From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!sdccsu3!sdcvax!lwall Newsgroups: net.religion Title: Re: Proving the existence of only one god? Article-I.D.: sdcvax.130 Posted: Wed Feb 16 10:02:49 1983 Received: Sat Feb 19 12:51:58 1983 Yes, the god of the Old Testament denies the existence of any other gods: This is what the LORD says-- Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6 NIV) This is just part of a much longer passage that is basically anti-idolatry. It is my opinion that verses 16 and 17 demonstrate a sense of humor on God's part. Peace, Larry Wall ...decvax!trw-unix!sdcvax!lwall P.S. Speaking of humor...(perhaps this ought to be in net.nlang), it seems that the words "new" and "old" are going the way of all flesh, so to speak, and coming to be synonyms for "good" and "bad", just as many fine words have done in the past, e.g. "villain", etc. Perhaps this is part of the problem in coming up with a reasonable name for what is commonly called the Old Testament. Action item for you word smiths out there: come up with a new (?) pair of words that express temporal ordering but that don't have so many of the emotional connotations given to "new/old" by Madison Ave. Our culture has gone wacko over the worship of change. In times past it seems that old things (and people) got more respect.