# Why are the dominant world religions monotheistic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 30, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546 "2011-11-30T08:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/61 "2011-12-02T00:22:40Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Another thing to consider is that if you want your gods to be omnipotent (rather than just a group of beings much more powerful than you), you find yourself logically requiring monotheism. Otherwise what happens if one god chooses one thing and another god chooses something else. They can’t both get their wish. I suspect that the desire for an omnipotent god is why some polytheistic religions start talking about aspects of a single god. I find the whole concept of true omnipotence philosophically ridiculous, do monotheists really have evidence that God is omnipotent. It is a lot more believable if the gods are just extremely powerful. As for why I believe that multiple gods are more likely, it’s simple. I forsee a time where a human might create simple AI robots capable of manufacturing more of each other. Eventually, due to system bugs, they might evolve, and start in their roboty way to ask the big questions. They might have had one original creator, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us humans don’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/62 "2011-12-02T03:00:22Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Let me guess, whoever told you that was a Christian. What are the odds? On the contrary, many Christians don’t see any value in non-Christian religions and think they are all morally alike. This rhetoric comes more from people who point out most religions are alike. > [@](#): > > :rolleyes: As if. Christianity has been barbaric, and one of the primary enemies of the collective moral progress of humanity. At best Christian “morality” boils down to “do what you are told” and is amoral, not moral. And quite often it amounts to “do whatever you like and say God wanted you to do it”. Then why do people not do something out of their moral conviction despite the fact that they want to do it. > [@](#): > > And that’s even besides all the nasty & irrational ideas it has always pushed, from the subjugation of women to the hatred of homosexuals to the persecution of Jews. Which was by people grossly ignorant of the Bible considering Jesus, Paul, and pretty much the whole OT people were Jewish. > [@](#): > > And of course it is by nature hateful of all alternative beliefs, as your own characterization of other religions as “devolved” demonstrates. Saying a religion is false is not the same as hating everyone who believes it. You certainly believe for example geocentrists are wrong but that doesn’t mean you advocate burning them at the stake. > [@lynne-42](#): > > No idea what you mean by ‘ritual’ in polytheistic religions? Nor what on earth gives you the evidence that they are less concerned with morals. Polytheistic societies in general were more tolerant of such practices as infanticide, adultery, prostitution, and so on for example. > [@](#): > > As to monotheistic religions - they are the ‘religions of the Book’ - that is, intricately linked with literacy. There is a significant change in the purpose of ‘religious’ ritual as you cross the orality / literacy divide. > > In oral cultures, ritual has a massive role in storing pragmatic information (plant properties, animal behaviour, navigation, weather and seasonal changes, trade agreements, genealogies, moral and legal rules, resource locations, tides, astronomy …). This is taking me a whole PhD thesis to develop, but I’ll give just one example to illustrate why we need to be very careful what we define as a ‘god’ and think of as ‘ritual’. > > Ortiz discusses the Corn Mother and Corn Maiden rituals. Are they what you would define as ‘gods’?. Specifically in: > > Ortiz, A 1969, The Tewa world: space, time, being, and becoming in a Pueblo society, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. > > In a later work (I can cite it if anyone wants it) he recommends the writings of Richard I. Ford on the same rituals. Two perspectives, same rituals. > > Ford, RI 1980, ‘The colour of survival’, Discovery, pp. 16-29. > > Through these rituals, the Tewa are able to keep about 7 varieties of corn pure and stop it cross-pollinating (not easy, I’ve been trying it!). They optimise planting to get a balance of colours (varieties) to maximise the chance of a sustainable yield given a highly unpredictable climate. That’s why Ford refers to it as ‘the colour of survival’. The rituals ensure the best kernels are kept for seed, control planting times, locations and buffer zones. > > As soon as you are referring to non-literate cultures, you need to consider mnemonic technologies and how they manage to remember so much stuff. Read a little and you will find lots of that stuff is about morals. [/QUOTE] I have nothing against rituals for cultural purposes actually. > [@jinty](#): > > ‘True’? Unfortunately for this idea, Judeo-Christianity started out stunningly and indesputably [polytheistic](http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_jehovah02.htm). So… did it start out false? At what point did it become ‘true’? What was God doing for all those centuries while it was falsely polytheistic? > > In answer to the OP, and speaking in particular of Judeo-Christianity - rulers like King Hezekiah simply decided it was convenient for them to replace polytheism with monotheism - it helped them to increase their power over their subjects. Hezekiah, for example, [stamped out worship of the chief female J-C deity Asherah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah#Religious_reforms). It’s all about power, baby. The Gnostics were um rather fuzzy theologically (which the article cites as examples of Christian polytheists) . Lots of weird ideas including thinking Cain and Judas were heroes ---
**Author:** ![ProbablyProcrastinating](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@ProbablyProcrastinating](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProbablyProcrastinating)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/63 "2011-12-07T03:10:31Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > True and many non-Muslims and non-Christians would look at Satan as another deity abd argue that they aren’t monotheistic religions. > > It’s all in the eye of the beholder. I would say that Christianity and Islam have rather specific stories about Satan and his origins as a created being. Since a deity, according to those traditions, can not be created but can only be a creator or independently existing, the metaphysical story is consistent and rules out the possibility of Satan as a deity. Whereas, I think the trinity has been shown to be confusing even for the most dedicated Christians. **Namkcalb** , most Muslims I have met believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (not Mary, with whom they are familiar through the Qur’an) are all Gods. And some Christians have made this heretical error as well. There are two or three heresies that deal with polytheism. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/64 "2011-12-07T03:41:08Z")
> [@ProbablyProcrastinating](#): > > I would say that Christianity and Islam have rather specific stories about Satan and his origins as a created being. I’m not sure John Milton has been elevated to the level of dogma, but sure, why not. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/65 "2011-12-07T05:26:13Z")
King Josiah was a Yawehist, he had someone forge Deuteronomy, They also rewrote the rest of the Judiac history reducing the roles of those like Baal or Ashera. They added genesis 1 and removed the other gods from the pre-Cannonite polytheistic writings in the original genesis 2 which had the same source as the Enuma Elish. Later the authors of the Pentateuch modified The original “J” and E" authors stories of El and the other Cannonite gods out of the picture or merged them as stories about Yahweh. After that it split and the followers of the religions had success in conquering peoples for reasons other than their Monotheistic stance. I do not think there is any real advantage of being monotheistic, it was just by chance. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546/66 "2011-12-07T05:42:15Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > King Josiah was a Yawehist, he had someone forge Deuteronomy, They also rewrote the rest of the Judiac history reducing the roles of those like Baal or Ashera. They added genesis 1 and removed the other gods from the pre-Cannonite polytheistic writings in the original genesis 2 which had the same source as the Enuma Elish. > > Later the authors of the Pentateuch modified The original “J” and E" authors stories of El and the other Cannonite gods out of the picture or merged them as stories about Yahweh. > > After that it split and the followers of the religions had success in conquering peoples for reasons other than their Monotheistic stance. > I do not think there is any real advantage of being monotheistic, it was just by chance. I should say that the general population probably originally went along with this because they were handily defeated by Assyria. Most likely they promised to only worship their war god Yahweh in order to win his favor on the battle field…most likely the move to a monotheistic stance was not a conscious effort to deny the existence of a whole host of other gods. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-dominant-world-religions-monotheistic/604546.md?page=3)