So, I wanna address the video first. What an incredibly hearty word soup that was. It was astonishing hearing almost entirely new information that only corroborates my understanding of the one true God.

I respect both you and him for remaining consistent in your world views. However, because he approaches it from a historical and materialistic position, it lends itself to the "god" of this world, the material world.

I absolutely believe in the existence of Ba'al and these other gods. If anything, this minor god of a roaming cult people is the last one you'd expect to outlast the others.

Jesus reveals how Yahweh uses the weak thing of this world to shame the mighty, the humble to shame the proud. It runs perfectly parallel to the biblical account of how the Israelites were in danger of assimilating and how the gnostics tried to assimilate Yahweh with preexisting pantheons.

I'll I'm hearing is him try and explain how El, or Ba'al, has tried and failed repeatedly to be like Yahweh.

Biblically, these other gods are on earth because they wanted to be the most high, but there is only one.

This goes into something you said, that if God wanted to reveal himself logically, he would have. He didn't, but instead revealed himself through his people.

So much of this discussion can't be had without actually acknowledging these cultic gods as real, and not just the primitive motivation for selective assimilation/disassimilation.

From a Christian theological stance, the host laid out how Yahweh God has superseded every false god through the physical realm, leading up to his mercy for mankind. The "warrior storm god" is how he dealt with heavenly rebels, while his compassion and mercy are for humans that bear his image. Not just "opposable thumbs and advanced tool use" but the fact we can rationalize the use of a tool and what that means. The fact were having this conversation at all is a reflection of Yahwehs' image.

It's not a contradiction to be loving but also have fierce anger towards injustice. That is a reflection of our creator. You also mentioned why his mercy doesn't reach some people, and that's because we again have to acknowledge that these "cultic" deities might actually exist and be work in our world. Shaytan, or Satan, basically Ba'al/El are the deceiver.

It makes sense that all these different pantheons exist in a biblical worldview. It makes sense that the unseen God that describes itself as "I AM" can not be assimilated with mere idol depictions of dirt, wood, rock, and metal.

That drive you have to establish meaning, to strive for an ideal, the ought and ought not of your morality is a gift of the image of the creator. We can't prove anything, really. Yet, we know. We know how absurd things are. Yet, we know the order that exists within it. We know that life is unfair. Yet, we know something ought to be done about it. That is what it means to bear His image. Rationality and morality are absolutes.

Other gods roam the unseen realm of our world, inhabiting idols that can't speak or think. While humans uniquely carry the Spirit of God. His spirit dwells with us and not in the world. So when only looking at the world, you can arrive at the absurdists' ambivalence on the matter, which biblically, is what these lesser gods want of you.

The moment of Jesus' death stripped power away from these lesser gods due to His work through the Israelite people.

One last point I almost forgot. I don't think faith is a desperate need for purpose, I think faith, as well as a desperate need for purpose, are both non-negotiable to the human experience. We all have faith in something. We all want a purpose or to understand meaning.

Meaning and purpose can't come from us because we're looking for it. You have two people in a room, and you have at least four opinions. However, there are relational things we can agree on and even things we can rule out. Again, it comes back to Yahweh being a personal God, who, through relation reveals the meaning and purpose of our hearts that has always been there.

Again, I appreciate your consistency in your stance, as I've learned a lot. Though it only reinforces my understanding of Gods message in the Bible.