I only have a familiarity with Christianity and the “no other gods before me” thing. I am curious what other religions have to say about it.
My (lack of) religion’s attitude towards all religions:
“No God before me” can have, and does have in the history of Christianity, three possible interpretations.
- the exclusivist one (Evangelical churches mainly): the Christian God is the only God, you have to confess him directly to be saved.
- the inclusivist one (mainly the Catholic church, and some Protestants), the Christian God is the only God, but you can unknowingly pray him when you pray an other God within other traditions, in other words you can be Christian without knowing it.
- the pluralistic one (other Protestants), most religions are equally valuable, but if you are Christian you should pray only the Christian God.
Of course this is just a model, all positions are deeper than that and most people mix two or even the three models. I don’t know where the Orthodox Churches stand.
For myself, I tend to be somewhere between the second and the third model.
Personally, as an agnostic (leaning atheist) I don’t have any particular dogma regarding other religions to follow. I will however share how I view religions.
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I’ve yet to encounter a religion that is verifiably true. As such I consider the religions of other people to essentially be opinions (personal beliefs).
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Opinions should not be held sacred in society, nor should they grant special rights.
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The religions of others only really become a problem if they make demands based on said religious belief, attempt to impose their beliefs on others, or spread verifiably false information.
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Buddhism is widely accepting of other religions. I’m atheist, and love the teachings of the Buddhas.
Tiny deism is quantum religion. And thus, it is all religions.
Nothing, I have none. #KISS
In Gita, Shri Krishna says “I am everything”. This kind of kills the “otherness” of everything.
In Theravada Buddhism, it call other religious views as just Micchaditthi (Pali word), originally meaning just “wrong view”. But in recent years, atleast in my country the word is slowly becoming akin to stronger words like blasphemer, infidel, etc, which is quite sad because in the scripture, it seems obvious that the word wasn’t use in such meaning.
The ‘religion’ I think most accurate is all in on a deity of light.
Given light can be more than one color at once when not measured and different separated eventual observers can each measure different results then as long as a deity of light was fundamentally unobservable during this life and only observed on a relative basis after departing it - such a deity’s qualities and characteristics are entirely up for grabs.
Believe what you want. If I’m right, all options are on the table - relative to you. So your beliefs don’t constrain anyone else’s or vice versa.
Even though I do think there’s a rational underlying mechanical objective truth to how that setup may have been achieved, my guess is most people wouldn’t like that version nearly as much as their own dearly held beliefs, spirituality, or superstitions, so my genuine hope is that after death what they most hoped to be the case for themselves is what they’ll find irregardless of how it works behind the scenes or what it might be for others.
Crom laughs at your god.
Asking seriously: “ no gods before me”, does that mean it’s ok to have gods after that god?
Yes. Pavel Datsyuk is not God, but when he stepped on that ice, he was no longer a man, but a god.
It means “before” as in “in front of”, not “occurring previously to”
Okay, so, what about after? Meaning he’s #1, can you have a bunch of others behind him?
I guess like the Catholics do, with Mary and saints and such?
The bible says you are allowed to do with god’s enemies as you wish.
We are fine with anyone believing anything they want, we are a spiritual mutt church, and all we want for anyone is peace and happiness in whatever you do believe or don’t.