Monotheism Vs. Polytheism; The Problems With One Deity. Essay, Research Paper

Monotheism vs. Polytheism; The problems with one Deity.

The philosophical investigation of the nature and grounds of religious beliefs is one of the oldest and most persistent areas of philosophical endeavor. Religious belief and practice give rise to a variety of philosophical issues, posing epistemological questions about the justification of religious belief, metaphysical questions about the nature of God and his/her existence in plural or singular form(s), and ethical questions about the relation of God to moral values. So many are the intersecting major philosophical concerns in the religious arena, and so immediate is the interest, that philosophy of religion is one of the most significant fields of philosophical endeavor to both Christian philosophers and those of other persuasions. The focus of problems in the philosophy of religion, that will be centered on, are the grounds for the belief in God(s), the immortality of the soul, the nature of God(s) to humankind, and the problem of evil.

Polytheism is distinguished from monotheism, on the basis of polytheism’s claim that divinity, while personal and distinguished from the universe, is many rather than one. Most traditions are polytheistic, or at least monotheistic with helper spirits; but there are a few monotheistic ones which posit a single Great Creator with no supporting cast. Except for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the world’s religions are overwhelmingly polytheistic. One of the major problems of these monotheistic religions that polytheism characterized Abraham’s ancestors (Josh. 24:2), kinsmen (Gen. 31:19), and descendants (Gen.35:2). Although all three biblically derived monotheistic religions claim Abraham as their founder, Abraham’s monotheism was perhaps more practical than theoretical. God monopolized his allegiance to the extent that Abraham had neither room nor time for competing deities, but nowhere in Genesis does he clearly deny their existence. By contrast, Moses defined the nature of God in a clearly monotheistic fashion (Deut. 4:35,39; 32:39). The first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before / besides me” (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7), insists that Israel is to have only one object of faith and worship. Elijah on Mount Carmel likewise demanded that the people choose either the Lord or another god (see also Josh. 24:15), because it was both unseemly and unwise to continue to “waver between two opinions” (I Kings 18:21).

Polytheism characterizes Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shintoism in the East, and also contemporary African tribal religions. In the ancient world Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians worshipped a plurality of deities, as did the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Norse. Belief in several distinct deities serves to provide a focus for popular religious devotion when the official deity or deities of the religion are remote from the common person.

Another example of traditional difference between monotheism and polytheism expresses itself through the law codes of the Hebrews and Babylonians religious values. Hammurabi’s Babylonians did not have very strong religious beliefs and therefore had no laws in their code stating specific behavior having to do with a god or gods. In their region, traditionally, there never were extremely strong religious peoples, nor was there a strong set of standards that dealt with religious behavior.

Again, the Hebrew laws were very different. The Hebrews were a very religious people with a strong monotheistic belief. Hebrews felt that God was the most important aspect of their lives. That is why the first four laws in the Ten Commandments have to do with respecting and obeying God. The remaining laws gave moral ways to live. Because of the order of the laws, it is safe to say that in Hebrew law God was the most important. In the Code of Hammurabi, the main focus of the laws was simply to give guidelines to lead his people’s lives in the correct way.

Preference in a polytheistic system is more logical & easily digested by the human mind, for a variety of reasons. First, different deities and systems are good at doing different things. Their is a closeness of contact with systems and patrons specializing in widely different areas. This means that whenever something needs doing, chances are a specialist not a generalist will be handling the aforementioned task, which greatly increases the chances of successful completion. For example, this excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh summarizes this idea, Enkidu spoke again to Gilgamesh, “O’ my lord, if you will enter that country, go first to the hero Shamash, tell the Sun God, for the land is his.” (Sandars 71:2) This excerpt explains the ideology the Babylonians had about consulting and/or appeasing a specific deity before a task is underwent, to insure success.

Another reason for choosing polytheism over monotheism is precision. Suppose you want to make a prayer or spell request. This is a lot like sending a letter or manuscript to a huge company. You can use the company header address and write “President” at the top. Chances are, the President himself won’t read the letter; his secretary will find it and have to forward it along to whomever is in charge of granting the relevant request. But if you put a specific person’s name on the envelope because you know that person deals with your particular type of request, you get there a lot faster … and you also have a chance to build up a strong working relationship. That means you’re a lot more likely to get what you want, because the person knows you and you’ve done each other some mutual favors before.

Polytheism is a demonstrable option; call on different deities from different systems, and you get very different responses. A lot of pantheons have a “boss” who organizes things, but not all of them do. The vast majority at least have “departments” because virtually all deities and other powers specialize in one or more spheres of influence. All the deities that people really deal with are subsets of the Ultimate Divinity, not the whole universal set.