NationStates Jolt Archive

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?

Because most monotheistic gods, as they are described, can beat the tar out of most polytheistic gods... and not many people want to be worshipping the weak gods. That's just not human nature.

<...this post written with tongue only halfway in cheek...>

(We could go into all the fallout of the conversion of Rome to Christianity... but I'm not in the mood (read: feeling lazy) so I'll let someone else do it)

(Edit: Gotta go with Ashmoria, that 1% number is a wee bit off)

hinduism isnt polytheistic?

buddhism has lots of gods, at least the practioners of buddhism do

religious chinese have lots of gods and spirits....


thats not more than 1%?

If you are religious then this may be a sign in your eyes that the idea of one god is sacred.

If you are not religious then this may be due to the fact that the deities of some of the polytheistic religions were a bit insane(lusting god-kings, crazy spiders, insane rivalries, and horrible standards of morality that would get most mortals killed). Ultimately the idea of one god makes more sense because it lacks the ideas of stupid god wars and donating or praying to multiple immoral but powerful beings. Polytheism is less likely to be as stupid and divisive as one god but it still ultimately is a religion and is going to fall under the view you have of religion.

even if it wasn 1% thats a lot of people and therefore I would say that it wasn't dead.

Hinduism believes that the gods are aspects of one Divinity, much like how the Christians have their Trinity, yet Christianity isn't polytheistic.

As for Buddhism, I think you mean something else. Buddhists believe in a state of mind called, by many, the All, or something to that effect. Buddhists do not believe in gods, and if some do, they have no clue what Buddhism is all about.

I think polytheism has almost disappeared because people find it harder to submit to human-like gods than to a god with all-knowing, all-capable power. Also, many polytheistic religions and cultural mythologies were not able to marry with science, and people chose the most efficient path.

hinduism isnt polytheistic?
No its not.

More that 1% of people do disco and yet it's considered dead.

hinduism isnt polytheistic?
buddhism has lots of gods, at least the practioners of buddhism do
religious chinese have lots of gods and spirits....


Hinduism has the idea that the many gods are all parts of one big god. Sort of like a person with multiple personality disorder but not exactly(the personalities have different bodies or something, I am no expert or scholar)

Buddhism likes to think of itself as a philosophy, it seeks some higher good, the idea of higher beings is neither denied nor confirmed by it.

Chinese people worship their ancestors, and have various philosophies. I am not sure whether ancestor worship really counts as polytheism.

I would theorize that becaue most of us live in a culture of simplification, one that tries to make daily life easier in as many senses as possible, we would also want to simplify our religious beliefs. A belief or devotion to one god is much easier than devotion to many. By this notion I would guess that atheism would be the easiest of all beliefs, but I would like to think that belief in a higher power gives us hope, and maybe a reason to go through life.

note:I have just thought of this off the top of my head so feel open to criticize.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?
Are you sure? Isn't Hinduism a polytheist religion? It's because the west was taken over by imperialist religions like Islam and Christianity.

Cause all them religious leaders lost their sense of fun! Remember back in the good ole days, with that Greek one, Dionysius(SP?) the party animal... And then some of those Irish-Celtic gods and goddesses were all about the booze and babes. But after Jesus, the final religious party animal, kicked the bucket, all the old people took over and made all these shitty rules, making Polytheism no fun, since being hunted all the time and forced to convert is no fun... :D

Okay, first off, according to a Hindu friend of mine (which are hard to come by in Northwest Ohio), Hinduism is as polytheistic as Christianity [meaning Henotheistic (meaning believing in one godcreature who is the supreme guy of the other godcreatures [such as angels and demons])].

Now, ready to be blown away?!!

So were all of the so-called polytheistic ancient religions!!

Whoa! Insano! This guy can't possibly be right!

Oh wait, I am. The ancient Greeks would pick one god (in school, we are all often taught that one god is Zeus but it varied among different city-states) who would be the "king of the gods" (just like in christianity/judaism/islam where God/YHWH/Jehovah/Allah is the king of the gods). The Egyptians did the same thing. Often Ra was the god-king, but in some cities it was someone else (such as Bastet in Bubastis and Aten during Akhenaten's reign).

Shocked yet?

Okay, how about this one. In the little schools that we all attend(ed), they teach that Christianity/Judaism/Islam are monotheistic. I laugh(ed/will laugh) at all of them. They are henotheistic. They all are! Every one of them! Now certain ones are varying shades of henotheism. Like Buddhism. Many Buddhists are atheists because they don't believe in a king of the gods, but in their scriptures (learn the Indo-European language Pali if you ever get the chance, reading the Tipitaka in its original language is so worth it), they talk about multiple gods and a king of the gods.

