Why is monotheism important?

[cloudyday2]

I said that already. You're obviously not engaging with what people post here.

Sorry that I missed your comment on Hinduism, but I'm not sure it is fair to say I'm not engaging with what people are posting.

 

[cloudyday2]

Abraham would not agree.

After escaping being put to death by Nimrod,

Abram was hidden in a cave, he stayed in the cave until he was ten years old.

During this time he came to believe in the existence of G-d through reasoning.
By watching the sun, moon and stars coming and going
each in their own time.

He reasoned there must be a power above and beyond
all the visible forces of nature,
a power that had created them and controlled them at all times.
Young Abram perceived the unlimited and timeless existence of G-d.

Then G-d made Himself known to Abram and taught him
the right way of living.

Later Abram went to the house of Noah and Shem,
he stayed there many years,
he studied and learned to serve G-d.

The Talmud tells that Abraham fulfilled the entire Torah
before it was given.

He, Abram had been taught the knowledge of the true G-d and he despised the idol worship of the people around him.

The existence of a god above everything else does not preclude the possibility that lesser gods exist to rule over particular aspects of nature such as agricultural fertility. An agricultural society might choose to sacrifice to the fertility goddess while still acknowledging the existence of higher gods and creator gods.

An analogy would be if you are having trouble with your trash pick-up in the US. You decide to write a letter of complaint. Do you send your letter to the head of the trash department in your local city government or do you send your letter to Washington D.C.? You might get better results by sending the letter to the local city government as the first step. Is was the same in the polytheistic religions. They sacrificed to the fertility goddess if they wanted a good harvest and they sacrificed to the ocean goddess if they wanted a safe voyage.

The only advantage I can see for monotheism is that it simplifies prayer. I don't need to decide which god should be the object of my prayer request. I don't even need to know much about god. If there is only one god then I don't even need to know his/her name. I can just "God, give me this, give me that. Thank you very much in advance."

 

[Robban]

The existence of a god above everything else does not preclude the possibility that lesser gods exist to rule over particular aspects of nature such as agricultural fertility. An agricultural society might choose to sacrifice to the fertility goddess while still acknowledging the existence of higher gods and creator gods.

An analogy would be if you are having trouble with your trash pick-up in the US. You decide to write a letter of complaint. Do you send your letter to the head of the trash department in your local city government or do you send your letter to Washington D.C.? You might get better results by sending the letter to the local city government as the first step. Is was the same in the polytheistic religions. They sacrificed to the fertility goddess if they wanted a good harvest and they sacrificed to the ocean goddess if they wanted a safe voyage.

The only advantage I can see for monotheism is that it simplifies prayer. I don't need to decide which god should be the object of my prayer request. I don't even need to know much about god. If there is only one god then I don't even need to know his/her name. I can just "God, give me this, give me that. Thank you very much in advance."

Indeed people have worshipped sticks, stones, bugs or just anything that appesred to have given them a good harvest.

The heavenly court consists of heavenly beings, angels and such.


There was once an old miser, he had piles of money,
but he shared like a man with no arms.

So the time came for him to meet his maker, as they say.

He had a whole swarm of prosecuting angels waiting for him, rubbing their hands together,

They were about to annouce what he had waiting for him,

Suddenly another angel appeared and shouted, "Stop! stop!"

"I saw him once give 25 cents to a beggar,you will have to adjust your case for him."

"OK, but we will have to have a meeting about this."

Time dragged on and finally they were done.

"So what is your verdict?"

"We have after careful consideration decided,

give him back his 25 cents,
and tell him to go to hell."


No cloudy, As well is there is one G-d, one judge,
there is no other and nothing can compare.

 

[dlamberth]

The monotheist religions seem to feel that one-God is a very important or even the most important part of their theology.

I know I'm pretty much alone in this. And I apologize that I'm not directly giving an answer to the OP. But as I look around this world at the plants, animals, and the huge variety of life forms, it seems to me that God likes diversification. In Christianity it's the Trinity where God becomes diversified. Just as in nature where a decrease of diversification causes a sick ecology, I think the same is true with the monotheist trajectory as evidenced by the history of human suffering caused by those religions. The monotheist religions have birthed a one true wayism that I don't believe has been to the best interest of history.

 

[Crandaddy]

We believe that God is one because oneness is fundamental to the essence of what God is. God is the Most High, the Summum Bonum, the End of all ends. Such a being cannot be other than one in essence; to think otherwise is to fundamentally misunderstand what God is. In fact the name that the Platonists -- who had considerable influence on the development of Christian doctrine -- had for what Christians call "God" was τὸ Ἕν, which literally means "the One."

 

[cloudyday2]

I know I'm pretty much alone in this. And I apologize that I'm not directly giving an answer to the OP. But as I look around this world at the plants, animals, and the huge variety of life forms, it seems to me that God likes diversification. In Christianity it's the Trinity where God becomes diversified. Just as in nature where a decrease of diversification causes a sick ecology, I think the same is true with the monotheist trajectory as evidenced by the history of human suffering caused by those religions. The monotheist religions have birthed a one true wayism that I don't believe has been to the best interest of history.

Everybody is so different that no single religion is likely to accomplish God's purpose for all people IMO. I suppose if Christianity is reduced to "fire insurance" then maybe one size fits all. Every Christian approaches Christianity differently based on their own circumstances, so that is essentially many different religions sharing certain basic features.

