11. Is Yahweh the One True God?

Does the God of the Bible exist? Are El and Yahweh different names for the same God, or different gods? Did God have a wife?
Chapters:
00:00-01:12 - The names of God
01:13-01:57 - El
01:58-03:56 - The patriarchs worshipped El and his wife, Asherah
03:57-05:05 - Yahweh and El interact
05:06-06:02 - Was Yahweh like Zeus?
06:03-06:24 - Yahweh replaces El
06:25-07:45 - Israelites worshipped Yahweh and Asherah
07:46-09:00 - Asherah was a goddess
09:01-13:21 - From polytheism to monotheism
13:22-15:44 - Combining traditions, conflicting accounts
15:45-18:38 - A modern analogy
Series Bibliography:
Barker, Dan - God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction
Barker, Dan - Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists
Buckser, Andrew and Glazier, Stephen D. - The Anthropology of Religious Conversion
Callahan, Tim - Secret Origins of the Bible
Carrier, Richard - “How We Know Daniel Is a Forgery”
Carrier, Richard - “Josephus on Jesus? Why You Can’t Cite Opinions Before 2014”
Carrier, Richard - Not the Impossible Faith
Carrier, Richard - On the Historicity of Jesus
Carrier, Richard - Sense and Goodness Without God
Conway, Flo and Siegelman, Jim - Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
Coogan, Michael D. - The Oxford History of the Biblical World
Copan, Paul - Is God a Moral Monster?
Craig, William Lane - Reasonable Faith
Currid, John D. And Chapman, David W. - The ESV Archaeology Study Bible
Dever, William G. - Did God Have a Wife?
Dever, William G. - Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?
Durkheim, Emile - The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Ehrman, Bart D. - Forged: Writing in the Name of God
Ehrman, Bart D. - Forgery and Counterforgery
Ehrman, Bart D. - God’s Problem
Ehrman, Bart D. - Heaven and Hell
Ehrman, Bart D. - How Jesus Became God
Ehrman, Bart D. - Jesus Before the Gospels
Ehrman, Bart D. - Jesus Interrupted
Ehrman, Bart D. - Lost Christianities
Ehrman, Bart D. - Misquoting Jesus
Ehrman, Bart D. - The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture
Ehrman, Bart D. - The Triumph of Christianity
Finkelstein, Israel and Silberman, Neil Asher - The Bible Unearthed
Geisler, Norman L. And Howe, Thomas - The Big Book of Bible Difficulties
Geisler, Norman L. And Turek, Frank - I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
Hagglund, Martin - This Life
Ham, Ken, Ed. - Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions: Volume 1
Ham, Ken and Hodge, Bodie and Chaffey, Tim, Eds. - Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions: Volume 2
Harwood, William - Mythology’s Last Gods
Helms, Randel - Gospel Fictions
Helms, Randel - Who Wrote the Gospels?
Holden, Joseph M. and Geisler, Norman - The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible
Kennedy, Titus M. - Unearthing the Bible
Koukl, Gregory - Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions
Lewis, C.S. - A Grief Observed
Loftus, John W. - The Christian Delusion
Loftus, John W. - Christianity Is Not Great
Loftus, John W. - The End of Christianity
Loftus, John W. - Why I Became an Atheist
Loftus, John W. and Rauser, Randal - God or Godless?
MacDonald, Dennis - Does the New Testament Imitate Homer?
MacDonald, Dennis - The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark
MacDonald, Dennis - Mythologizing Jesus
Matthews, Victor H. And Benjamin, Don C. - Old Testament Parallels
Mazar, Amihai - Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000-586 BCE
McDowell, Josh and McDowell, Sean - Evidence That Demands a Verdict
McLaughlin, Rebecca - Confronting Christianity
Newberg, Andrew and Waldman, Mark Robert - Why We Believe What We Believe
Nicolaou, Corinna - A None’s Story
Nongbri, Brent - Before Religion
Shanks, Hershel - Ancient Israel
Stavrakopoulou, Francesca - God: An Anatomy
Strobel, Lee - The Case for Christ
Strobel, Lee - The Case for a Creator
Strobel, Lee - The Case for Faith
Wallace, J. Warner - Cold-Case Christianity
Wolff, Catherine - Beyond: How Humankind Thinks About Heaven
ChristianAnswers.net - “Is the Bible Accurate Concerning the Existence and Destruction of the Walls of Jericho?”

[@charlesdarwin5185]

Gods evolve according to the needs of society. If God is not useful, a new one will be created.

[@join.arethion]

There's actually fascinating anthropological research on this. If you're interested, I'd recommend the work of Pascal Boyer and Azim Shariff.

[@charlesdarwin5185]

@@join.arethion this is already known. Read the Naked Ape by Desmond Morris

[@MaK-13-]

the problem is the continuous creating of new ones when we should already realise; no god need apply.

[@charlesdarwin5185]

@@MaK-13- AI Cyborgus is the next evolutionary step for the planet.

[@MaK-13-]

@@charlesdarwin5185 EDIT: i get what you mean now. apologies, my misunderstanding.

[@brett7794]

Great stuff! Can i add to it!? Yhwh turned into a storm/war god but originally was a Mennonite volcanic deity basically they worshiped a volcano 🌋 just go back and read the descriptions whenever Yahweh speaks and you'll see lol

[@redteck]

Thanks for this video. I grew up in the church, Baptist on my Dad's side, Pentecostal on my Mom's, and thoroughly embraced it all in my twenties. I was in and out of several CCM bands over those years, until I started having some doubts about time I turned thirty, and stopped going to church entirely. Even after all that, this video hit me like a brick, particularly the section about Deuteronomy 32:8. Even with the names hidden, it still portrays Yahweh as a lesser god. Huge, indeed! Thanks, again! I watched all the videos and gave them the thumbs-up.