Am I saying that henotheism is the truth? Well, I must be. Everyone's henotheistic! It's the truth!

NO. It just goes to show that we all had a common set of ancestors and our beliefs slowly changed from our henotheistic ancestors while never getting drastically different.

One day I tell you, atheism will be able to claim more adherents than henotheism (personally, I think it can today, but too many people say I'm crazy, oh well). Now, as much as I'd love to make this a pro-atheist religion-bashing post (which I would love to do), i won't.


That is the truth though.

Sorry to disappoint you.

I'm serious. Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, ancient Greek/Egyptian/Roman/Mayan/Aztecan/Incan/Ottawa-Indian/Norse, Babism, Baha'ism, Zoroastrianism, Tenrikyo-ism, Falun Gong-ism, Taoism, Daoism, Maoism, Cao Dai-ism, Dianic Wiccan, Asatru, Deism, and all of the others I am forgetting are all henotheistic.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?

That is a damn good question. Thank you for posting it.

Hinduism has the idea that the many gods are all parts of one big god. Sort of like a person with multiple personality disorder but not exactly(the personalities have different bodies or something, I am no expert or scholar)

yes its the "many god" part that makes it polytheistic

Buddhism likes to think of itself as a philosophy, it seeks some higher good, the idea of higher beings is neither denied nor confirmed by it.
i dont know what buddhism thinks of itself, all *I* know is that in buddhist countries the buddhists worship many gods. (or at least more than one at a time)


Chinese people worship their ancestors, and have various philosophies. I am not sure whether ancestor worship really counts as polytheism.
there is more than confucianism in china. there is also buddhism and taoism and most chinese (if they have any religion at all) are all 3.

Er, Elyzabel, that's not true for all polythiestic religions... For instance, some of the Celtic religions (they had a lot varying from region to region) had Gods that were all equal and power, and some Gods and Goddesses would fight against each other in their lil heavenly civil wars over booze and babes, or the bigger cow, whatever one guy that the other didn't (again, all about who's got the better party back then :D). Naturally, one or two would be weaker than another, but in lot of those little religions, there was no 'supreme all mighty' God or Goddess.

I would theorize that becaue most of us live in a culture of simplification, one that tries to make daily life easier in as many senses as possible, we would also want to simplify our religious beliefs.

If I am not mistaken the Jews were the first monotheistic religion, and that happened a long time ago. Also didn't one Egyptian Pharaoh try monotheism but the priests opposed him?

Okay, first off, according to a Hindu friend of mine (which are hard to come by in Northwest Ohio), Hinduism is as polytheistic as Christianity [meaning Henotheistic (meaning believing in one godcreature who is the supreme guy of the other godcreatures [such as angels and demons])].

Now, ready to be blown away?!!

So were all of the so-called polytheistic ancient religions!!

Whoa! Insano! This guy can't possibly be right!

Oh wait, I am. The ancient Greeks would pick one god (in school, we are all often taught that one god is Zeus but it varied among different city-states) who would be the "king of the gods" (just like in christianity/judaism/islam where God/YHWH/Jehovah/Allah is the king of the gods). The Egyptians did the same thing. Often Ra was the god-king, but in some cities it was someone else (such as Bastet in Bubastis and Aten during Akhenaten's reign).

Shocked yet?

Okay, how about this one. In the little schools that we all attend(ed), they teach that Christianity/Judaism/Islam are monotheistic. I laugh(ed/will laugh) at all of them. They are henotheistic. They all are! Every one of them! Now certain ones are varying shades of henotheism. Like Buddhism. Many Buddhists are atheists because they don't believe in a king of the gods, but in their scriptures (learn the Indo-European language Pali if you ever get the chance, reading the Tipitaka in its original language is so worth it), they talk about multiple gods and a king of the gods.

Am I saying that henotheism is the truth? Well, I must be. Everyone's henotheistic! It's the truth!

NO. It just goes to show that we all had a common set of ancestors and our beliefs slowly changed from our henotheistic ancestors while never getting drastically different.

One day I tell you, atheism will be able to claim more adherents than henotheism (personally, I think it can today, but too many people say I'm crazy, oh well). Now, as much as I'd love to make this a pro-atheist religion-bashing post (which I would love to do), i won't.


That is the truth though.

Sorry to disappoint you.

