judeo/christian/muslim religion - question on monotheism

Factual Questions
1

The god worshipped by judaism, the various denominations of christianity and muslims is the same one. More or less comes from one single religion (the one started by the jews). These religions are more or less monotheistic (forgetting the quality of saints in catholocism, as well as the divine nature of jesus)

Anyway, my question is, has there been any other monotheistic religions around on earth, or is the judeo/christian/muslim one the only one?

On second thought, by monotheistic, I don’t mean just worshipping one single god, as say, the Cult of Isis back in ancient rome, but worshipping only one god while denying the existence of all others, like the judeo/christian/muslim one.

ps, just asking for a factual answer to a simple question. If thread gets complicated feel free to move this to great debates, mods.

2

I think Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion. Although I guess that could be considered debateable, since Angra Mainyu is allegedly equal in power to Ahura Mazda.

3

Presuming you see Deism, Unitarianism, and other related belief structures as deriving from Christianity and believing in the J/C/I God, I know of only one other true monotheism, probably (but not certainly) independent of them: Atenism, the faith of Akhnaten and his family in ancient Egypt.

Zoroastrianism believes in one supreme, good god, Ahura Mazda (Ormazd), who is opposed by a lesser-but-equal evil god, Angra Mainyu (Ahriman). One heretical sect of Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism, holds that both were created by Zurvan, which is more or less a personification of infinite time.

It is worth noting that some schools of Hindu thought see the numerous gods of Hinduism as representations of aspects of a single all-encompassing Being, the Brahman. This would certainly qualify as a form of exclusivist monotheism. I am not familiar with what Jains and Sikhs believe; their belief structures might be construed as monotheist, at least under a liberal definition.

4

Sabians (Subbis) are monotheistic in the same way as Christians, Jews and Muslims. They worship the same one God, and hold very similar beliefs.

5

Ahem. The following info is if I remember my studying correctly, and I don’t feel like digging around for my books.

In Voduou (Haitian, not New Orleans “Voodoo”), there’s Papa Legba, called The Good God, IIRC. The rest of the “gods” you may hear about are actually loa, or spirits.

If you’re interested in that, I can pull oput my books and refresh my memory. There aren’t many Vodouisants in Michigan for me to ask, heh.

Now, I dooooon’t remember if they deny the existance of other gods or not. I know that Vodou is a loose combination of an ancient (6,000+ y/o) African religion (I can’t recall the name offhand) and Catholicism. Basically, so the slave owners wouldn’t get all pissy that their slaves were following the correct religion.

6

I think Sikhism is monotheistic.

7

Akhenaten possibly predated Judaism.

http://www.bonnievanak.com/info.htm
{Not the most scholarly site, but it comes up early in Google and appears accurate.]

8

Yeah, but Sikhism seems to have arisen from the interaction of Islam & Hinduism. It’d be similar to Bahai.

9

Your statement/assertion that the god of judaism, christianity, and islam is the same one is at variance with the view of biblical scholars of both Jews and Christians.
The difference can be discerned by a thorough study of the nature of Alaja vs. Jehova God .

“Beware of the Cog”

10

Isn’t one of the biggest differences between the Jewish and Christian God the Trinity aspect in Christianity? IOW, I thought that a major Jewish principle was that their god was One, undivided, while the Christians’ is more split, having three “facets”.

11

Yeesh!

“Theological debates have no place in General Questions” – one of our weary Moderators

That said, let’s see if we can work out some fact-based statements on differing belief structures.

The core doctrine of Judaism is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord (YHWH) your God is one God.” It’s an assertion of absolute monotheism: anything else that might be described as “god” is nothing in comparison to YHWH. Further investigation indicates that this God is identified with the deity Who (the Bible states) gave the Law to Moses, and Who was the same God as the one known to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons.

There is a wide divergence of belief within Christianity on the nature of God – but a bottom-line definition that should be acceptable if not thrilling to all Christians is that the One God of Judaism is actually a deity Who manifests Himself under the forms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the second-named of these having taken human existence as Jesus of Nazareth. (Any scholar of Trinitarian theology can rip that apart for what it implies and does NOT say, but taken as a bare statement without implications and with no inferences read into the omissions, I think it works OK.)

Now, Islam is founded on a similar statement, “There is no god but God, and Mohammed is His prophet.” The assertion here is again that there is but one God, instead of a polytheism, and again further investigation leads us to the assertion that the God whom Mohammed proclaimed was defined as – surprise! – the God of Abraham.

People over in Great Debates have in the past commented that it doesn’t sound like Lynn73 and I are talking about the same God, despite the fact that we both claim to be conveying the Christian message.

Well, the same problem, expanded, exists here. Assertions which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam make about God are incommensurate – we hold divergent views on what His nature, will, and intentions might be. But we all claim to be pointing to the same deity – the One who revealed Himself to Abraham.

Christianity is very explicit that it believes in one Godhead – no matter that that God manifests Himself in three Personae, it is not a tritheism but a belief in one God.

Does that at all help in resolving the knotty question that spingears and Speaker for the Dead have raised regarding gubernator’s original assumption?

12

Baha’is are monotheistic. We also believe that all the other religions are right, as well as us. IOW, there is only one God, but there are a number of different paths to Him.

13

Not being a Bible scholar, I could be wrong here, but I do not believe that the Old Testament, or ancient Hebrew texts quote G-d as saying we must deny the existence of any other deity.

What is stated is that “YHWH” is the only G-d of the Hebrews, and that they should ‘have no other gods before Me.’ Also making graven images is a severe no-no, and you may not ‘bow down to them, or serve them’.

There’s a lot of room for interpretation there as to whether or not lesser gods exist.

Personally, I believe NOT. ;j

14

This would be a false presumption. It is akin to the myth of the Founding Fathers being Christians and creating America as a Christian nation.

Deism holds that most, if not all, religions start with the original, fundamental observation that there is some creator, something out there beyond ourselves that made all this stuff for us, because of all the creation that’s been created (the earth, cosmos, etc.). These things clearly did not create themselves, so logically there’s a creator.

Deism just stops there. The natural world is all the evidence of a creator the deist needs. There is no need of “holy” books, “holy” men, church buildings, flying pigeons impregnating virgins with godmen, talking snakes, omnipotent devils, wailing walls, five times daily ground kissing, elephant gods, fancy costumes, bizarre rituals, overwhelming guilt for being human, or collection plates.

The God that deists speak of could not be more removed from the jealous, violent-tempered, vainglorious, self-important, mass murdering, irrational, impotent, petulant little girl of the Big 3. For example, the idea that God made Satan so all-powerful that God not only could not keep him in the pit but actually was *forced to capitulate *to him by sending a man/god son (birthed by a virgin impregnated by a pigeon, remember) to be tortured to death on earth to (somehow) “save” the people from him, is seen as patently, blasphemously absurd. This tale was invented by the Christian mythologists because they NEED a Satan to keep their flock in line, to keep them fearful and convinced the only way to be free of him is through their program. (The only one TRUE religion.)

15

BTW, what is it that Jews have against vowels? I keep seeing references to “YHWH”, “G-D”, etc. How do you pronounce these things without vowels? I’ve heard Jews say the word “God” before. Are they being blasphemous, or is OK to pronounce the vowels but just not to write them? Why the distinction? Is it imagined that God (or G-d) for some reason prefers that we not use his name with the vowels?

Also, how did certain letters of the alphabet ever manage to earn the status of being unholy (or too holy to print)?

16

No Semitic language includes vowels. Words used three (occasionally only two) consonants as a root and then built up meanings from that root that were understood (and pronounced differently) in context.

There was nothing holy or blasphemous about the vowels. That was just the way the language worked.