Why is monotheism supposedly better than polytheism?

[raccoon]

In reading about religion, monotheism is presented as the highest evolved form of religion.

Is there any logical reason for this, or is it just that monotheism is "in?"

[The_Commonist]

1. Because God said so?

That's all I can figure...

[msongs]

6. which god? there are so many to choose from nt

[eShirl]

10. the One True God(tm)!

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Cleaner chain of command

Homo sapiens is a social animal; we have evolved to feel more secure when we know who is unambiguously in command. Monotheism removes all doubt as to who that is.

[rateyes]

5. That's true. And, it makes it easier to justify evil acts if one can say

"God told us to do it."

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Yep. The whole Trojan War thing could have been avoided

if there was one god telling them what to do, instead of "Hera said this" and "Apollo said that"

bitch, bitch, bitch.

[rateyes]

13. I blow them away at my church when I ask:

Did God REALLY tell the Israelites to commit genocide---kill all the men, women, children, babies, animals, not leave anything with breath in it to survive? Or, did the Israelites just do that, and then write down in their holy book that God ordered it in order to justify their evil acts?

[rateyes]

3. Because the vast majority of people who follow a religion

are monotheists. It's how people are raised. Doesn't make it right. It's just how it is.

[atommom]

4. Possibly because most religious scholars are monotheistic and so see

monotheism as the norm.

[rurallib]

7. because the bible tells me so?

[charlie]

8. It certainly simplifies things

Remember how the Greek, Roman, Norse, etc gods were always bickering, jockeying for supremacy? You appease one god, you had to be mindful of others that might hork off. You couldn't be sure your crops weren't destroyed because you hitched your fortunes to the water god, when it was the fire god who was ascendant.

[rox63]

9. Who knows?

One omnipotent being in the sky, or several? What if some of the several dieties disagree? Who's in the right then? I guess monotheism wipes out that problem.

[Deep13]

11. It's just that monotheism is "in" ...

...if you ignore the fact that Christianity by its own terms is not monotheistic. There are at least three gods, all masculine, plus the devil and lesser gods in the form of angels, demons and in some cases hundreds of named saints.

Anyway, I think numerous gods all at cross purposes explains things far better than a single, all-powerful, all-knowing god who for some reason allows tremendous suffering and whose own rules and actions are grossly immoral.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Exactly. Christianity is not monotheistic. It is a monotheistic veneer

painted over the Roman pagan system - as is evidenced by the catholic heirarchy retaining the same titles as the priesthood of the temple of Jupiter, of which the Emperor was the titular head. Even the veneration of Mary is derived from the old pagan beliefs - Mary the Mother (Madonna) = Hera; Mary the Virgin = Vesta (of the Vestal Virgins) the perpetural virgin - which is why we are presented with the absurdity of the ultimate mother image also being the perfect virgin.

[Wildewolfe]

15. By the same token

... polythesistic religions are generally monothesistic to the individual. There may be an acknowledged pantheon of dieties, but in general the individial owed personal fealty to one.

Looking particularly at catholicism you have The trinity (3 dieties in one), Mary, and the saints (to numerous to mention) all who get prayed to regularly.

In fundamentalism you have the Trinity (still 3 distictly different dieties no matter how you shake it out or rationalize it) and the anti diety Satan, who is worshiped by hordes of fictional flesh eating, child stealing, human sacrificing, yada yada yada enemies of the movement.

Monotheism and polytheism are all shades of grey.

[RethugAssKicker]

16. Damn, Good Question....

I personally don't know.

[Neo Atheist]

17. is there any logical reason for belief in either poly or mono?

[Occam Bandage]

18. Three reasons.

The first is that most writers are writing from a monotheistic perspective, even if they've since abandoned their religion.

The second is that the world's most predominant monotheistic religions grew out of polytheism, and supplanted polytheism wherever they spread.

The third is that those monotheistic religions ended up being much more philosophically deep and theologically rich than the polytheistic religions they replaced. This is due to a couple of factors: monotheistic religions absorbed the best parts of polytheistic traditions, and they each had a few centuries of the brainpower of entire societies dedicated to little but enriching them.

Each of these have more to do with the social position of the Abrahamic religions versus the polytheistic religions they supplanted in the Middle East and Europe than anything to do with innate qualities of monotheism and polytheism. Hinduism demonstrates that, given time and effort, polytheism can be richer and deeper than any monotheism might hope to be.

[Marrah_G]

19. I don't think it is personally- but here are some of my thoughts.

One God dispels the separation of powers between groups.

One God bring everyone under the control of one person or group of persons.

One God makes for clear laws and powers.

To make the conversions go easier all feast days became the One God's holy days and all God and Goddesses became Demons, Angels or Saints.

It's all about controlling the masses.

[smoogatz]

20. That assumes that the current major religions are monotheistic.

Christianity is the biggest religion, but it's actually bitheistic: Jesus and God the Father (Jehova) are separate entities with different personalities and different supernatural powers. There's the Holy Ghost, too, but I don't think anybody really has an image in their heads of the Holy ghost, so it doesn't count. If you're Catholic, there are also lots of saints to venerate, which is different from worship only in name. Islam's the second biggest religion, and it's also bitheistic: Muhammed replaces Jesus as God's right-hand man. Hinduism is big, but it's obviously wildly polytheistic. Buddhism has Buddha, but what about all those bodhisattvas? Only Judaism among the majors is really monotheistic in the purest sense, seems to me.

[Why Syzygy]

21. Is there any logical reason to put 10 blank lines

under your short post?

[raccoon]

22. Yes, it's "in." :-) nt