Interesting...

Perhaps I should NOT be listening to audio books to improve my mind. I am listening to Western Civ right now and the instructor made a point that has been continuously floating around in my head. Now, to set the stage, I am a Christian. I believe in God! I am not trying to be heretical, or blasphemous. It's just a thought.

The instructor was discussing religion and its importance to the foundation of culture as we know it. He made a comment about the 10 commandments. Specifically, the one saying: Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me. Now, in modern times, we read this that there are no other Gods and there is only one true God. However, if you put it in context (according to the instructor), you can believe in other Gods, you just can't worship them above the Christian God. Around the time that Christianity was founded people believed in multiple Gods and picked based on their needs at that moment.

Why has this been banging around in my head? Well, it kind of makes sense. If I were to agree with this principle the: I am not a bad person for believing that there is a Muslim God, nor am I a bad person for believing there are other deities in other places around the world. As long as I only worship my God and believe in him, then I am still Christian. Crazy, isn't it?

In this scenario, Christians can allow other people their religions and not feel threatened. It begs the question as well, was this what was meant by: Though shalt have no other Gods before me? Or did it change over time because Christians felt threatened by other religions?

So many questions.... If you are interested the audio book is called: The Foundations of Western Civilization and it is taught by Professor Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame.