Is Monotheism Progress?

[vIQleS]

I've just read 'Imagine No Superstition' by Stephen Uhl

In it he makes a comment (just in passing) about the progress of mankind from polytheism to monotheism and finally to a "pragmatic and reasonable atheism".

Is monotheism progress (or an advancement) compared to polytheism?

 

[Wowbagger]

I've read that pushing montheism was a sucessful strategy for unifying diverse people, morally and politically - at least to a certain degree.

I don't know if it constitutes "progress", but back when the Bible was being written, it seemed like a good way to merge all the various variations of Ba'al, that most people were worshipping.

 

[Fnord]

I imagine that from an atheistic point of view, one god is better than one-hundred ... it means that there is only one more to go.

 

[GrandMasterFox]

I imagine that from an atheistic point of view, one god is better than one-hundred ... it means that there is only one more to go.

I would say it's the other way around.

1000 godlings are easier to deal with than 1 supereme being.

If Jesus hates abortion, there's nothing we can do about it.
But if Zeus hates abortion but Apollo is okay with it, the odds of it becoming a problem are smaller.

 

[Mirrorglass]

I would say it's the other way around.

1000 godlings are easier to deal with than 1 supereme being.

If Jesus hates abortion, there's nothing we can do about it.
But if Zeus hates abortion but Apollo is okay with it, the odds of it becoming a problem are smaller.

Yeah, religion is like Katamari. Just because all the little godlings are rolled up into one huge ball of divinity doesn't mean the problem is smaller. On the contrary; as the ball grows, it begins rolling over larger and larger objects, swallowing up cities, peoples and nations, until we end up with a god so big everything that exists is a part of it, still hungry for more followers.

 

[godless dave]

I've just read 'Imagine No Superstition' by Stephen Uhl

In it he makes a comment (just in passing) about the progress of mankind from polytheism to monotheism and finally to a "pragmatic and reasonable atheism".

Is monotheism progress (or an advancement) compared to polytheism?

Not in my opinion, no. It's pretty much 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

 

[Sledge]

I really can't see where the improvement would lie. People are still believing in something with no good cause. And are monotheists really any different from pantheists? How is believing in God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, Archangels, Angels, etc really that different from believing in the Greek gods, for instance?

 

[six7s]

Is monotheism progress (or an advancement) compared to polytheism?

I agree with '6 of one and half a dozen of the other' sentiment...

I see the goal as being an increasingly cohesive/coherent understanding of reality, with the direction of 'progress' a decreasing spiral

All woo runs at a tangent to the path of progress

 

[jeremyp]

Of course monotheism is an advance on polytheism.

• You need to have polytheism before you can learn monotheism
• You get better forms of government with monotheism
• Once you have monotheism, you can learn other ideas like philospophy and theology.

Oh wait, that's the Civ tech tree I'm thinking of.

 

[Dr.Sid]

Sure it is progress .. only one god to go ..

 

[Eddie Dane]

Edward Gibbon discusses polytheism in Decline and Fall.
Polytheists seem to have had a relaxed attitude about religion.
'Yeah, Ok, put one of your gods in our temple, Isis is just your version of Minerva'.
Makes you wonder why mono-theists make such a fuss about it. Arguably if you believe in a man in the sky and I do
also, it is in fact the same man in the sky? No?

Disclaimer: although there seems to have been little religiously inspired warfare, ancient civilizations were never short of other reasons to crack someones skull open with an ax.

 

[vIQleS]

I would say it's the other way around.

1000 godlings are easier to deal with than 1 supereme being.

If Jesus hates abortion, there's nothing we can do about it.
But if Zeus hates abortion but Apollo is okay with it, the odds of it becoming a problem are smaller.

That's sort of what I was thinking - if you look at the polytheistic religions they tend to be the most harmless (Hinduism? What else?)

It's the monotheistic ones that seemt o be the most dogmatic...

 

[godless dave]

Of course monotheism is an advance on polytheism.

• You need to have polytheism before you can learn monotheism
• You get better forms of government with monotheism
• Once you have monotheism, you can learn other ideas like philospophy and theology.

Oh wait, that's the Civ tech tree I'm thinking of.

WIN.

I always try to found a religion. You make so much more gold that way.

 

[godless dave]

Edward Gibbon discusses polytheism in Decline and Fall.
Polytheists seem to have had a relaxed attitude about religion.
'Yeah, Ok, put one of your gods in our temple, Isis is just your version of Minerva'.
Makes you wonder why mono-theists make such a fuss about it. Arguably if you believe in a man in the sky and I do
also, it is in fact the same man in the sky? No?

You're asking the wrong question.

If you worship a different god than I do, then your contributions are going to a different temple than mine. If there is only one temple, then the priests of the surviving religion get all the wealth, not just a slice of the pie.

 

[six7s]

...if you look at the polytheistic religions they tend to be the most harmless (Hinduism? What else?)

Hinduism? Harmless?

Tell that to the Harijans

nationalgeographic.com

Discrimination against India's lowest Hindu castes is technically illegal. But try telling that to the 160 million Untouchables, who face violent reprisals if they forget their place.

<snip/>

To be born a Hindu in India is to enter the caste system, one of the world's longest surviving forms of social stratification. Embedded in Indian culture for the past 1,500 years, the caste system follows a basic precept: All men are created unequal. <snip/>

Untouchables are outcasts—people considered too impure, too polluted, to rank as worthy beings. Prejudice defines their lives, particularly in the rural areas, where nearly three-quarters of India's people live. Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Well- one advantage of the old system was that you could explain contradictions as competition between gods- if Poseidon didn't like you, but Athena did, staying at sea was contraindicated for example.

If you are shipwrecked, despite being a devout monotheist, the best explanation we can find is that god works in mysterious ways. "Poseidon hates you" has more explanatory power IMO.

 

[six7s]

Well- one advantage of the old system was that you could explain contradictions as competition between gods- if Poseidon didn't like you, but Athena did, staying at sea was contraindicated for example.

If you are shipwrecked, despite being a devout monotheist, the best explanation we can find is that god works in mysterious ways. "Poseidon hates you" has more explanatory power IMO.

Huh?

What does this have to do with the "progress" mentioned in the OP?

 

[vIQleS]

Hinduism? Harmless?

Tell that to the Harijans

nationalgeographic.com

Well - to be fair, I did say 'more harmless'...

 

[GrandMasterFox]

If you are shipwrecked, despite being a devout monotheist, the best explanation we can find is that god works in mysterious ways. "Poseidon hates you" has more explanatory power IMO.

There are several explanations for that instance that you can see the bible jump back and forth between them. Amongst them is the possibility that your father or grandfather were sinners and thus you are stuck with paying for someone else's crimes.

 

[noreligion]

Progress? When was the last act of terrorism/bloodshed/murder/pogroms/inquisition done in the name of a polytheistic religion? Monotheism is a step backwards not progress.