Stages of God over time

[Wertbag]

I saw an interesting article about how the majority view of God has changed over time.  I think we can all see the polytheism to monotheism and onto atheism, but it pointed out that there were further steps that we didn't commonly consider.

In the beginning we have animalism/spiritualism where everything in the world is supernatural, from the rain to the rocks.  Spirits dwell in everything and any event that occurs is due to their will.  This matches people in a commune type environment, where there is little to no understanding of the world, so everything is given a will of its own.

 

This changes to polytheism, where it's no longer Gods everywhere, but Gods given specific roles, so a pantheon with individuals focused on certain phenomenon.  This matches with humans in ordered communities, with more distinct roles and specialists.

 

This then changes to monotheism, where it is highlighted, there is one God superior to all others, so why spent time offering worship to any lesser being when the king of the gods is the most powerful.  Sometimes there are lesser deities, or angels filling the roles where the many Gods would have been previously.  This part of human development matches a monarchy, a supreme ruler who has unlimited power over his people, and therefore all respect is towards that single person.

 

Then there is a shift from an external to an internal God.  Up to this point God was a being, a separate entity much like a human with superpowers, but this changes to a spiritual being.  Non-physical, being everywhere at once.  If God is everywhere then He is also within you.  Being within means that God can start directing lives, inspiring art, and exerting control.  Gods of the past would tell you what they wanted.  They wrote books, sent prophets, spoke directly to their people.  This new internal God doesn't need to do any of that, as He is now a spirit that dwells within you.

This matches a religion going global and a community similarly having a global stage.  The God needs to be big enough to reach all believers at the same time and needs to offer people on the opposite sides of the planet the same level of care.  A physical God is too restricted, so He must be expanded to allow Him to keep up with the requirements of the people.

 

It is from this place of an internal God that we move to atheism.  The internal God makes itself irrelevant, in that any action or thought could well be your own with no divine intervention required.  With no way to know what is God working and what is us working, the borders between the two blurs.  Praising a God you can't see for mundane things like finding a car park or spotting loose change down the back of the couch, becomes harder when those same events in future don't have the same success.  Everything starts to feel random, or luck based, and God fades from being a useful explanation to anything.

This matches the modern world where for most of us in the western world we have a degree of safety, food safety and permanent shelter.  We have enough free time to explore the world and come to a greater understanding than in the past.  

 

It is worth noting that none of the previous stages have vanished completely.  There are still spiritual communities and polytheistic communities, but they have dropped from being the dominate position in the world to only an afterthought for most people.  We should never expect monotheism to completely disappear, but it should continue its reduction until it is irrelevant like the other older stages.

[TABA]

We’re definitely seeing alternatives to monotheism becoming more popular.  Atheism, obviously, but also the internal non-dualistic concept of god that you mention, as well as various forms of paganism.  I think the future is going to see that fragmentation of beliefs prevail, with all these having a share of the market.  This is a big shift from the past few thousand years, in the west at least.  Before Christianity and apart from Judaism, polytheism was more or less universal.  Then the rise of Christianity followed by Islam saw monotheism dominate for many centuries.  

 

On 2/25/2024 at 8:20 PM, Wertbag said:

It is from this place of an internal God that we move to atheism.  The internal God makes itself irrelevant

That was my experience.  At one point, having abandoned Christianity but still somewhat inclined to hold onto some version of God, I read a book called “A God that Could be Real”, but my conclusion was that this was also a God that is Meaningless.  Since then the concept of god has neither truth nor value for me.  I wonder how many others have a similar experience, or how many remain in that kind of belief for the long term.  
 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

5 hours ago, TABA said:

At one point, having abandoned Christianity but still somewhat inclined to hold onto some version of God, I read a book called “A God that Could be Real”, but my conclusion was that this was also a God that is Meaningless.

I had a similar progression early in my deconversion.  A fellow traveler recommended the "Conversations With God" book series as an alternative to strict scriptural interpretation.  I read about half of the first book and realized, "This guy's just talking to himself."  From then onwards, rejection of theism was inevitable.

 

The Complete Conversations with God: Walsch, Neale Donald: 9780399153297: Amazon.com: Books