Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 355 – Part IX.

YOUCAT Question n. 355 - Part IX. “You shall not have strange Gods before me.” What does that mean?

(Youcat answer - repeated) This commandment forbids us: to adore other gods and pagan deities or to worship an earthly idol or to devote oneself entirely to some earthly good (money, influence, success, beauty, youth, and so on); to be superstitious, which means to adhere to esoteric, magic, or occult or New Age practices or to get involved with fortune telling or spiritualism, instead of believing in God’s power, providence, and blessings; to provoke God by word or deed; to commit a sacrilege; to acquire spiritual power through corruption and to desecrate what is holy through trafficking (simony).      

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2127) Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or deny.       

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2128) Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally express indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism. (CCC 2138) Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic. (CCC 2139) Tempting God in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony are sins of irreligion forbidden by the first commandment. (CCC 2140) Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the first commandment.        

(The next question is: Is esotericism as found, for example in New Age beliefs, compatible with the Christian faith?)