I am beginning to dislike doing religious posts. There is only so many ways I can say "God doesn't exist" and every time someone says "God doesn't exist", God kills a kitten.
Like this one. |
So instead of killing kittens, I am gong to discuss some key differences in monotheism and polytheism and my pussy placating opinions on them.
What are monotheism and polytheism? Monotheism is the belief in one god and one god only. Polytheism is the belief that many gods exist.
If you have read my post on the first cause argument, then you probably can recall that a problem with the existence of a god is the origin of that god. Polytheism gets around that without resorting to the weaselly "He exists outside of time". The origin of the god/s is simply the mother of said god/s. Problem solved. And the origin of the mother of the god is simply another godlke mother, and so forth. Not all polytheistic religions prescribe to this, many of them draw the line a few generations back. I admire the analogy to human lineage and the ingenious belaying of the first cause.
The biggest problem of polytheism though, is not it's plausibility. The scientific side of me says that the existence of a god is equally as probably as the existence of many. No, it is the appeal of monotheism over polytheism that makes polytheism seem weak..
There is a deep seated psychological appeal in one all powerful masculine god. One divine bloke, that has absolute power over your destiny. One bloke that can solve all your problems in a heartbeat, all He asks is you to follow the rules of His universe and love Him as much as He loves you. Sound familiar? That was my father when I was 5 years old. All Powerful and All Knowing.
This isn't a new concept, many other writers before me have sagely pointed out the similarities of a monotheistic god and a child's interpretation of his/her own father.
In puberty, our god is shattered as we find out that our fathers are not omniscient and omnipotent. We are fatherless and that's where god comes in.To fill in that paternal void. For all you religious gurus out there, I pray that you are not offended. I couldn't ignore the obvious.
Polytheistic religions try to fill this void too, but when there are other gods on the scene, the "father" god seems less important, less omnipotent and less unique.
Again, this doesn't affect the plausibility of polytheism. However, people do not believe in gods out of scientific plausibility. We believe in gods out of emotion and personal thoughts, needs and desires, which makes monotheism by far the most believable.
cute kitty looks so sad
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to sacrifice kittens to say it.
ReplyDeleteDeep posting and intriguing discussion...In my opinion both of them are actually unlikely to be true.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this. As you grow up and discover the wonderful world of science you lose some faith too. The knowledge that magic isn't real kills most people's faith since it shows that 99% of so called miracles either didn't happen or can be explained by some other phenomena.
ReplyDeleteDeep stuff bud. See your point indeed my friend
ReplyDeleteI find there is too much emphasis placed on whether or not there are actually celestial deities overseeing our existence, and not enough emphasis on the idea of "tolerance" within our own species. Regardless, I don't see holy wars ending anytime soon
ReplyDeletegood post, made me think.
ReplyDeleteMoms Couponing Madness
I never really thought about it that way. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making this blog about important things.
ReplyDeleteI like this one. I believe in some sort of crazy power that none of us can even begin to comprehend, but I'm not religious.
ReplyDeleteso deep
ReplyDeleteahaha i am willing to risk killing a kitten!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to refrain from commenting with my own beliefs, but you've summed things up nicely.
ReplyDeleteAwesome kitten btw but about the religion stuff i kinda dropped it when i was 15 years old :/ i asked i prayed and still didnt get the things i needed
ReplyDeleteIt is with extreme shock and displeasure that I realize that I haven't been notified of your recent blog posts! AND I FOLLOWED YOU. Thanks, Google for screwing up my feed. :O
ReplyDelete^THAT's why I haven't been commenting! BLAME GOOGLE.
Anyway, I liked this post. THE KITTEN WAS A MAJOR BONUS AND I THINK I'M GOING TO EAT ONE FOR LUNCH TOMORROW. It's so adorable.
Very interesting. I never thought about it that way. I completely believe in monotheism, although I'm still dithering on the whole "agnostic or Jesus" part.
Oh, and about Lolita. I could get the story and everything, but I read an author's commentary on it and I realized I DIDN'T get any of the literary allusions from Proust or whatever. I mean, that's some HARDCORE bibliophile scholar shit. (:
btw, how OLD are you again?
ReplyDelete'Cause if you're under twenty, I want to get married.
But seriously, you sound so smart and funny at the same time. Let me guess. You must be under forty.
(Sorry, old folks.)
I don't even worry myself with religion
ReplyDelete