has always been possible for a human to become a deity. For example, the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were sometimes worshiped as deities.

gailcalled's avatar

Caligula simply announced one day that he was a deity…and so he was. (c. 40 AD).

theodiskaz's avatar

The Israelites would show a proclivity to worship other, “false” gods over and over again. What God is saying here is that he wants to be worshiped exclusively. He is jealous of His relationship with His people. Actually, the Bible denies the existence of other gods, though not of Satan and demons. The new testament calls Satan “the god of this world”, without meaning to imply that he (Satan) is actually self existent, which only God is.

glacial's avatar

The Mormons appear to believe that they can become gods… though somehow not false ones. I guess they thought he was just kidding with that “jealous god” thing.

Berserker's avatar

I think that part means that people won’t create gods or worship things/ideas/figures as gods. Such attention will remain for the one and only god. I’m basing this on The Bible saying that there is only one god, and there will always be just one god.

I’m not sure if The Bible actually says that, but I think so, however I shall stand corrected, otherwise.

ETpro's avatar

Mankind has worshiped tens of thousands of non-human deities. Nobody has anything close to an accurate count, as many were certainly here and gone before history, glyphs and writing were ever invented. There have, within recorded history, been about 3,000 gods put forward by this or that group as the one true god, the creator of all that is, and either the ruler of the other gods, the ancestor of them, or wholly sufficient—all the other gods being claimed to be false. Clearly with such claims, all but one of the creators have to be false gods, as their followers are making mutually exclusive claims for them being the One.

The one that made this Jealous God claim appears to have be begun life about 6,300 years ago as the Ugaritic god El. El was the chief god of the Canaanite religion, or Levantine religion as a whole. His consort was the Goddess Asherah. They brought forth many gods, but chief among them were Hadad (AKA Ba’al), Yam, and Mot.

Over time El appears to have been worshiped by a desert nomad tribe now know as the Jewish people. His name changed to cognates such as ēlîm, elōhîm (which in Hebrew means gods but was also used for God), and eventually Yahweh or YHWH, YHVH. By this time he had disowned his wife and all those children and demanded that all bow to him and please him at all times or risk his fearsome ire.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I think it gives credence to the idea other gods exist. The god of the Old Testament of the Bible wants exclusivity with one tribe.

If no other gods exist, why make a point of denying them?

ucme's avatar

But there already exists such a deity here on earth, a demigod worthy of such an epic staus, he goes by the name of Sir Donald of Trumpshire, see his hair part like that of the red sea…a truly miraculous vista.

Katniss's avatar

Omg!! Hahahahaha @ucme
Once again I’m wiping coffee off of my face.

ucme's avatar

The perils of drinking & reading are well documented, take heed, you may scald yourself one day & we can’t be having that now can we? :D

Katniss's avatar

@ucme At least it didn’t come out my nose this time. That hurt like a motherfucker!!
I’ve GOT to remember to avoid your responses until I’m done with my coffee!! lol

ucme's avatar

Ha, try suing me bitch…go on, I dare you :)

Katniss's avatar

Ok, you little shitweasel, I will!
I hadn’t even thought about it until you started with the name calling. Now all bets are off. lol

ucme's avatar

Shitweasel, haha…less of the little though, i’m a big boy I am.

Katniss's avatar

Ok. You big shitweasel. How’s that? lol

ucme's avatar

How do you tell the difference between a weasel & a stoat?
One’s weasely recognised & the otter’s stoatally different.
Go easy, that was one of granny’s fave jokes…bless.

Katniss's avatar

lol @ucme That’s cute!

ETpro's avatar

How long ‘er men recognize the godlike properties of the stoat? See how the stoat designed divine recursion into that question to testify of its godhead?

Getting back to the topic here, I forgot to mention anything about men being promoted to or worshipped as Gods. The OP did ask that. Prior to WWII, the Emperors of Japan made the claim not only to be a god but the Creator One. Pharos, emperors, war-lords and kings throughout the ages have routinely proclaimed themselves to be a god or even the One God. Recent enrollees in the god club include such unlikely candidates as the Japanese Emperors, Filipino revolutionary leader José Rizal, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Il-sung, Father Divine, Francisco Macías Nguema, Juanita Peraza (Mita), Lou de Palingboer, Hulon Mitchell, Jr (AKA Yahweh ben Yahweh), Nirmala Srivastava, Jehovah Wanyonyi, Sathya Sai Baba, Mitsuo Matayoshi, Claude Vorilhon, and Vissarion.

Then there is this lengthy list of people who claimed they were the risen Christ. And of course, if Jesus was in fact God, as is claimed by his followers, claiming to be the reincarnation of Him is a claim to being the One God that’s actually Three in One.

All this shows why Pascal’s Wager is so utterly misguided. Pascal looked at it like a coin toss. He reasoned that it was a 50/50 proposition and betting on the one God he happened to believe in was a perfectly safe bet, whereas betting against him had a 50% chance of bringing a sentence of eternal suffering in Hell. But if Gods are jealous and you bet on the wrong one, that is NOT a safe bet, and there are tens of thousands of claimants to being God.

In a coin toss you do have a 50/50 chance of calling the right side. Throw a pair of dice, and you have a one in twelve chance of calling the number that will come up. But introduce tens of thousands of claimants for the position of One True God and the game piece becomes some sort of many-faceted polyhedron with tens of thousands of faces. Since Gods can be jealous, you are asked to call your number and roll the polyhedron and hope the you made picked the number that will actually be selected by the roll.

Oh, and it’s also possible that there is a real, existing creator God but all the claimants to that title are pretenders, and the true God has no interest in making herself known. This would be the watchmaker God of the deist, who ordained the elegance and indescribably perfect fine tuning of all the physical constants, set the Universe in motion, and never intervenes. This would be the God Einstein believed in. Alternatively, it’s equally possible there is no god, all claimants are impostors, and the only reason so many gods have been asserted to exist is that the easiest method of explaining what we humans do not currently understand is to posit a supernatural being and assign all the unknowns to “the god of the gaps.” Further, positing such a being is a great gig for the priestly set that teaches his/her/its commands and exacts the required tribute to assure followers a proper claim on an afterlife.

rojo's avatar

No, it simply means that there are multiple gods and that this one does not appreciate the competition.

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