I'm serious. Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, ancient Greek/Egyptian/Roman/Mayan/Aztecan/Incan/Ottawa-Indian/Norse, Babism, Baha'ism, Zoroastrianism, Tenrikyo-ism, Falun Gong-ism, Taoism, Daoism, Maoism, Cao Dai-ism, Dianic Wiccan, Asatru, Deism, and all of the others I am forgetting are all henotheistic.
looks to me like a way of thinking about religion rather than a reflection of the way each religion is used by its believers.

its interesting but not illuminating to me

If I am not mistaken the Jews were the first monotheistic religion, and that happened a long time ago. Also didn't one Egyptian Pharaoh try monotheism but the priests opposed him?

Yes, Akhenaten. He tried to institute worship the Sun Disk.

Polytheism died out because monotheists prosyletyzed aggressively, won converts, and eventually outlawed it.

If I am not mistaken the Jews were the first monotheistic religion, and that happened a long time ago. Also didn't one Egyptian Pharaoh try monotheism but the priests opposed him?

He tried to make everyone worship just Ra. Didn't work out too well.

And I'm certain it's more than 1% of the world being polytheistic. I'm a polytheistic Pagan, have met a number of others, and there's a very large number of followers of Eastern religions which are polytheistic.

As to why it's declined, I'd say it's due in large part to the forced conversions due to Christianity, and, perhaps, as someone else mentioned, the simplification of things over time. However, as for the Jews being first at monotheism, I'm not sure.

I would hardly call Earth-Mother-goddess worship to be henotheistic, or polytheistic. It predates Judaism, and was possibly the first "religion" in the world.

How can it be only 1% of the world? They didn't ask me. I'm on the Earth, correct? I follow polthiesm. One of my five gods could beat the :eek: out of any other god.

As to why it's declined, I'd say it's due in large part to the forced conversions due to Christianity, and, perhaps, as someone else mentioned, the simplification of things over time. However, as for the Jews being first at monotheism, I'm not sure.

I doubt it was forced conversions by the Christians, as that didn't happen until the time of the Inquisition. Jews, then Christians, then Moslems all three are monotheistic and represent a large portion of the world population.

How can it be only 1% of the world? They didn't ask me. I'm on the Earth, correct? I follow polthiesm. One of my five gods could beat the out of any other god.

But they party right? You got cool Gods right?! What the hell is the point of having a God if he isn't someone you'd want to invite to a party and bring the beer?! Tell me!!!

I doubt it was forced conversions by the Christians, as that didn't happen until the time of the Inquisition.

You're kidding right? Look up what was going on in Rome a thousand years before that.

I would hardly call Earth-Mother-goddess worship to be henotheistic, or polytheistic. It predates Judaism, and was possibly the first "religion" in the world.

I'm not sure there was an Earth-Mother-goddess worship. In the really, really old days, you believed that everything had a spirit, from rocks to trees to water. As such, you didn't believe that other gods didn't exist so much as you thought that your own tribe's god was simply stronger than theirs (if theirs was stronger than yours, you died when they stabbed you).

Then, in just the really old days each tribe had an organized pantheon of gods.

Then, in the old days some tribes had only one God, but they recognized the fact that other tribes had Gods, but they just didn't worship them.

Judaism was the first religion, however, to say that there was only one God, and everyone else was just a bunch of idiots for worshipping something that didn't exist and had no power.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure that Shintoism is polytheistic.

You're kidding right? Look up what was going on in Rome a thousand years before that.

Rome forced conversion to Christanity? No I'm not kidding, but possibaly un-educated on the subject. Please, feel free to enlighten me.

Judaism was the first religion, however, to say that there was only one God, and everyone else was just a bunch of idiots for worshipping something that didn't exist and had no power.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure that Shintoism is polytheistic.

Of course a quick scan through the NT shows it didn't really start out that way. In the early NT there are pretty clear indications that the Jews thought other gods were real.

It's kind of interesting watching the belief structure progressively change as you work through the text actually.

I'm not sure there was an Earth-Mother-goddess worship.

In Mesopotamia they un-earthed some “Mother Earth” statues that pre-dated Judaism.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?The simple explanation that comes to mind is because the meme (the communicable idea) of "There is but one god, and He is almighty" seems to be a fitter and more persistent/transferable concept than the pantheistic one.


Sluightly more expanded, say you're an ancient Greek city-state (don't ask me which one, I'm not an expert, this is just an example and only loosely historic... ;)) whose patronage is to Neptune, and you have a war with the city-state that worships Apollo. People from both city-states have grown up within a system where both Gods are acknolwedged as extant, even the one of the opposing city, so the defeated city's residents may turn readily towards the victor-city's deity (by choice or as imposed by the victors building/enhancing their own temples there).

But it'll swing either way, according to the vagaries of populatity, geographical and societal power. There's going to be a head god (Zeus, Odin, Wodan, White Ranger, whoever)

A monotheistic ideology says to polytheists "Whatever you beleived before, there's just one God" and so draws the convertable into the belief of the single diety, and yet there's no easy path away from that God without rejection of the whole religous premise you gfind yourself embroiled in. Anotehr monotheistic religion could pursuade the fringes (or the oppressed/coerced) that Monodeity-2 is the true version of what you thought Monodeity-1 actually was, but Polydeity-1A. -1B, -1C, -1D are but facets of Polydeity-1All, and so you (a believer in all that happens being God/Allah/YHWH/whatever's sole resonsiblity "because He is all powerful") now have to accept either many replacements for your original Victorinox multi-tool deity or accept a deity whose own domain is severely limited.

Or such is my uneducated view.

[BTW, minor disclosure: I'm offline for a week, soon after posting this, but am interested in any responses that do occur, so will seek out and review (and reply to?) the thread on return. I'll not be ignoring you (by choice) if you want to reply at all. Godsawful time to submit a post, I know. Sorry.]

[BTW2: Ouch, horrid spelling mistakes and editing errors. My apologies. I think it's time to quit for the night and come back to this next week, if necessary, as promised.]

Of course a quick scan through the NT shows it didn't really start out that way. In the early NT there are pretty clear indications that the Jews thought other gods were real.

It's kind of interesting watching the belief structure progressively change as you work through the text actually.

No doubt, although I'm pretty sure they had switched over to full-blown monotheism well before that. I'd have to check my old Biblical study material from college, but I'm pretty sure they were that way by the Babylonian Captivity. That was one of the major reasons why the Jews held together as a group during that period rather than simply melting into Babylonian society: they could not melt in because to them, Nebudchanezzar (sp?) and Babylonian society in general was preaching false doctrines.

In Mesopotamia they un-earthed some “Mother Earth” statues that pre-dated Judaism.
1) . . .Are they naming them "Mother Earth" statues or are they labeled "Mother Earth" statues by the people who lived in that period?

2) I should have been more clear: no doubt there might be some form of primitive "Mother Earth" worship, because as all things are ensouled in the really, really ancient religions, it makes sense that earth would have a soul as well. There might well have even been some kind of "Great Spirit" akin to the Force or Aristotle's Unmoved Mover of which all other souls were a part. But that isn't quite the same as claiming a "Mother Earth" worship, because they didn't explicitly link the planet with an overarching soul. Even the Greeks didn't really worship Gaia (sp?) so much as they recognized her existence in the theological schema. In my experience, "Mother Earth" worship is reserved more for contemporary teenage girls going through a period of agnosticism and rebellion.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?
Christianity

Rome forced conversion to Christanity?

Hell yes.

No I'm not kidding, but possibaly un-educated on the subject. Please, feel free to enlighten me.

Right around the time Theodisius made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire things started to go downhill from a tolerance perspective. 'Pagan' and Arian religions became openly persecuted, effectively outlawed, churches destroyed or seized and converted for the use of Christians. Pagan worship eventually came to warrant a death sentence...

Ihatevacations']Christianity

Islam took the east, Christianity took the west. To say it's solely Christianity "fault" for wiping out polytheism is baloney. And Hinduism essentially is polytheistic in practice (individual gods for families), but I believe the religion is not. China and the far east were never religious as we perceive it. Ancestor worship, Confucianism, Taoism, dualism, Shinto, Buddhism aren't really god-worship, even though there are some examples of gods being worshipped in some cases.

Okay, first off, according to a Hindu friend of mine (which are hard to come by in Northwest Ohio), Hinduism is as polytheistic as Christianity [meaning Henotheistic (meaning believing in one godcreature who is the supreme guy of the other godcreatures [such as angels and demons])].


'Hinduism' isn't a religion at all, it is a generalization of the west of the many interconnected religions across the indus valley region. For example, Smrti-ists (smarti-ists) are strictly polytheistic, not henotheistic. Mainly those who worship Siva (Shiva) or Krsna / Visnu (Krishna / Vishnu) are henotheistic. All 'hindus' pretty much have the same names for different god forms, but the ritual and belief system of all the sects are so different as to entitle entirely separate religions. (Just as Islam, Judaism & Christianity all have an archangel Michael, but they are still separate religions)

Rome forced conversion to Christanity?
Hell yes.
Apt wording. It is popularly believed that the Etruscans were the ones who invented the concept of Hell, as the religion morphed (from one purely celbrating death as "destination heaven", or an equivalent concept) in response to the need to resist (fruitlessly, as it turned out) the rise of the Roman Empire. (The need to have a post-death punishment imposed for not resisting the encroachment of Rome.)

