Two thousand years of monotheistic brainwashing have caused most of us to see polytheism as ignorant and childish idolatry.

This is an unjust stereotype. In order to understand the inner logic of polytheism, it
is necessary to grasp the central idea buttressing the belief in many gods.

Polytheism does not necessarily dispute the existence of a single power or law governing the entire universe. In fact, most polytheist and even animist religions recognised such a supreme power that stands behind all the different gods, demons and holy rocks.

In classical Greek polytheism, Zeus, Hera, Apollo and their colleagues were subject to an
omnipotent and all-encompassing power – Fate (Moira, Ananke). Nordic gods, too, were in thrall to fate, which doomed them to perish in the cataclysm of Ragnarök (the Twilight of the Gods).

In the polytheistic religion of the Yoruba of West Africa, all gods were born of the supreme
god Olodumare, and remained subject to him. In Hindu polytheism, a single principle, Atman, controls the myriad gods and spirits,
humankind, and the biological and physical world. Atman is the eternal essence or soul of the entire universe, as well as of every individual and every phenomenon.

The fundamental insight of polytheism, which distinguishes it from monotheism, is that the supreme power governing the world is devoid of interests and biases, and therefore it is unconcerned with the mundane desires, cares and worries of humans.

It’s pointless to ask this power for victory in war, for health or for rain, because from its all-encompassing vantage point, it makes no difference whether a particular kingdom wins
or loses, whether a particular city prospers or withers, whether a particular person recuperates or dies. The Greeks did not waste any sacrifices on Fate, and Hindus built no temples to Atman.

The insight of polytheism is conducive to far-reaching religious tolerance. Since polytheists believe, on the one hand, in one supreme
and completely disinterested power, and on the other hand in many partial and biased powers, there is no difficulty for the devotees of one god to accept the existence and efficacy of other gods.

Polytheism is inherently open-minded, and rarely persecutes ‘heretics’ and ‘infidels’.
Even when polytheists conquered huge empires, they did not try to convert their subjects.

The Egyptians, the Romans and the Aztecs did not send missionaries to foreign lands to spread the worship of Osiris,
Jupiter or Huitzilopochtli (the chief Aztec god), and they certainly didn’t dispatch armies for that purpose. Subject peoples throughout the empire were expected to respect the empire’s gods and rituals, since these gods
and rituals protected and legitimised the empire.

Yet they were not required to give up their local gods and rituals. In the Aztec Empire,
subject peoples were obliged to build temples for Huitzilopochtli, but these temples were built alongside those of local gods, rather than in their stead.

In many cases the imperial elite itself adopted the gods and rituals of subject people. The Romans happily added the Asian goddess
Cybele and the Egyptian goddess Isis to their pantheon.

The only god that the Romans long refused to tolerate was the monotheistic and evangelising god of the Christians. The Roman Empire did not require the Christians to give up their beliefs and rituals, but it did expect them to pay respect to the empire’s protector gods and to the divinity of the emperor. This was seen as a declaration of political
loyalty.

When the Christians vehemently refused to do so, and went on to reject all attempts at compromise, the Romans reacted by persecuting what they understood to be a politically subversive faction. And even
this was done half-heartedly.

In the 300 years from the crucifixion of Christ to the conversion of Emperor Constantine, polytheistic Roman
emperors initiated no more than four general persecutions of Christians.

Local administrators and governors incited some anti-Christian violence of their own. Still, if we combine all the victims of all these persecutions, it turns out that in these three centuries, the polytheistic Romans killed
no more than a few thousand Christians.

In contrast, over the course of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and
compassion.

The religious wars between Catholics and Protestants that swept Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are particularly
notorious. All those involved accepted Christ’s divinity and His gospel of compassion and love. However, they disagreed about the nature of this love.

Protestants believed that the divine love is so great that God was incarnated in flesh and allowed Himself to be tortured and crucified,
thereby redeeming the original sin and opening the gates of heaven toall those who professed faith in Him.

Catholics maintained that faith, while essential, was not enough. To enter heaven, believers had to participate in church rituals and do good deeds. Protestants refused to
accept this, arguing that this quid pro quo belittles God’s greatness and
love.

Whoever thinks that entry to heaven depends upon his or her own good deeds magnifies his own importance, and implies that Christ’s
suffering on the cross and God’s love for humankind are not enough.

These theological disputes turned so violent that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Catholics and Protestants killed each other by the hundreds of thousands.

On 23 August 1572, French Catholics who
stressed the importance of good deeds attacked communities of French Protestants who highlighted God’s love for humankind. In this attack, the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, between 5,000 and 10,000
Protestants were slaughtered in less than twenty-four hours.

When the pope in Rome heard the news from France, he was so overcome by joy that he organised festive prayers to celebrate the occasion and commissioned Giorgio Vasari to decorate one of the Vatican’s rooms
with a fresco of the massacre (the room is currently off-limits to visitors).

More Christians were killed by fellow Christians in those twenty-four hours than by the polytheistic Roman Empire throughout its
entire existence.


Same can be said of Islam , it has slaughtered, massacred, butchered and destroyed many innocent souls all in the name of Allah. The koran made it clear that wherever muslims are they must dominate and conquer others.

Monotheism is indeed more intolerant than Polytheism, Animism and every other ism.

The reason monotheism became the world most populous region is nothing other than

1. Evangelism
2. By Force

The end.

Very rightly said, monotheism really damaged our world, it like a zombie apocalypse that keeps spreading no one wants to accept it until they contract it and after contracting it they start to spread it.

What a pity.

Countless Christians, Muslims and Jews have gone so far as to imagine that the good God even needs our help in its struggle against the Devil, which inspired among other things the call for jihads and crusades ending in bloodshed with millions of lives lost.

Monotheists have tended to be far more fanatical and missionary than polytheists, animist or traditionalists.

A religion that recognises the legitimacy of other faiths ( non monotheistic) implies either that its god or God is not the supreme power of the universe, or that it received from God the universal truth.

Since monotheists have usually believed that they are in possession of the entire message of the one and only God, they have been compelled to discredit all other religions.

Islam : There is no god but Allah

Christianity and Judaism: Only the supreme God is true all are false and is idolatry.

While the above might seem harmless but it has been responsible for genocide, mass murders, suicide bombings , religious discrimination and intolerance etc.

Over the last two millennia, monotheists
repeatedly tried to strengthen their hand by violently exterminating all competition.

They are always competing. Christians sees Judaist as foolish for not believing in Jesus. Muslims sees both of the above as false/perverted religions and will do anything to convert them either by persuasion or by Force.

See the situation of nigeria, muslims trying to dominate and sideline Christians hence the term islamization of Nigeria. Christians do likewise in their own capacity.

Who are they doing this for?

God.

Kayouzka:
Very rightly said, monotheism really damaged our world, it like a zombie apocalypse that keeps spreading no one wants to accept it until they contract it and after contracting it they start to spread it.

What a pity.

Yes. It has really changed the course of history and made the world the way it is today.