[@join.arethion]

Wow, thanks so much! We definitely share similar backgrounds! I was in a number of CCM and worship bands, did Campus Crusade for Christ, all of it. I just want to say I know how hard this journey is. If you ever need someone to chat to, hit me up, seriously. The purpose of this video series is to share with Christians the information I wish I had discovered earlier. But the larger purpose of Arethion is to create a community for people deconstructing, departing the church, or who want spirituality without religion. TL;DR - we deserve a community, and my hope is that Arethion can be that. So anyway, please stay in touch, and thanks again for watching! :-)

[@jameschapman6559]

Similar experience Baptist, Bible college and Bible teacher. Only recently have begun to deconstruct. I have to honestly say, my life is so much better without all the b.s. from Christianity and religion. Thanks for sharing.

[@ianbrewster8934]

Fascinating

[@jmd1743]

The Old Testament had no problem with saying that there are other gods when Mosses had to show the superiority of his god over the gods the Egyptians worshiped. It's just that in later chapters it had revisionism to say that there are no other gods. If those gods existed to be challenged then they likely continue to exist in some form, and if the Egyptian's gods exist then other gods must exist as well.

[@atheistcomments]

Good stuff!

[@join.arethion]

Thanks very much! :-)

[@MaK-13-]

"Is Yahweh the One True God?" no.

[@craigertlmaier9113]

Do you believe in any Lord of the Universe? If so. How many do you believe in?

[@truthgiver8286]

Yahweh was the thunder god the Hebrews adopted he was no more real than any of the other gods they could have chosen.

[@join.arethion]

You seem well-informed on the topic! Thanks for watching. :-)

[@robertpearson7685]

Who knows? The Israelites came from Ur in southern Iraq so that's the original home of the Jews but settled in Palestine after being slaves in Egypt.

[@equalizerperiloustimes4840]

2 Kings 6;17 it doesn't say Yaweh travels in chariot but the host of angels, you need to familiarize the Bible before making these stuff to avoid wrong conclusions😅

[@join.arethion]

I would argue this passage can be interpreted either way. Another reference occurs in Ps. 104:3, which states that Yahweh rides in a chariot of clouds. Thanks for your comments and for watching! :-)

[@equalizerperiloustimes4840]

@@join.arethion Psalm 103:4 is a metaphor

[@equalizerperiloustimes4840]

@@join.arethion by the way are you an Atheist sir?

[@join.arethion]

I'd describe myself as spiritual but not religious. :-) I'm a former evangelical Christian. I grew up in the church, was saved, had a personal relationship with Jesus, played in worship bands, led Christian camps, shared the Gospel and won souls for Christ, and even trained to become a Christian archaeologist. Eventually, my studies of the Bible, textual analysis, archaeology, etc. led me to the conclusion the Bible is not true. A lot of the information that proves this is out there, but Christians rarely encounter it. I know because I never did! That's partly why I created this video series - to share that evidence with people, whether they're devout Christians, deconstructing, or agnostic/atheist. I assume by your comments you're a Christian. If I'm wrong - please correct me! It's always risky to assume. But if that's the case, I just want to thank you for watching these videos. It's great to have a dialogue about these topics. :-) Finally, re: the discussion that kicked this off - the main point is that the depiction of God in the Bible is one that closely aligns with Israelite culture between 900-100 BCE. That poses a problem for the apologetic argument for historic anticipation (kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6HMf6ShfMSihbc), but it doesn't render a "God does or does not exist" verdict in and of itself. I think once the other evidence has been rendered, however - the writing of the Old and New Testaments, the instances of forgery, the poor archaeological track record, and all the other evidence we cover in this 18 part video series - the verdict lands in the "Bible is not true" camp. And consequently, when we reflect back on the strange details we're given about Yahweh that fit the historical era in which much of the Old Testament was written, it makes sense - the Biblical text was written by humans rather than by a divine hand.

[@equalizerperiloustimes4840]

@@join.arethion yes i am a christian but i am open minded. I had watch almost all your videos and i think you have some point but im not too much convinced im waiting for more videos from you.

[@haddow777]

This is dumb. It acts as it the bible doesn't actually state many of these things as true. God wasn't exclusive to Israel. He entered into an exclusive relationship to them and they were to be exclusive to him. After entering the covenant with them, they were to be his special people. Still, there was a lot of time before the Israelites entered into the covenant with him. He formed relationships with many people. Job wasn't a part of Israel. Abraham had another son who God protected and helped in many ways, but kept separate from Israel. Before entering into their land, the encountered a prophet of God from another land who used what he knew about God against the nation of Israel. The bible also speaks of other prophets in other lands warning them about various things. Also, making a pillar of stones wasn't about idolatry, not back then. There were certain things people did to show they entered into a covenant with another. Sometimes a place or a person's name would be changed to signify the covenant. Back then, it was common to make a pillar of stones as a sign of a covenant. It wasn't built to be worshipped, but to act as a visible sign of the promises made. So many times bible debunkers miss nuance and call it contradiction. God speaks many times about the heart condition of people. How some are haughty and unrepentant while others are contrite and repentant, changing their ways. So in other areas where two different people or groups do the same thing with God acting in different ways, they call it a contradiction ignoring that God would be judging these people/groups not just by action, but heart condition.