# Monotheism vs. Polytheism
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [April 19, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074 "2000-04-19T16:14:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/1 "2000-04-19T16:14:00Z")
I’ve been here for alittle while, and have yet to start a thread. So here goes. This is a question going out to all you religous dopers out there _(I hope i don’t regret this)_ :). Also, anyone who is not religious but has participated in religious debates is welcome to respond. How do Monotheistic religions explain polytheism. Why do those _other_ people worship multiple gods? I’ve heard the reply that it is because Satan decieves them. But wouldn’t it be easier for Satan to just get them to worship one god?
What I’m looking for is a two fold debate.
1. how/why do religions explain those who worship other gods.
2. how/why did this split devolop and why has it lasted so long.
This is something of a quetion, but I expect a debate to form around it. I thought I’d save time and just post it directly here.
Thanks 🙂
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### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/2 "2000-04-19T16:20:00Z")
As far as we know, polytheism has been around longer than monotheism. It may only have started off with the idea that certain places or things were home to a particular kind of spirit, and then people ascribed more and more power to those spirits, elevating them to the status of gods. Places, things, events, concepts, people . . . all of them had a particular god or goddess that ruled them.
Throw in the patterns of the night sky, and our habit of finding patterns where none exist, and you can see where multiples link up with multiples all over the place.
The first reference _I_ know of to monotheism was a Pharoah (Amun-Ra? The father of Tutankhamun and husband of Nefertiti), who tried to force his people into monotheism. Didn’t work out so well for him.
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### Author:  [@Mergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mergirl)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/3 "2000-04-19T16:28:00Z")
I read in a Philosophy textbook that one of the theories on the origin of monotheism was as follows.
Tribe A is at war with Tribe B. So A says to B; “My Gods are so powerful, they will defeat yours in a second.” and B says; “Oh yeah, well I have ONE God, and He is All-powerful, and he is the only God who really exists, so you A’s are all Godless, powerless and nyah!”
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### Author:  [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/4 "2000-04-19T16:52:00Z")
I’ve always wondered why I was taught in school that monotheism was a sign of a society’s advancement, eg the amun-ra thing and how much of a “backward slide” it was when they reverted to polytheism. It is just a case of western society being the “pinacle” of civilisation 😉 What do you guys think?
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2000, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/5 "2000-04-20T05:22:00Z")
Well, the Midrash says that idolatry (and, by extension, polytheism) began when someone decided that the heavenly bodies, since they were G-d’s servants, deserved honor due to their status as such. Future generations corrupted this idea (which was, according to Judaic theology, wrong to begin with; only the master himself is worthy of worship) to worshipping the heavenly bodies as powers unto themselves. Presumably the anthromorphization of these powers was a later stage of this line of thinking.
As for why it has lasted so long, it’s probably a common impulse in human psychology to wish to latch onto the visible and tangible rather than searching for or believing in the essentially ethereal.
Works for me.
* * *
Chaim Mattis Keller
[ckeller@kozmo.com](mailto:ckeller@kozmo.com)
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/6 "2000-04-20T05:24:00Z")
Well I must say that I agree with lunasea, I inherently don’t see why believing in only one god is more reasonable or theologically “correct” than believing in multiple gods.
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### Author:  [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/7 "2000-04-19T18:14:00Z")
posted at [http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/001734.html](http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/001734.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Gaudere:
> \*\* I’ve read (In _A History of God_, I beleive) that primitive man started out as a monotheist, then went to polytheism, then to monotheism, etc. I suspect both have their appeal; with polytheism you get specialists, with monotheism the One Big Boss. There’s also animism, which can go either way; either everything has a piece of the same big spirit, or they’re all a bunch of separate little spirits.
>
> \*\*
This is pretty acurate, if a little simplified. Primitave man needed a way to explain how things occurred. Orignal ideas about divinity are very confused among primitive people. Individual dieties were not clearly concieved nor distinguished from one another. The only real distinction comes from localization. Every spot or object that arouses the fancy of primitave man seems to be a place of gods. These local gods and fetishes weren’t distinctly idividual. Many had the same names. \*“Among the Israelites and Phoenicains many gods were called El (plural, Elohim) and other were called by the Phoenicians, Baal, the lord. ‘Despite the identity of names all these Baals counted as quite distinct beings. Often nothing more was added to distinguish them than the name of the place i nwhich the god in question was worshiped’”\*From Pietshmann, Geschichte de Phonizier.
Polytheism only developed when art and skill had devolped enough to give form to these seperate gods. This allowed people to keep them seperate in their mind, the invisible became visible. The gods were permanently distinguished and confusion among them became impossible. It was actually easier for peopple to jump from this primitave conception of god to monotheism than from polytheism to monotheism.
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### Author:  [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/8 "2000-04-19T18:29:00Z")
There are many gods which Christians reject. I just believe in one less god then they do. The reasons that you might give for your atheism toward the Roman gods are likely the same reasons I would give for not believing in Jesus.