Can't remember the mono/polytheistic nature of the Etruscans (suspect the latter), but justa datum. Now I really do have to go, but same caveat as before.

1) . . .Are they naming them "Mother Earth" statues or are they labeled "Mother Earth" statues by the people who lived in that period?

The former. Actually, they think it was some type of a fertility goddess. Read about it in an ancient history class a few years ago.

Hell yes.



Right around the time Theodisius made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire things started to go downhill from a tolerance perspective. 'Pagan' and Arian religions became openly persecuted, effectively outlawed, churches destroyed or seized and converted for the use of Christians. Pagan worship eventually came to warrant a death sentence...

Thanks.

it looks to me like the reason polytheism is "dead" is because we have redefined the polytheistic religions as something else. once you remove hinduism, buddhism, taoism, shinto (and perhaps some others that havent sprung to mind) from the rolls of polytheism, i can see where way less than 1% of the world are polytheists

it looks to me like the reason polytheism is "dead" is because we have redefined the polytheistic religions as something else.

Who's this "we" you speak of? I think you're all on crack.

Who's this "we" you speak of? I think you're all on crack.
sorry dobbs you just became "we" when you posted in this thread

it shoulda come with a warning label eh?

Gimme a break, Polytheism is enjoying a wonderful resurgence of late. Everybody is rediscovering their own actual ancestral Gods, the ones Christianity and the other monotheistic dealies effectively bludgeoned way back when.

I am me, not we.

Goo-goo-ka-joo!

Gimme a break, Polytheism is enjoying a wonderful resurgence of late. Everybody is rediscovering their own actual ancestral Gods, the ones Christianity and the other monotheistic dealies effectively bludgeoned way back when.

I am me, not we.

Goo-goo-ka-joo!

That's because everyone's coming out of that strict ass monotheistic dark age and realizing that the older Gods kicked more ass! Any god that would go to war for a few more kegs of something alcoholic (don't really know if they had whiskey in ancient western europe) and drag it home to a land of babes, partying, and friends is a cool God. :D

The simple explanation that comes to mind is because the meme (the communicable idea) of "There is but one god, and He is almighty" seems to be a fitter and more persistent/transferable concept than the pantheistic one.
Wow, the first meme reference. I'm proud.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?

Hinduism= Polytheism
Hinduism= National religion of India, 2nd largest country on Earth
India's total population= 1/6 world pop

That is well over 1%

Hmm... where do I start?

Hinduism, the three big gods are different forms of one god with the most powerful form being Shiva. Then you have other deities like Ganesh the elephant deity, and etc. I have not really figured out why they consider cows so sacred. The Vedic scriptures are a pretty good read though.

About forced conversions to Christianity, after the fall of Rome, Charlemagne conquered all of W. Europe and forced everyone to convert. After a big battle, he took what was left of the other side down to a river and had his knights swing at the prisoners' heads. Priests were there so when the prisoners ducked underwater, they were baptized/converted right there.

The only exception at that time were the Russians, they had no religion until after the Mongols lost control of Russia. Then the emperor chose Christianity for the Russian people after comparing a bunch of religions. Then communism came and they went back to no religion.

Still polytheistic peoples seem cooler because of the great and helarious stories and the way they terrorize like the Vikings and etc. Also without the religions of Taoism, Shinto and etc., we would not have martial arts like kung fu and ninjitsu. Lastly, I'm surprised that no one mentioned Zoroasterianism, a polytheistic religion still amazingly practiced in Iran yet.

Hinduism= Polytheism
Hinduism= National religion of India, 2nd largest country on Earth
India's total population= 1/6 world pop

That is well over 1%

"Hinduism" = not a religion, but a collection of interconnected and complementary and contradictory religions/sects/belief systems/philosophies/interpretations like Vaishnavism (with its four sampradayas), Saivism (with its own sects like Akas Mukhis, Gudaras, Jangamas, Karalingis, Nakhis, Rukharas, Sukharas, Urdhabahus, Ukkaras) , Advaita, Saktism, Dvaita, Vedantis, Animists, Nature worshippers, Sauras , Ganapatyas,Kaumaras, Arya Samajis, Brahmo Samajis, Jains, and the list is endless. But majority are Vaishnavites and Saivites who are monotheistic (or pantheistic, depending on how you look at it). Advaitins claim an impersonal spirit which does not come under any category, be it be monotheistic/ polytheistic/ henotheistic/ atheistic. Advaita is an altogether different league as far as "religions" go.

