DrZoidberg
Contributor
Christians often like to make a big deal about the distinction between polytheism and monotheism. As if everything good that comes from Christianity is because it's monotheistic. I don't get it. All monotheists have done is blended all the aspects of the gods into just one god. But they still talk about these different aspects when they talk about their god. So in practice the same thing IMHO.
There's other dimensions which I think make more sense. Like personal vs impersonal gods. Or gods that need to be submitted to vs gods that can be controlled.
I heard the argument that it scales better. But Monotheism is about as fractured and local as polytheism.
The scalability surely has to do with it's religious text being written. Polytheists have had no problem writing down their sacred texts either.
Christianity and Islam emphasizes belief over ritual. Also a different dimension than number of gods.
The highest religious ideal for Roman pagans ca 0 AD was "pleonachos tropos", ie its complicated. That doesn't scale well at all. It's easy to see how the Christian extreme simplicity of doctrine swept that away. But, again, has nothing to do with number of gods.
Basically, I don't think the monotheism is relevant at all for Christianities success. I suspect it's just something they repeat because their first commandment is that it's really really important. Even though it isn't.
Thoughts?
There's other dimensions which I think make more sense. Like personal vs impersonal gods. Or gods that need to be submitted to vs gods that can be controlled.
I heard the argument that it scales better. But Monotheism is about as fractured and local as polytheism.
The scalability surely has to do with it's religious text being written. Polytheists have had no problem writing down their sacred texts either.
Christianity and Islam emphasizes belief over ritual. Also a different dimension than number of gods.
The highest religious ideal for Roman pagans ca 0 AD was "pleonachos tropos", ie its complicated. That doesn't scale well at all. It's easy to see how the Christian extreme simplicity of doctrine swept that away. But, again, has nothing to do with number of gods.
Basically, I don't think the monotheism is relevant at all for Christianities success. I suspect it's just something they repeat because their first commandment is that it's really really important. Even though it isn't.
Thoughts?