Why does monotheism seem to be fundamentally incompatible with human civilization?
537742
If you have the One True Faith in the One True God, then you're not likely to be very tolerant of heretics and  pagans.
1087697
HUMANITY ------ A Religion Which should be Everyone's and is followed by every Human being on Earth... But most of the time fakely, People kill Other People in the name of Humanity -- Which is ofcourse faking Humanity. Although its not technically a Religion. But If all people sincerely follow it.. then there would'nt be any fights over different religions
371076
Facts ... I believe in "God". I am not able to accept the Christian version of monotheism. I consider it illogical and it makes no sense to me. I do not lie awake at night not believing. The Bible is not perfect. It has been mistranslated by numerous translators in various translations. Christianity is not the worlds longest running religion. There was Judaism and Hinduism and several others prior to 2000 years ago that are still alive and well. You asked for facts. Those are facts. I'm not Christian. That doesn't bother me. You are Christian. That doesn't bother me either. Instead of worrying about others and their relationship with "God" or their lack of same maybe there's something else you need to be looking at? Just a thought. And that's a fact. :-)
1025085
all the holy texts of ancient times have been changed over the years to fit political and social climates of different eras. but, that was man's fault. whether religion existed or not, there was still going to be violence over something. all religion is good until some nutcase takes things too far. its a shame that most ppl cant take the lessons that can be learned from any religion and apply them to their daily lives without going off the deep end and rejecting others that dont agree.
406251
Humans have disagreed about religion since there was such a thing.Everyone wants to believe they are right.That is just human nature.Hate maybe a strong word for indifference's because when you move from that to hate then you not worshiping a higher power,, you are worshiping the devil and everyone agrees he's bad.
937735
It seems to be a parallel to the evolution of civilization and the evolution of a relationship.\n\nBut that's just me i could be wrong.
723696
Just thinking about your statement.  You could be wrong.  I would tend to believe that the oldest beliefs would more likely be the correct ones..(closer to creation) and polytheism came first.
117973
B"H\nNeither.  It's one of those "Universal Conciousness" things.\n\nWhat is unique about Judaism is NOT that it was the first Monotheistic religion, but rather that it was the first Monotheistic religion TO STICK.\n\nTruth is TRUTH wherever you go, so of course throughout the world there are examples of those who went, "You know what, there's only ONE GD!"  However, these religions, by and large, didn't stick around very long, and that's the miracle of Judaism.  It has stuck around, and influenced the world to be Monotheistic, for 4-5 thousand years.  \n\nWow.  \n\nAnd, never-you-mind that during all that time everybody was trying to wipe us off the planet.  Pretty good track record, no?
723373
Worshiping a god is primitivism. Only demiurges like to be worshiped and higher forms of mind don't need it. People don't have to believe anything and it's a primitive idea to think god is a man who demands people to believe in him. Real gods are way above such things.
10056
Absolutely right. But have you noticed that this is only in the religous studies of the Christians. Following the beliefs of other cultures with the absence of a "rule book" the belief takes a completely different stance. Multiple gods are not inherent to fundamental change in the nature of God and Man. So does that mean the Christian beliefs are right or wrong? Maybe the old non-Christian beliefs have the answere.
528410
No, it's not morally reprehensible. It's just natural for people to learn from eachother. Egyptians worshipped a few Canaanite gods. The early first milennium ce Britain was a wonderful hodgepodge of religion, with Christianity, Roman gods, and Celtic ones- and certainly they influenced eachother. \n\nOf course, this spirit of sharing has led many neopagan authors to acts of intellectual theft, which is a whole other can of worms.
1130194
It boils down to 2 things for me, how does one reconcile omnipotence, omnibenevolence and omniscience with this world and the life on it. And, why are there so many billions of people living in entire, huge countries whose culture has nothing remotely like the xian god and jesus. Here is a post I did before on the topic:\n\nBecause I look at what life was like for human beings for the past 40,000 years (maybe 6,000 for you). People lived for an average of 30-40 years. More than 50% of children died before age one (until about 100 years ago!). I look at thousands of children permanently blinded by parasites they get from playing in creeks in underdeveloped countries.\n\nThen I look at children of modern developed countries, of any religion. I see that they live until their EIGHTIES!! Have all their teeth for a very long time. Have excellent health, etc... And I see that this has nothing to do with religion or god. It is medicine and science. So was it god's plan that hundreds of generations of people would suffer and die in their 40's and suddenly in the 19th and 20th century, everything would get better?\n\nThat's nothing other than sadistic.\n\nI also look at all the different gods and interpretations of these gods for the past 4,000-5,000 years. I see how silly it is to point to one religion in the roman era and say "Ah, THIS is the correct one!"\n\nI also posted this in answer to that question:\n* The bible has many contradictions\n* The bible shows the OT god to be violent and bloodthirsty. He also kills thousands of children.\n* For thousands of years, man has had a lifespan of 30-40 years. 100 years ago in the US, 50% of children died before age 1. Modern medicine has greatly reduced this. During eras in western history when the catholic church was in charge and belief in god and church attendance was required, this did not change. So prayer seems not to have been the answer.\n* The history of religions and gods seems to show that man has no consistent image or view of what god is or does.\n* The bible is open enough to interpretation that if you walked into a church and asked 3 people questions about the bible or god's will, you would get probably 8 different answers.\n* People kill each other in god's name every day and he apparently does nothing to stop it.\n* 50% of conceptions do not result in birth\n* 1 in 8 pregnancies result in twins and one twin is eventually reabsorbed.\n* Children are born with no brains, with no limbs, retarded, blind.\n* Children go blind from parasites every day, children suffer asthma, and other diseases\n\nNotice I focus on CHILDREN, not adults so please don't tell me that millions of children are dying b/c god wants us to have free will. These children barely have free will yet and toddlers don't have it at all.
1132421
A monotheistic religion is a religion that believes in one, and only one, god.  Monotheism is opposite of polytheism, which is the belief in many gods.\n\nThe classic example for monotheism would be the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church believe in one, and only one, God.  They even say it every Sunday at church during the "Apostle's Creed.":\n    "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,\n    the Creator of heaven and earth...."\nOther examples of monotheistic relgions are Judaism and Hunduism.\n\nAn example of polytheism would be the beliefs of the ancient Greeks who believed in many gods... Zeus, Poseiden, Hades, Apollo, etc.\n\nI hope I was able to help answer your question :).
1146932
I think you've opened a *huge* can of worms here! But never being one to avoid discussion, I'll dive in......\n\nI agree.\nI think that religion was a device created by early mankind to explain the unexplainable, to create some social order and it was exploited by some people who had various socio-political agendas. \nI'm not denying that many, many people find their religion a source of comfort and I would not deny them their faith. I feel that religion has evolved with time, although some of the dogma has remained in the past.\nI'm sure lots will disagree, but that's just my own tuppenth worth.
791814
none, because I want to accept things as I see them, not how others, and especially ancients see or saw them. the religions of today are to old and full of crap to be relevant in today's society. religion has caused more major wars in the history of mankind than any other single factor. Lack of religion has caused none. ever heard of an atheist st. petersburg? Have you ever heard of an athiest saying "i killed them because no god told me to"?
1032526
no. yes. Originally, the religions allowed us to have civilization.\nWithout them, we would still be living in tribal or feudal warfare states. However, they have become sick and abused paradigms,\nand we should junk the whole lot of them in favor of modern sociology and civil engineering and ethics and psychology.
1065737
I agree, but apparently most people have never read any of these texts that your talking about.  When you bring it up they will answer with "all cultures had similar stories".  I don't understand if they ever read the stories and saw that they are from what they call Pagan religions with multiply gods and how the same story is written in Genesis and is uncannily similar from the story plot, the sequence of events and even the language how they could deny that the bible was taken from them and changed to one god.\n\nScience has clearly dated these documents and the bible and the other texts are clearly more ancient by many centuries.  But apparently they are afraid that if they read them their belief system will be shattered and that thought may be unbearable to most people.