Does polytheism have any advantages over monotheism?

[paarsurrey]

Brahman is God (or the impersonal aspect of God) and Brahma is a creator god who exists only in the material universe.

In Hinduism we must always distinguish between God and god as God refers to the One supreme Creator buts gods are created from Him.

So Brahma is a god, not God.

But Brahman is God, or an aspect of God, depending on which Hindu religion you ask.

Thanks for explaining to me.

 

[paarsurrey]

Madhuri has done a marvelous job in explaining Hinduism from her tradition of practice, which is perhaps the most widely followed today, but there is another huge, ancient, and equally as influential interpretation that is missing.

In this interpretation, there is a pantheistic view taken where Brahman is the sole impersonal reality that is identical with all of existence i.e. the universe. Brahman is not really seen as a theistic God (any theistic Gods are seen as the product of illusion and ignorance on our part, but deities such as Krishna, Shakti or Shiva are often used to anthropomorphically represent Brahman as Ishta-Devata which translates to loved deity or chosen deity).

When we're under the influence of avidyā (ignorance) and māyā (illusion) we don't see the unity of existence and we mistakenly maintain the belief that the universe is distinct from Brahman (which it is not). The devas and devis (gods and goddesses) in this view are held as subjectively real in that they are anthropomohic representations of different aspects of the universe, which is ultimately Brahman.

I agree with what I have put in magenta colour; Madhuri is marvellous.

 

[paarsurrey]

So all revealed religion are monotheistic; and when they get corrupted they become polytheistic; that is the primary reason why messengers prophets are sent by the one true attributive creator God to revive the message and to put the humanity on the truthful track again.

 

[Heathen Hammer]

Whereas religions which were polytheistic from the get-go were never corrupted. And monotheism is susceptible to corruption. Heck, it breeds it.

btw - all religions involving deities are 'revealed'.

 

[Quintessence]

btw - all religions involving deities are 'revealed'.

Really? This doesn't sound right when extended to all religions involving deities, considering one need not rely on revelation to know the gods. Can you explain what you meant here?

 

[paarsurrey]

Whereas religions which were polytheistic from the get-go were never corrupted. And monotheism is susceptible to corruption. Heck, it breeds it.

btw - all religions involving deities are 'revealed'.

not necessarily

 

[jasonwill2]

So all revealed religion are monotheistic; and when they get corrupted they become polytheistic; that is the primary reason why messengers prophets are sent by the one true attributive creator God to revive the message and to put the humanity on the truthful track again.

Who says that all revealed religions are monotheistic?

 

[Heathen Hammer]

Really? This doesn't sound right when extended to all religions involving deities, considering one need not rely on revelation to know the gods. Can you explain what you meant here?

If there are deities involved... how do you know?

Answer is pretty much universal: they told you

Man would not be aware of them by their own discovery, but had to be told, in each case.

 

[Heathen Hammer]

not necessarily

Oh yes, quite necessarily.

 

[jasonwill2]

Wait, to be revealed the deity has to tell you?

Well the times Satan has 'spoken' to me, it wasn't about him. So I can't say that my religion is revealed since no god has ever revealed the metaphysics, ethics, or way to live to me. Just helped me with a specific issue on my personal path.

 

[Heathen Hammer]

Well, what I mean is my harbodied Satanist friend, is that, if a deity is involved with the religion in question, there is no other way to know than that the deity told you/us/them they were there in the first place. What religion do we have on Earth where, some person wound up wandering out, and stumbled upon a deity, and began a new religion from that?

Any deity-related faith is de facto 'revealed'. Not to every single adherent, merely to the first.

 

[jasonwill2]

Well, what I mean is my harbodied Satanist friend, is that, if a deity is involved with the religion in question, there is no other way to know than that the deity told you/us/them they were there in the first place. What religion do we have on Earth where, some person wound up wandering out, and stumbled upon a deity, and began a new religion from taht?

Any deity-related faith is de facto 'revealed'. Not to every single adherent, merely to the first.

At most I've only ever met Satan locally once. All other alleged interactions were via distance, not locally there. He's a busy guy after all.

 

[Heathen Hammer]

But at least he popped up to wave.

 

[paarsurrey]

Who says that all revealed religions are monotheistic?

in the origin

 

[syo]

Does polytheism have any advantages over monotheism? Are there any rational reasons for being a polytheist rather than a monotheist?

no, both are perfect.

 

[oranssi]

Ahahahah... this makes me think of a kind of brawler. One against many... place your bets.