You = misinformed. :)

Hmm... where do I start?
Lastly, I'm surprised that no one mentioned Zoroasterianism, a polytheistic religion still amazingly practiced in Iran yet.


Hey! I mentioned Zoroastrianism. Can I get a pat on the back? Or a little acknowledgement? haha.

But anyways, my point as directly and bluntly as possible:

STOP CALLING CHRISTIANITY MONOTHEISTIC (most of you are doing well at this point and correctly calling it henotheistic, but we do have some stubborn people in the room).


The next person to call Christians monotheists gets a big virtual slap on the back of the head (haha try to see that one, your computer will grow a hand and hit you. Now, that is scary. Anyone want to steal the idea and make a horror film out of that? What? They already did? Crapp

Whoops, sorry about that.

It's interesting to see that Christianity is not truly monotheistic because of the Trinity though.

As for Buddhism, I think you mean something else. Buddhists believe in a state of mind called, by many, the All, or something to that effect. Buddhists do not believe in gods, and if some do, they have no clue what Buddhism is all about.
buddhism doesn't have any reasones saying why i god wouldn't or couldn't exist, so many buddhists believe in gods from other religions. but it is not considered as a whole to be from that religion or that buddhism as any gods of it's own. i think they ment it was polytheistic in that the believers of the religion may believe in a god of another religion, and they all don't believe the god from the same religion, so there is many different gods believed by some of the followers.
there is many christian buddhists, actually. it isn't conflicting with much of the other religions.

What I like about early indogermanic polytheism is that they never assumed their gods were somehow perfect.
They had issues, they made mistakes, they did all kinds of cool stuff. And if you were lucky, you could even meet them in person.
They were people with magical powers who had happened to create the world.
Monotheistic religions are boring really. They assume that their one god is somehow infallible, absolutely perfect, all powerful etc.

Maybe that somehow connected better with the populace, who felt better relying on an all-powerful prefect entity than a drunk who might just turn you into a spider because you beat him/her in a spinning contest...

buddhism doesn't have any reasones saying why i god wouldn't or couldn't exist, so many buddhists believe in gods from other religions. but it is not considered as a whole to be from that religion or that buddhism as any gods of it's own. i think they ment it was polytheistic in that the believers of the religion may believe in a god of another religion, and they all don't believe the god from the same religion, so there is many different gods believed by some of the followers.
there is many christian buddhists, actually. it isn't conflicting with much of the other religions.

As I said earlier, my opinions were contained in my post. Buddhists, real Buddhists, do not believe in a "god", but instead in a state of mind. I know some Buddhists who interpret that as being God, but not the God-who-needs-to-be-worshipped we are so familiar with. Certainly, some Buddhists believe differently, but most of those Buddhists are the self-proclaimed ones you find here in the West, who usually have no clue what Buddhism means, or who the Dali Lama is.

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As I said earlier, my opinions were contained in my post. Buddhists, real Buddhists, do not believe in a "god", but instead in a state of mind. I know some Buddhists who interpret that as being God, but not the God-who-needs-to-be-worshipped we are so familiar with. Certainly, some Buddhists believe differently, but most of those Buddhists are the self-proclaimed ones you find here in the West, who usually have no clue what Buddhism means, or who the Dali Lama is.
isnt it silly to say that REAL buddhists dont believe in god when millions of buddhists DO believe in various gods? buddhists from buddhist countries

why do you think they have temples?

If I wanted to join a shitty region, I would. As for Buddhism, I realize I made the wrong statement. I should have said "Much of the Buddhists who believe in different gods" instead of "Most". And yes, there are indigenous Buddhists in India and China, as well as across Asia, who believe in Gods. But most do not.

Because women were mistreated in paganism. The only job they had was as a temple prostitute. A lot of women moved to Christianity and other religions because of this, and refused to marry pagan men, so men changed to their religion. You can read about that in the book of Acts in the Bible.

Less that 1% of the world population believes in a form of polytheism, and yet almost all early religion where. Why has polytheism died?


It's all about politics and only about politics. A religion that admits to only one god can be intolerant. It's more cohesive.

When you allow people to believe in more than one god then they can argue with you, because if you claim to know what "God" wants, well people can always argue that other gods want something else. This was a major theme in one of the Socratic dialogues. It's impossible to define "the will of the gods" because they aren't in agreement, just like various virtues. Honesty does not always agree with loyalty. Courage does not always agree with compassion.

For much of human history rulers sought to identify themselves with divinity. In Egypt, the first Monotheism was invented for the express purpose of centralizing power in the Pharoh. The priests managed to take it back then and restore some semblence of mixed government.