-Dan Barker
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### Author:  [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/9 "2000-04-19T18:35:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by CheapBastid:
> \*\*There are many gods which Christians reject. I just believe in one less god then they do. The reasons that you might give for your atheism toward the Roman gods are likely the same reasons I would give for not believing in Jesus.
>
> -Dan Barker\*\*
I realize they reject them. I’m more wondering how they explain them. Why didn’t God make everyone believe in him?
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### Author:  [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/10 "2000-04-19T18:37:00Z")
This is the quote I was looking for…
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
-Stephen F. Roberts
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### Author:  [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/11 "2000-04-19T18:39:00Z")
Sorry I should have used
> [@](#):
>
> Quote Identifiers
Neither statement was mine, but I do enjoy them both.
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/12 "2000-04-19T18:39:00Z")
oldscratch:
> [@](#):
>
> I realize they reject them. I’m more wondering how they explain them. Why didn’t God make everyone believe in him?
Two words: free choice.
G-d, whatever his reasons, did not want to create a bunch of robotic yes-men when he created humans. He wanted creatures with free choice which were capable of deciding on their own whether they would follow him or not.
Chaim Mattis Keller
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### Author:  [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/13 "2000-04-19T18:53:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t God make everyone believe in him?
Oh, that one’s easy. God wants you to choose Him of you’re own free will, so He doesn’t make you believe the right God if you get it wrong. People may be misled by charismatic leaders of “false religions” who preach false doctrine to better use their followers for their personal gain. Another possibility is that a “false doctrine” may be more attractive than the “true” one (often a charge leveled by fundamental Christians who object to the “everybody can go to heaven” stance of some more liberal religions). Or they can explain it by the psychological attractiveness of specialists (as I mentioned); having a bunch of little specialist Gods somehow seems like you’ll get more personal attention. It’s like why people pray to saints instead of just God (I am _not_ saying Catholics are polythiests). Or maybe people who worship the “wrong God” are overly influenced by personal reasons; family traditions, stubborness, fear, etc. There’s a ton of reasons why people can explain why others don’t worship the “right” God, most of them unflattering.
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### Author:  [@Nen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nen)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/14 "2000-04-19T19:29:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by phouka:
> (Amun-Ra? The father of Tutankhamun and husband of Nefertiti)
Akhenaten was the Nefertiti’s husband and the pharoah who instigated the movement towards the worship of solely Ra. Perhaps Amun-Ra is a nickname, if you will. I have never heard the name, but I am sure that Akhenaten is the “proper” name of the Pharoah in question.
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### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/15 "2000-04-19T20:08:00Z")
Thanks, Nen. You got it right. I wonder where I came up with Amun-Ra from.
* * *
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good dipped in chocolate.
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### Author:  [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/16 "2000-04-19T22:37:00Z")
I believe Amun-Ra (sometimes Re) is the name of the god being monotheistically worshipped in this case.
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### Author:  [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/17 "2000-04-19T22:40:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Why didn’t God make everyone believe in him?
Is Islam, we call them “angels”.
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### Author:  [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/18 "2000-04-19T22:56:00Z")
Hmm the only monotheistic egyptian thing was when one pharoh told everyone to worship the sundisk god
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/19 "2000-04-19T23:30:00Z")
[cheap shot]
Seems to me polytheism is extremely successful in our society today–what with their Moral Majority and Prayer in Schools and their Pro-Life and all.
Or can someone finally show me how belief in a trinity is monotheistic?
[/cheap shot]
-andros-
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monotheism-vs-polytheism/18074/20 "2000-04-19T23:35:00Z")
From [http://www.kemet.org](http://www.kemet.org):
> [@](#):
>
> Aten (Aton, Yiten) - “Sun’s Disk” Aten is the physically visible sun, the yellow sphere in earth’s sky that can fructify or scorch. The Aten-disk is venerated as a form of Shu, Ra, or Heru from the late Middle Kingdom onward and was not, as some have erroneously stated, “invented” by New Kingdom pharaoh Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten. However, beginning with Akhenaten’s father, Amenhotep III, Aten enjoyed a higher level of worship, and during Akhenaten’s reign, for reasons not entirely clear in the historic record, Akhenaten declared all other Names invalid and Their priests useless, and ordered Kemet to worship him as the “Sole One of Aten,” who would then take the people’s prayers to His Father (he did not order them to worship Aten; the texts state that only Akhenaten is qualified to do this as the Disk’s intermediary). Akhenaten’s religious reforms, which did not represent monotheism as has been often suggested (Akhenaten offers Ma’at in friezes, and some of his hymns refer to “Ra-Heruakhety in His Name of Shu Who is in Aten,” indicating Akhenaten’s “destruction” of other Names was selective), did not long outlast him; a backlash against the Atenist movement by the priesthood of Amen-Ra after Akhenaten’s death resulted in the loss of much of this Name’s information.
They’re a somewhat unusual organization, but their history’s good.
-andros-
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