In this thread, I'm looking to hear from theists, and mostly those of the idea that there are multiple Gods, or that God can present her/his/itself in various forms.
How do you feel about other people's Gods? If you have one or two you favor, or you stick within a certain pantheon, what is your relationship with the deities of others? Do you feel they all exist? Are they different forms of similar deities, or each their own entities? Do you acknowledge them, choose to ignore, or something else?
This is not a thread for any One True God 'stuff'. Sorry!
Its rare to encounter another person who has gods, though I have. It cannot be stressed enough that this is a personal matter, and a person's gods often (not always) reflect something about themselves. They feel chosen or they choose the gods, so it is personal. When they talk about the admiration for their gods I also hear what virtues they admire, and virtues are to me more important than the talk. Actions speak louder than words.
As for the existence of gods I allow the possibility for a couple of reasons. First, humans are already gods in a way; so if we are in the world there could be other things out there smarter or more capable than we are. Maybe these are considered gods sometimes by some people.
Secondly I don't equate gods and God, so I don't view it as a competition like some people have in the past. Some people think that if there is a powerful being out there that isn't God its somehow diminishing God, and I don't agree about that. I think this belief proceeds innocently enough from a misunderstanding by some Christians about a Jewish law (Exodus 23:13), but I think it (not speaking the names of gods) has become superstitiously and zealously held by some people in my group who are not Jewish. Whatever the Jewish reason is, it doesn't seem to apply to me and even if it did saying the name of a god is not in my case like denying God or trying to tempt God. Again, not Jewish so I do not have such a limitation; and I'm not superstitious about it so not worried about fallout from magic words.
So let me then consider what if other people have gods. I think its cute, but beyond that I try to look at why they have a particular one and what virtues they are interested in. In my mind I count virtue as virtue no matter what the abstract philosophical understanding behind it may be. Discipline is admirable of its own. Love and compassion are. It is not as if love loses its value when you don't use the correct greeting card.