In Rome, belief in multiple gods was maintained, but there were some monotheistic elements. Many gods were put under the same mantle (Isis, Ishtar, Venus, Aphrodite, etc) and the Emperor was considered a divinity to be (or incarnate in the case of Caligula's own pronouncement).

The Chinese mastered this trick without actually giving up polytheism, but many of their "gods" were more like ancestor spirits. Like saints in Catholicism, except they weren't all human. This was why Christianity had so much trouble making a dent in east Asia. Power was already centralized, so the rulers had no incentive to embrace it.

In Europe power was diffuse. Upstart barbarian chieftains hoping to be kings embraced monotheism as an excuse for claiming power. If they had retained paganism, they'd have had to share power with the entrenched pagan priests. By switching to Christianity they got to remove them and bring in their own people.

Same with Islam. By embracing one "true" god they were able to establish themselves as an upper class who were the only ones capable of running an empire that spanned 3 continents because all parts of it had an aristocracy that spoke Arabic. It was also a convenient excuse for tax breaks for the "deserving." Islam forbids forced conversion, so they went with bribed conversion.

These were both natural evolutions of the Persian trick established under Zoroastrianism. The Persian Empire spanned many cultures, and to make such a multicultural empire work Zarathustra came up with an interpretation of the existence of many gods that melded the empire under a single religion. It argued that all gods are the same god. Ahura Mazda. These Persians liberated the Hebrews from the Babylonian exile, so the Hebrews borrowed this idea and re-worked it as "the only god is our God."

So now we have the far more intolerance friendly Christian interpretation of "we worship God, they worship devils." Pat Robertson even says that Muslims worship Satan, because pagan gods are just faces of the devil, and Allah is the Arabian moon god. As proof of this he points out that a popular symbol in Islam is the crescent moon. He's trying to centralize power in his man Bush, by pretending that the more overtly Christian a man is the more we should follow him.

Well, I argue that he worships Loki, the viking pagan god of lies, trickery, fire, and damnation. Want proof? Loki made his famous last stand by turning into a fish. What do you think all those fish symbols on the backs of Christians' cars mean? They're demonstrating their wish for Loki's long life and his continued efforts to sow chaos and misery in the world.

Because women were mistreated in paganism. The only job they had was as a temple prostitute. A lot of women moved to Christianity and other religions because of this, and refused to marry pagan men, so men changed to their religion. You can read about that in the book of Acts in the Bible.

And with the establishment of Christianity misogyny was ended forever and for the last 2000 years men and women have lived together in complete partnership and equality.

Meanwhile, in the real world, many polytheistic indigenous cultures had Christians show up and impose harsh patriarchy on them when the men and women had established traditional power sharing measures. It was fairly common for women to appoint cheifs and replace them when those men ran things poorly. There is nothing inherently misogynistic about paganism, nor has Christianity been particularly kind to women.

Environmental and economic factors have more to do with the treatment of women at large than anything else. In places where women have an opportunity to contribute to the food/money supply they will recieve fairly equal treatment. In places where there are fairly limited ways to produce food/money men will sieze those ways for themselves and women's status will fall accordingly. There tends to be near equality in post-industrial societies where the labor market is varied, and hunter gatherer societies where women farm and forage and men hunt. In societies where there is only one way to make a living, men will do it, and treat their women as their women. Like our own Western Christian culture up until industrialization, or the non-developed middle east today.

Whoops, sorry about that.

It's interesting to see that Christianity is not truly monotheistic because of the Trinity though.

Or the saints of Apostolic Christianity with their many local, often mythical, incarnations.

And if anyone wants to point out that they're not really gods because they're just people who died and have a special connection to the world and God don't bother. The same is true of many of the traditional pagan gods. You've just substituted the word "Canonized" for "deified."

Hey! I mentioned Zoroastrianism. Can I get a pat on the back? Or a little acknowledgement? haha.

But anyways, my point as directly and bluntly as possible:

STOP CALLING CHRISTIANITY MONOTHEISTIC (most of you are doing well at this point and correctly calling it henotheistic, but we do have some stubborn people in the room).


The next person to call Christians monotheists gets a big virtual slap on the back of the head (haha try to see that one, your computer will grow a hand and hit you. Now, that is scary. Anyone want to steal the idea and make a horror film out of that? What? They already did? Crapp

The Bible itself may condone henotheism, even logically necessitate it, but the vast majority of Christian denominations are strictly monotheistic. Some even go so far as to acknowledge the existence of other gods, but deny their divinity, attributing to them demonic status instead.

Hinduism has 330,000,000 (Three-hundred-thirty-million) gods. That sounds like poli-theisim to me and it is a major world religion.