 

[Noxot]

The monotheist religions seem to feel that one-God is a very important or even the most important part of their theology.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam believe in angels which are not very different from some polytheistic gods. God and his angels might be viewed as a pantheon. The only differences I can see are the prohibition against worshiping angels and the fact that polytheistic gods are usually connected to various features of nature (e.g. Poseidon and the sea). Worship is a nebulous concept though. The activities we call "worship" when the object is a god are called "veneration" when the object is not a god.

But even if we don't challenge the claim that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic, why is it so important? For example, why isn't belief in the benevolence of the gods more important than belief that there is one god? If I had to choose between one mean god and 1000 nice gods, I would choose 1000 nice gods even though I might not be able to keep track of them all. Why is the number of gods so important to monotheists?

An infinite Transcendent personality in some ways already covers both. But God is Not divided against himself. it seems that it is important for all beings to not hate and fight against each other in an ideal and perfect reality. There can be differences and distinctions and still Unity. But to destroy an eye because it is not the hand is insanity.

maybe some pagan gods are Unworthy of the name of God. in the same way interpretations of the one God may be worthy or unworthy. but it seems that our subjectivity in some way has a say in how God is, at least in relationship to us. Whiteheads idea of a part of God that becomes is in my eyes certainly a worthy idea.

 

[Noxot]

I know I'm pretty much alone in this. And I apologize that I'm not directly giving an answer to the OP. But as I look around this world at the plants, animals, and the huge variety of life forms, it seems to me that God likes diversification. In Christianity it's the Trinity where God becomes diversified. Just as in nature where a decrease of diversification causes a sick ecology, I think the same is true with the monotheist trajectory as evidenced by the history of human suffering caused by those religions. The monotheist religions have birthed a one true wayism that I don't believe has been to the best interest of history.

How long do you think it will be before the new agers start killing people? I will give them 100 years if their religion gets popular. I saw one new Ager convert to Christianity and he was as fundamentalist as they come.

 

[dlamberth]

How long do you think it will be before the new agers start killing people? I will give them 100 years if their religion gets popular. I saw one new Ager convert to Christianity and he was as fundamentalist as they come.

I'm wondering why you focus on the New Ager's as a reply to my post. New Age spirituality wasn't even in my radar as I typed my comment. That's because I believe that New Age spirituality will end up fading away over time. Even with New Age spirituality failing pretty badly as I run down my spiritual check list, I still feel that particular spiritual trajectory has opened a diversity of ways to approach the Divine that's all but closed off by most monotheist religions. And going forward that can't help but create the diversity in religions not unlike we find in life itself.

 

[Noxot]

I'm wondering why you focus on the New Ager's as a reply to my post. New Age spirituality wasn't even in my radar as I typed my comment. That's because I believe that New Age spirituality will end up fading away over time. Even with New Age spirituality failing pretty badly as I run down my spiritual check list, I still feel that particular spiritual trajectory has opened a diversity of ways to approach the Divine that's all but closed off by most monotheist religions. And going forward that can't help but create the diversity in religions not unlike we find in life itself.

They're newer. They're basically monotheist. They don't seem like the type that would cut your head off or burn you at the stake. I implied that popularity has something to do with evils creeping in. The young new Ager that converted to Christianity was extremely Fundamentalist, that's probably in part because he was young but it makes me wonder about the difference between outward appearance and inner nature. I guess new age is kind of like "Hinduism". It's a collection of a lot of stuff labeled with a simple name. When I'm wise I judge each thing as a unique thing even if it seems to share with some group or label. I have in the past been too hasty and zealous in wanting to speak about certain points of Truth with you while ignoring other important things, sorry.

I think monotheism and authoritarianism based on love for the truth gives us tunnel vision. We see the truth and we cling on to it because we love it and it's right to love it, but we might miss out on other parts of it. it seems very sane to think that goodness and Truth are the same and that if they are separated something is wrong.

Certainly diversity is part of reality. I think it might be dangerous for multiplicity to be the highest thing. It's funny because I'm an anarchist. So you would think that I would not want a father of us all. I think Multiplicity or the all has a father, since the all is the son. something strikes me wrong about a many-headed chaotic being which fights with itself. No better though is an jerk with one head.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

It's important because all other ideas of the 'gods' are false or distortions of the one true God. It also seems an ill comparison between the completely transcendent God who is the source of all things and a guy like Zeus.

 

[cloudyday2]

It's important because all other ideas of the 'gods' are false or distortions of the one true God. It also seems an ill comparison between the completely transcendent God who is the source of all things and a guy like Zeus.

I didn't write my question in the OP clearly enough, because a lot of people are giving me variations of your answer, and that indicates a misunderstanding.

Let me try this way of asking the question:

Non-Christian #1 believes in only one god, but that god hates cats. In all other ways this god is almost identical to the god of Abraham.

Non-Christian #2 believes in only two gods - a husband and wife team who are almost identical to the god of Abraham.

It seems that many followers of the god of Abraham would have more affinity for non-Christian #1 and his cat-hating god simply because it is one god instead of two. Why is that?

 

[Noxot]

Transcendental Unity of all reality is why there has to be one God. But it transcends all, it does not destroy all. Some go so far as to say that all of reality is in each of us.

An infinite God would be restricted by normal comprehensions of personality. The Divine world is not like the world we are used to. God is infinitely unknowable and infinitely revealing himself.

What kind of personality is Divinity really worthy of? it's impossible for him to be fully alien and unknown to us since the Son of God is fully human and fully God. One way we know God is by the image of him that we are. The saved are said to be part of the body of the son of God.