If You Believe in One God You Have to Believe in All Gods

Because there is no argument against other gods that cannot be used against your god. And there is no defense of your god that cannot be used by every god.

 

Surely, most monotheists will not have a problem with this? Could monotheists not all go together and say "yes, we all agree the monotheistic god exists, and there are no contenders to use any defence we use for our god" (bar some polytheistic ones which can be addressed with arguments that are different to those applied to the monotheistic god)? They will still disagree on what God is like, but that's beyond the scope of this argument, it seems to me.

 

LOL true. It appears no one is willing to take on such a loaded argument though. How can they disprove any god without disproving their own? The world may never know.

 

So, you are saying that if I believe in one god, I have to also believe in the 33,000,000 Hindu gods? I don't think so.

 

Then you can disprove those other gods, right?

 

Most likely can but won't because as you said it would be the same argument to disprove whichever one they have chosen to believe in. Then where would they be?

 

Wold need to pound down a few Jameson's in order to get into another God argument !!!! But i am on antibiotics so that is not happening soon

 

LOL get well soon

 

This doesn't work because you're making an appeal to logic in order to dictate a decision made by faith.

I get what you're trying to say, but in defending their particular brand of 'God', believers will point to personal anecdotes and emotionally-grounded arguments.

If you were to say that "If you believe in one god, you have no rational basis for ruling out the existence of any other god(s)", I'd agree with you.

 

Maybe this wouldn't be stupid if belief in God or the profession thereof obligated the believer or professor to provide or consider any arguments whatsoever. Things being what they are...

 

Says who and by what authority? The reality as I see it is that many only care about their concept of God while rejecting all claimed gods that lay outside their theological views.

 

Sounds brilliant....as long as you ignore that faith allows people to be as selective as they want to be in what they do or do not believe.

 

OK, I'll take a stab at this. Dionysus (god of wine) is far too limited in scope to be an actual thing. By contrast, Yahweh, is not a "niche god", but the god of everything.

 

You are saying that Dionysus doesn't exist because his scope is too small? Why would that make him imaginary?

 

Well, the gods were supposed to predate man, so what would be the point of a god of wine before people started making wine? Since people made wine, they then thought "hey let's have a god for that niche". But humans didn't create the universe, so a god that predates humans makes more sense if it is a god "of the universe".

 

Weak argument.

The God of wine GAVE humans the gift of wine when He thought they were ready for it. Wine existed long before man appeared.
The God of Wine actually created the Earth originally to grow the grapes for wine - humans were just an after-thought when He decided that He needed something to help tend the vines ...

Prove me wrong.

 

You are making up a new god, not talking about Dionysus. In Greek mythology, Gaea (the Earth) predated Dionysus by a long shot. http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Creation/the_creation.html

 

Nonsense! Here's an example that we can prove hypothetically.

In my lab I create miniature world of living creatures, intelligent creatures that I'm able to send basic instructions to 2 or 3 creatures who will then communicate with all the others. I give them the operating instructions on how to properly live in this environment I have created. I am the God of this miniature world that I created.

Over many years some of these creatures of mine have ignored my original instructions and created their own ways of doing things. Half of them ignore me as their God and creator and they actually believe they are smarter than me. They divide themselves into smaller groups with various unique ways of living, each group creates their own idea of a God and instructions to live by.

Once I discover how they are about to ruin what I have created, I get really angry. I find a way to migrate the "bad half" of creatures to one area, and I burn them to a crisp using my torch. This leaves the "good half" to enjoy the entire miniature world I have created for them.

End of story.

Moral of story, don't disrespect the one true God and creator of your world.

 

You cannot "Prove" a hypothetical.....in fact it is proven unprovable by being hypothetical.

 

Did you not read my post? They don't need to disprove other gods if it can be argued that they're not actually other gods, but the same god with different features. The way I've heard debates between people of different monotheistic faiths, this is the way it is often thought about. Of course, they'll still have to deal with polytheism, but polytheism and monotheism are different enough that it wouldn't surprise me if one can find arguments against polytheism that don't address monotheism.

 

If your theory was to be used then wouldn't you have to prove that at some point their was one god accepted by everyone. Historical and archeological evidence suggest no such god ever existed.

 

Whom ,in his own books in the Bible, never once said he was the only deity in fact since the first commandment implies other deities he seems to say their are indeed other gods just he should be first in his book and no other ones honored. Sticking to the Torah the Egyptian priests had power they did conjure serpents just god's one was stronger. What if he is a tough big god being but has to keep the others off guard or they would be strong enough to take him out?

Now gods like that one make more sense to me he's a deity of one thing, so are frankly most of them, so why not pick ones you like and go with them?

Or more likely to me there are none and why waste your time until you can prove the supernatural exists to allow the making of some kind of case.

 

My belief in God is not based on logic, but on faith, so no, I don't have to believe in all gods. I don't have faith that they exist, and to some degree, I agree with Swenson, in that all "gods" are just misperceptions of God.

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It's impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods. It's not in the realm of science. Religion is the realm of faith, and proof/disproof are irrelevant.

 

Well that was easy. Would you say that your belief in god is illogical?

 

Okay, but the problem with saying, "It's ridiculous for there to be a god of wine because that's so insignificant" is that he wasn't a god because he invented wine. He was a god, and then he showed people how to make wine. So people called him the god of wine.