Pureland Buddhism as practiced in China and S.E. Asia has more deities than you can shake a stick at.

I think the 1% is the percentage in America only.

Monotheism... Polytheism...

A buncha crazy names for "everybody let's do the same thing together".

Feh. Bloody tribalism.

Who needs organized worship anyway? I'll tell you who:

Clergy, that's who. Priests, Cardinals, Bishops, Rabbis, Imams, Gurus, Shamans, you name it. And what's their schtick? Placing themselves between Man and God. Profiting from maintaining some damn stupid supposed mystic yawning chasm that's meant to separate us from the Celestial. And worse than that. Far worse than that.

Thanks all the same, but I don't - and frankly, I feel strongly that very few of us - as humans, like - that very few of us need them so much as we need God, Goddess, the Gods, any God, the Higher Self, Wisdom, the Collective Unconscious, Meta-Humanity, Gaia, Galaxia, the Universe, the Omniverse, the locus of SpaceTime... et cetera...

...and each other.

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Charming. Always so good to be followed by a spamming prat.

Charming. Always so good to be followed by a spamming prat.

He's meditating in the new E-religion of Bootism. Religion is traditionally slow to get with the times, so it still primarily uses dawn of the discipline vocabulary in its scriptures like "boot up."

He was attempting to establish his e-mantra. Or 3/\/\4u+x1 as the blasphemers call it. As with yogic practice of saying a word 10,000 times to make it your mantra, he was posting it. But it he's clearly a heretic, because the only true way to establish your e-mantra is to post it once in 10,000 different forums, not one the one forum, and certainly not all in one post.

The former. Actually, they think it was some type of a fertility goddess. Read about it in an ancient history class a few years ago.

As a practising polytheistic, specificly the earliest known Mesopotamian religion (that of ancient Sumer), I can give you the name of what you're thinking.
The statues you are thinking are of the goddess Ki, wife of An, and the goddess of Earth (the soil, landforms, and such. She is by no means top goddess, or below it.
Sumerian polytheism has a structure more befitting a family tree, with every god comming from a pair of parent gods/goddesses. Now I don't feel like getting into who preceeds An and Ki (a few to say the least), but in the grand hierarchy of things, An and Ki are at the top, ruling together. And all their little children, and the other gods and goddesses run about doing stuff to make interesting stories.

The Bible itself may condone henotheism, even logically necessitate it, but the vast majority of Christian denominations are strictly monotheistic. Some even go so far as to acknowledge the existence of other gods, but deny their divinity, attributing to them demonic status instead.

Don't say I didn't warn you <computer eats Domici>.

Anyways, do "the vast majority of Christian denominations" believe in angels? What's that? They do? Oh, pardon me. Is the whole lesser-gods-who-don't-deserve-to-be-worshipped-but-are-clearly-'better'-than-humans-while-worse-than-the-one-god monotheistic?

GOD NO!!! It's HENOTHEISM BY DEFINITION!!!!!!! BY DEFINITION!!!!!!!!!

Some people need a new dictionary. (but ok, I think I'll stop now)

One last thing... HENOTHEISM. Oh, and to oblige our little spammer "William McKinley"

"Hinduism" = not a religion, but a collection of interconnected and complementary and contradictory religions/sects/belief systems/philosophies/interpretations like Vaishnavism (with its four sampradayas), Saivism (with its own sects like Akas Mukhis, Gudaras, Jangamas, Karalingis, Nakhis, Rukharas, Sukharas, Urdhabahus, Ukkaras) , Advaita, Saktism, Dvaita, Vedantis, Animists, Nature worshippers, Sauras , Ganapatyas,Kaumaras, Arya Samajis, Brahmo Samajis, Jains, and the list is endless. But majority are Vaishnavites and Saivites who are monotheistic (or pantheistic, depending on how you look at it). Advaitins claim an impersonal spirit which does not come under any category, be it be monotheistic/ polytheistic/ henotheistic/ atheistic. Advaita is an altogether different league as far as "religions" go.

You = misinformed. :)


Kaliites, i.e. Bengal and the whole Dravidic south are by no means monotheistic, and neither are most of S,yvites.

Vyshnavites are different, yet they acknowledge that there are gods who are not just avatars of Vishnu

Hindhoeism is quite politheistic indeed.

P.S. "Saivite" and "Vaishnavite" are WRONG spellings. English (Latin) transliteration "ai" stands for Hindhoe [ej] like English "ay" in "say" or "ray".

Here "i" [i] from S,iva and Vishnu becomes an [aj] like English "y" in "dry", "fly".