Pagan gods and goddesses in contrast to YHWH?

[Ashley the Bee]

From what little I understand about many gods and goddesses throughout various Pagan traditions, they are most often limited in some way or another, and in the case of some traditions, they are even mortal.

The Abrahamic religions revolve around a single omnipotent deity who created everything out of love.

As I've reflected upon what I would like to call the "supernatural", for lack of a better term, I really get stuck on this concept of the infinite creator.

I really wish I could say this properly, but I can't seem to fully articulate it. It's something toward, "If YHWH doesn't make sense, and YHWH and, say, Artemis are both deities, then how could Artemis make sense."

It makes me terribly confused on so many points.

So, I wanted to ask others if they've ever come to such a point, or how they managed to "deal" with it. If others haven't, how they avoided it.  

[too2sweet]

For me YHWH doesn't make sense because for all intents and purposes, one is expected to follow him like sheep. He tells us what to do, how to act, and starts us with the premise that we are flawed (original sin) and only through him can we be saved. He's also supposed to be perfect, which, when one sees all the imperfections in the world around us - would possibly lead one to question why someone so perfect would make such glaring mistakes. It can be hard to reconcile.

I have found that many of the Gods/esses, while they are there to guide us, usually expect us to make our own choices in life. They also expect us to take responsibility for our actions. We know that our Gods/esses are not infallible so it makes it easier to identify with them. Also they aren't constantly sitting over our shoulders tell us that we need to be saved, especially when we haven't done anything wrong in the first place.

There are some paths that believe in an "infinite creator" of a sort, as well. But it is seen as more of an energy source from which all else is made. The God and Goddess are but extensions of that source. So it in itself doesn't really have a "personality", that is up to the Gods/esses.

As to your actual question...it's never really been an issue for me. I simply accept that there are multiple deities in the world, and just like regular people - there are some who will be my friends for life, and others that I just won't understand, and others that will fall somewhere in between.  

[EternalHearts]

I think of YHWH as a mis-understood concept of The One from Platonic thought. Simply put, The One is that 'infinite creator' you speak of, but is bigger than all that--it's kind of the entirety of the Cosmos. the One is not the creator so to speak, but creation emanates from it.

it's such a difficult concept to comprehend that we need the Deities and spirits in between so we can grasp these larger concepts. Breaking down life into Love, Freedom, Conflict, etc and worshiping the deities associated with these things allows us to interact with the Cosmos.

(poorly written, I know, my apologies)  

[Recursive Paradox]

I sort of broke away from the whole concept of deities at all with the Aspects and The Ether.

The Ether is similar to that The One concept that Hearts went over, but different in that The Ether doesn't emanate creation. It is creation.

It's everything that exists, the sum total of the universe's energy and matter. It is also not conscious in any way so I don't see it as a god or a goddess.

And the Aspects are more spiritual side reflections of the forces of the universe. They hold the Ether together. Some are sentient, others are not.

But none of them are really deities to me. I don't worship them. I may involve myself with one or two, drawing on their power, but that's more a naturalistic process and not really a request given to a god or goddess.

To me YHVH is a nonsensical thing due to those issues that too2sweet brought up and the fact that the concept of complete omnipotence strikes me as impossible.

To me nothing is all powerful. Everything can be countered in some way. So I find it hard to believe that even a deity can be all powerful too.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

too2sweet

For me YHWH doesn't make sense because for all intents and purposes, one is expected to follow him like sheep. He tells us what to do, how to act, and starts us with the premise that we are flawed (original sin) and only through him can we be saved. He's also supposed to be perfect, which, when one sees all the imperfections in the world around us - would possibly lead one to question why someone so perfect would make such glaring mistakes. It can be hard to reconcile.

Technically the imperfections in the world are our fault (or The Devil's depending on who you ask). And the "problem of evil" has a rich philosophical history.  

[Nomad of Nowhere]

Why is YHVH so exclusive? Pagan people's of the era identified him with one of their gods sometimes. Anyway, it seems to me that the world is not unified under a single supreme agenda. Otherwise, there's dualism- but dualism, what Christians might say is the Satan vs God complex, originated in Iran as the Ahura Mazda vs. Angra Mainyu complex. The earlier texts from the Hebrews make it seem that Satan actually still answers to god. In any case, the original sin concept is pretty hard to wrap my head around.

As for whether or not he exists, I have no reason to deny the existence of any deity I know of- whether their followers enemies acknowledged them or not. If things had gone a bit differently, he could have been integrated into the Canaanite pantheon. Some people tried to mix his worship with those of others, but the traditionalists cracked down on them and denounced them- you can read it in the Bible. Anyway there is no also no way to ascertain if any god is truly supreme, given the widely differing opinions on that matter, but if there is a supreme power, it raises many more questions than does the notion that the power is split many ways.  

[Labores Luna]

How one deity could make sense and not the other really depends upon the individual and their beliefs concerning the nature of divinity. It also has to do with their view on the specific deity and who/what they are, the order of the universe, etc.

The Christian god does not make sense to me because he as thought of as being separate from this world, among other things. While I do believe that there is a part of the divine that might be “separated” in some ways (though I’m not sure) it does not correspond to the god in the Bible. This god also contradicts with my other views, experiences, goals, etc.

So I don’t think of it in terms of “dealing” with it, but in exploring my own outlook.  

[Fiddlers Green]

The God of Abraham is just a tribal patron deity with delusions of grandeur.
Comparing the rigorous commandments he placed on his tribes with the requirements placed on other tribes in the location, both geographical and chronological, it doesn't seem quite as odd. Several ancient city-states had patron divinities. Temples to other divinities could often be subjugated. As City-States became Empires, some gods shared and allowed other gods to work with them for their pet Empires, others were resolute and refused to allowed the gods of conquered peoples to be worshipped.

Sifting thru biblical inconsistencies, we find an entire tribe of humans living in the land of Nod for Kain to integrate into, a tribe that did not trace it's ancestry to the garden of Eden by any account I've seen... That sorta puts the lie to Adam being the father humanity, unless, before the coming of Kain, these were an all female group that repopulated thru parthenogenesis.

Take a look at some of the beliefs in the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, see how they might have influenced a Tribal God into even greater ambitions. Despite the very isolationist, and xenophobic behavior mandated for the the Tribes of Israel, some cross-contamination is apt to occur.

As far as ascribing Christianity to the god of Abraham... Hmph.
I see the hand of Zarathustra far more clearly than the bloody-hand of the law-monger. This also shows in Shem's other successor faith, Islam. Judaism and Islam are both very rule oriented faiths that feature a violent, vindictive divinity, who loves, but only his followers, and even then, only the really devout one. With restrictions that range from when women are tainted, to when to execute your fellows, and what to eat and not to eat, it seems very different from the more free form, just don't be an a** attitude of Christianity's god. The almost universal affection the God of Jeushua is supposed to display is much more like Ahura Mazda, or certain even farther eastern divinities to boot.

But with such matters, don't take the word of pitiful mortal sages who pretend to understand the divine. Find your own Sacred Truth. Seek direct revelation from the gods you are curious about. Some don't talk to outsiders, allegedly, and some may burn you for your temerity. Truth is rarely free.