I really believe so. Today, as I’m reading and listening to comments during the Proposition 8 Supreme Court judgments, I’m hearing people SAY what god thinks:
1 - God banishes homosexuals from heaven.
2 - Homosexuals are sinners but can be forgiven and they repent.
3 - God judges people on their merits.
4 - God MADE homosexuals, so why would he smite them
And so on. I have christian and catholic friends who believe one or more of these
aspects listed above. Adding my jewish friends, they believe one or more of these
with the exception of including christ as the son of god.
So, honestly. The more people I hear, I’m understanding that each one of them has their very own personal god. Hence, America = Polytheism. Five people, five gods.
Sixty million people = sixty million gods.
No. Many of those who are monotheistic think there’s only one God, but He just happens to agree with them on the very important issues of the day. :rolleyes:
This is pluralism, not polytheism. The OPs examples are all from monotheistic religions whose core tenants include a rejection of all other gods, which is a rejection of polytheism.
You don’t say where you are located but this bears mentioning: The phenomenon you describe has nothing to do with the United States. This is true of lots of countries, maybe *all *of them.
Second, polytheismmeans a system of beliefs including more than one deity, that is, any given individual believes in multiple gods. When multiple people have different interpretations of the *same *deity, or even each one has a different deity altogether, that is not polytheism.
To discuss the other points in your post would be to venture from GQ to GD.
America is polytheistic, but not in the way you describe. There are many people of different religions that are either polytheistic or believe in a different god than “God.” But the three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all believe in The One God, as in the all-powerful creator, so they are all monotheistic.
What you describe is simply a difference of opinion about how that god should be worshipped and what his tennents are. Most conveniently overlook the things God says that they don’t like and focus more on the things they do like/agree with. It’s only when they stress that you have to follow everything god says but they themselves overlook the inconvenient things (like saying god is against homosexuality but ignoring things like giving money to the poor and how anti-rich people jesus was, etc)
Ha! I like both of these. But just from today, there are a few gods, some who hear homo and say, “Meh”, and some who whip out a lightning rod and burn the person to a round of heterosexual cheers.
I’ve heard arguments where one will rebuttal with, “MY god doesn’t think that way!”
That phrase may be proof enough.
Okay, good points. And I’ve always lived in America, but I see I’m redefining polytheism as a plural noun, it seems. Collectively, with just these points you both bring up, definitely polytheistic, but individually, monotheistic.
Five people believing that Roger will agree with them even though all five of them have a different opinion on a subject does not mean that there are five Rogers, nor that anyone believes there to be five Rogers. So no, the Judeo-Christian people of the United States are not polytheistic.
there are individuals who are polytheistic. There are Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Shintoists, Dischordians, Wiccans, etc, all of who believe in multiple gods
Thanks for the moderation, C, I appreciate all moderation on these boards,
but I think I’m wrong with my use of the word, polytheism. Pluralism is clearly what I’m looking for, yet…
Maybe something about individual sects that’s making me call it polytheism.
It’s simpleminded, but I see sects large and small-- I dunno, far fetched, maybe,
but use Evangelist, Catholic and the Westboro Baptist Church. To me, they’re three VERY closely related gods, but individual gods. Just because they stem from the same source (or sources), they have things like creation, worship and sin in common with other gods, other religions past and present.
So, I suppose that each believer in a particular deity may be pluralistic,
and the world is polytheistic and, “Good god, I’ve gone crosseyed…”
No real debate here. PTI.
(I’m getting pitted now…)
In all my experience with christians, they all claim to worship the same god, but no two of them actually believe the same things about the entity, when you get past the broad strokes and get down to the details. (Not to mention there’s wide variance in opinion about the broad strokes as well.)
Saying that there aren’t five Rogers depends on there being an objective referent to the term ‘Roger’; absent that, there really is no solid basis for claiming that the varying claims really are referring to the same entity, with some or all of them just being ‘wrong’ about some aspects. (For one with no referent, there is no basis for saying that any given people, or even that anyone, is wrong about their varying claims about the thing.) Given that, I am of the opinion that even if two people are sitting in the same pew, they are almost certainly not actually worshipping the same god; they are each just worshipping the god they have created in their own separate minds.
(This still isn’t polytheism, though. Give or take that trinity thing, anyway.)
The Catholics believe in many gods. God is at war with the devil. Who could fight god if he were not also a god. He has his minions. God has angels, some very powerful and important. Then Jesus had to be a god. Mary is worshiped and prayed to as a god. We have the father, the son and the holy ghost. I was a catholic for many years and never got a handle on the holy ghost. What is that anyway? Another god?
