I'm curious. Genuinely curious, now. That you see merit on both sides surprises me. Honestly, you have a head on your shoulders. So, I'd love to know precisely what merit you see in the notion advanced by
@Quiddity that, "It's a simple idea that having God commits one to a variety of things, that is unmatched in the nontheistic world."
Mind you, I am taking as an unstated key premise he means 'positive' or 'good' things, and not things generally considered negative or evil.
I will not criticize whatever response you offer me. I'm interesting in understanding your views, not in refuting them.
So far as I see (and have vividly expressed through my sarcasm),
@Rival, his position is empirically unsupportable and there is no body of existing evidence for it. That is despite the fact he has stated his position in such a vague manner he can easily fall back on a defense of "Well, that's not what I meant". To that, I will add my opinion -- my guess -- his position is of actual use to either him -- or at least to some of the people who might adopt it -- not as an insight into a state of affairs -- but merely as emotionally charged self-flattery dressed up as a statement of fact. To me, it does not rise to the threshold of being serious.
My cleaning lady is about to arrive, so I have to log off. I'll be back later to see if you've left a response.
See this is the kind of response I prefer and would wish you had given
Recently, I have seen discussion on this forum about monotheism and social justice (in the real sense, not the politically charged sense often used today). For whatever reason, monotheism seems to lead its adherents towards social justice in a way that polytheism or nontheism never has, as far as I'm aware. This discussion here between ajay0 and Jayhawker intrigued me:
Monotheism | Page 2 | Religious Forums
"I would like to state here that there are monotheistic sects in Hinduism as well , namely, the Kabir Panthis, Lingayats, Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and Prajapita Brahmakumaris who all worship a monotheistic incorporeal God. They have all been associated with much needed social reforms in Hinduism."
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Baha'ism could all be seen to some extent as social justice movements in different cultures (Judaism in Egypt, Israel, Christianity in Europe, Islam in Arabia, Sikhism in India, and Bahai'sm in Iran). Christianity is also proving immensely popular in South Korea and China, with that last one I think being extremely significant in that Christianity seems as much a counter cultural, social justice movement in tyrannical China as ever it did in tyrannical Rome.
Of course, it can be argued that these monotheisms come with scriptures and 'baggage' so to speak, and while I think that is to some degree inevitable in a discussion of monotheism grounded in practical reality, the world in which we actually live, it does appear that monotheism does seem to lead to these things, these laws, these scriptures and so on. In my faith, the monotheism came first, and the belief in one Holy and Eternal G-d led people to certain behaviours, whether you see those behaviours as good or bad I leave up to you.
Throughout history, as far as I can tell and please correct me if I'm wrong, polytheistic cultures have led to divided communities mimicking their pantheons, perhaps not intentionally though, but it seems to be the case that in polytheistic societies, one's status was taken very seriously and the closer one was to the top, the closer one was to the deity at the top of the pantheon, or even was included as a deity.
Once monotheism removed those tiers of gods, it meant everyone was responsible just to one, they all worshipped the same one, they were all beholden to the same standard and so on. This destabilised the social structures by putting everyone on the same level, thereby making them all brothers and sisters, so to speak, rather than held in an order reflecting that of their pantheon.
This is possibly an outdated idea now as living polytheists can say this isn't applicable to them, and I would argue it's likely not - but there is one caveat: some groups do attract their share of racists and other such rabble, and people saying 'you can't worship these gods, these are our gods, worship your own,' or other, worse, iterations thereof. The Norse community especially has issues with racists and I'm not saying it's all or even most, but for some reason it attracts those.
Monotheism seems a much more universal standard that puts upon people to feel as brothers all under one Eternal King, and they therefor end up treating each other this way (or rather, it's what they say they do - obviously actions and words are two different things and we have human nature to account for). Monotheism seems to draw people together with a collective social justice mindset that we are all siblings, children of one God, that compels them to act as if that is the case, to create schools, hospitals, etc.
I'm not saying polytheists or nontheists can't have this, but it
does seem to be a very strong feature of monotheism; so perhaps I disagree with Quiddity in the minutiae.
I can, however, also see merit to your argument.
