Sheild Maiden Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Ever since deconverting, I have been reading other religions myths, and remembering how the bible always insulted other gods or said that they werent't real (which is it christians/jews?). What I don't understand is why is monotheism considered better? I actually like polytheism because your just calling on different aspects like love or war in personified form. I feel like the Judeo-Christian/Islamic god tries to be too many things all at once. I could worship Odin and all of the other Norse gods/goddesses with all of their faults faster than I could go back to worshipping whatever the god of the bible is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 An assumed single deity can be depicted as more powerful; if you're aiming for an authoritarian construct I guess that's the way to go. Telling someone that you've got a whole pantheon of deities is hardly likely to generate a "WOW" factor, especially if part of the story is that the deities don't always agree on everything. It's much more plausible than a monotheism (all this good-AND-evil shit - is that One True Gawd insane or what?!) but... not as impressive. Also, the later, "younger" religion can be claimed to be "obviously more modern, a clear progress" and such. Who cares whether there's really any progress? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted September 15, 2013 Super Moderator Share Posted September 15, 2013 A monotheist only has to buy one statue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Its not better. They just seem to think its such a hassle having many gods to obey, because they think that all religions were necessarily authoritarian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 It's not better, most other regions are polytheistic. Which I believe reflects nature more accurately... even with those with a mother goddess, she usually has a consort, a balance between male and female. Of course the ancient hebrews were polytheistic, it was just hidden well when the Yahwists gained control after and basic scattering and conquest of Israel and the Babylonian captivity and release of Judah. Bt the time of Jesus it was pretty much a huge denial, and the Christians, even then, did not know the history of their own roots in religion. Catholicism is polythesitic, in a way. Asherah, anyone? Her worship was held in the Tabernacle until she was expelled by the (Pharisees?) Yahwists, and she was demonized. (yes, it's in the Bible) "Let US make man in OUR image"? The heavenly hosts? The 'court' of God in Job? It's there if you look for it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 It's not better, most other regions are polytheistic. Which I believe reflects nature more accurately... even with those with a mother goddess, she usually has a consort, a balance between male and female. Of course the ancient hebrews were polytheistic, it was just hidden well when the Yahwists gained control after and basic scattering and conquest of Israel and the Babylonian captivity and release of Judah. Bt the time of Jesus it was pretty much a huge denial, and the Christians, even then, did not know the history of their own roots in religion. Catholicism is polythesitic, in a way. Asherah, anyone? Her worship was held in the Tabernacle until she was expelled by the (Pharisees?) Yahwists, and she was demonized. (yes, it's in the Bible) "Let US make man in OUR image"? The heavenly hosts? The 'court' of God in Job? It's there if you look for it. It's much much worse than that. I believe its actually the priestly texts that start making God "one", before that, it was "thou shall only worship one", the one god among the many gods who was worshippable, which was yahwist I do believe. Monotheism doesn't appear in the Old Testament until the Prophets. I think that's when Priestly source was supposed to have been written. In Ezra's times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheild Maiden Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 I didn't know that the ancient Hebrews were polytheists, even so, it just doesnt make any sense as to why they would allow a few of their own people to deny parts of their own religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 If you are a monotheist then you can kill the polytheists and take their stuff cuz God said so. Seriously though Christianity seems to do very well in areas that were formerly dominated by polytheism or local religions. Christianity is losing ground in the first world where people are waking up to atheism. But in the third world Christianity is thriving. The Romans knew what they were doing when they designed that religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoddessOfWisdom Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Because monotheism is the ancient version of 'yellowism'. Next time you get proselytized on the street, think of "listen to young dictators". And run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duderonomy Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Ever since deconverting, I have been reading other religions myths, and remembering how the bible always insulted other gods or said that they werent't real (which is it christians/jews?). What I don't understand is why is monotheism considered better? I actually like polytheism because your just calling on different aspects like love or war in personified form. I feel like the Judeo-Christian/Islamic god tries to be too many things all at once. I could worship Odin and all of the other Norse gods/goddesses with all of their faults faster than I could go back to worshipping whatever the god of the bible is. Monotheism is better for humanity because...less tithes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Because monotheism is the ancient version of 'yellowism'. Next time you get proselytized on the street, think of "listen to young dictators". And run. Yes! Exactly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheild Maiden Posted September 18, 2013 Author Share Posted September 18, 2013 The idea is that the little gods are just representations of aspects of the one overarching God of Everything who is found in most polytheistic religions but not worshipped or given an image because he is too abstract and too far away from reality. But wouldn't it be simpler to just cut through all the bit players and go straight to the big Kahuna in the sky? In fact, wouldn't he prefer that? As a matter of fact, how dare those other Gods usurp the authority of the One?Something should be done about that. I've got an idea, why don't we go knock over the statue of Dagon in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping and say that God did it? That would scare those Philistines silly. If we can do that, it will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us and not them. I can think up a whole host of other ways we can help God get rid of those upstarts. Okay so it was about terrorizing the other guy and gaining more power? Your explanation helped! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoddessOfWisdom Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 The idea is that the little gods are just representations of aspects of the one overarching God of Everything who is found in most polytheistic religions but not worshipped or given an image because he is too abstract and too far away from reality. But wouldn't it be simpler to just cut through all the bit players and go straight to the big Kahuna in the sky? In fact, wouldn't he prefer that? As a matter of fact, how dare those other Gods usurp the authority of the One?Something should be done about that. I've got an idea, why don't we go knock over the statue of Dagon in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping and say that God did it? That would scare those Philistines silly. If we can do that, it will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us and not them. I can think up a whole host of other ways we can help God get rid of those upstarts. Okay so it was about terrorizing the other guy and gaining more power? Your explanation helped! If you read the Old Testament with this perspective, the possibilities of how things might really have occurred suddenly seem very clear. Hahaha. I just mentally reinterpreted the story of enemy soldiers getting scared off, hearing god's vast heavenly host marching in the treetops, into a medium-sized herd of Jewish guys banging things really loudly from behind a rock, whispering "Are they gone yet?" I need to get around to rereading that book. Nothing like fresh perspective, I tell ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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