On a more serious note. In the evolution of abstract thinking, prior to religion as a organized group, it is only natural to have polytheism (personally I have alot of fun with it as well animism). With the centuries going by, it is also very comprehensive that there is a concretion of the poly entities because in the universe everything tends to turn heterogeneous, that is, to clump in bigger sets. That's when the abstract mind also decided to clump together all those entites into one (that I too have a blast to play with, mainly Tao).

My theory, take it with a grain of salt and suger.

 

[Mythos40]

Polytheism has no rational advantages over monotheism, except for the small point about religious tolerance.

Classical pagan religions didn't have a rational cosmology of separate deities for separate worship. Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature outlines such a classic, pre-industrial cosmology:



· A0 Creator (not necessarily a god)

· A100—A199. The gods in general

· A101. Supreme god

· A104. The making of gods

· A107. Gods of darkness and light (darkness thought of as evil, light as good)

· A109.1. God as a triad

· A116. Twin gods

· A111.1. Mother of the gods

· A111.2. Father of the gods

· A117.5. Gods are spirits of deified dead

· A131. Gods with animal features

· A132.3. Equine god (goddess)

· A132.5. Bear-god (goddess)

· A132.9. Bull-god

· A161.2. King of the gods

· A177.1. (1) God as dupe[weasel words] or trickster

· A192. Death or departure of the gods

· A193. Resurrection of gods

· A200—A299. (10) Gods of the upper world

· A210. Sky-god

· A220. Sun-god

· A240. Moon-god

· A250. Star-god

· A260. Light

· A270. Dawn

· A280. (4) Weather-god

· A281. Storm-god

· A282. Wind-god

· A284. God of thunder

· A287. Rain-god

· A300—A399. (2) Gods of the underworld

· A310. God of the world of the dead

· A311. Conductor of the dead

· A400—A499. (25+) Gods of the earth (human sphere)

· A400. Earth

· A401. Mother Earth

· A405. Nature

· A410. Local gods

· A411. Household gods

· A415. God of clans or nations

· A420. Water

· A421. Sea

· A425. River

· A417. Springs

· A430. Vegetation

· A431. Fertility

· A435. Trees and forests

· A440. Animals

· A450. (3) trades and professions

· A451. Artisan-god

· A452. Hunting

· A454. Healing

· A460. (11) Gods of abstractions (also Z110. Abstractions personified)

· A461. Wisdom

· A463. Fate

· A463.1. The Fates (goddesses who preside over the fates of men)

· A464. Justice

· A465. God of the arts

· A472. Sleep

· A473. Wealth

· A475. Love

· A484. Oath

· A485. War

· A486. The Furies (goddesses of vengeance)

· A487. Death

· A490. (2) Miscellaneous gods of the earth

· A491. God of travelers

· A493. God of fire



Lists of deities - Wikipedia



A rational classical cosmology would not have combined promiscuity deity functions with war deity ones, or lunar deity functions with hunting deity ones, or health deity functions with marriage deity ones.

The sad thing is that even fictional pantheons created by modern minds are still not as rational in their cosmology as the above.

 

[syo]

let's say there is one god, and you want a wish to be granted, but that one god refuses. in polytheism you can ask another god a favor.

 

[Apologes]

In an intellectual sphere generic polytheism is hardly advantegous over generic monotheism. Sure, it doesn't have to deal with defeaters such as pluralism, evil or hiddeness (which I don't take to be sound defeaters for monotheism either) but at the same time it cannot be arrived at through any argument.

We can arrive at monotheism through natural theology but this won't work for the polytheist as Ockham's Razor prohibits positing multiple entities when we can posit just one. As such, monotheism enjoys a drastic simplicity in it's base thesis and ought to always be prefered when invoking supernatural causes to explain certain phenomena.

So if lack of defeaters is an advantage for polytheism then explanatory power is an advantage of monotheism.

 

[Quintessence]

In an intellectual sphere generic polytheism is hardly advantegous over generic monotheism. Sure, it doesn't have to deal with defeaters such as pluralism, evil or hiddeness (which I don't take to be sound defeaters for monotheism either) but at the same time it cannot be arrived at through any argument.

This simply isn't the case. Don't mistake the cultural hegemony monotheism has enjoyed in Western culture for the absence of well-reasoned arguments in support of polytheistic theology. Polytheistic thought has been systematically oppressed in marginalized, thus folks are ignorant of the thoughtfulness behind polytheistic theologies.