DBWI: monotheism dominant.

as a Jew I know all too well that most of the World is polytheistic, In fact I believe Zoroastrian Persia is the only nation that has a monotheist majority, any ways I've thought long and hard about how monotheism could become a majority of religions in the world ( thats not meant to offend ) and I haven't found a POD, so any ideas how this idea might be done or am I barking up the ASB tree?
 
If memory serves, there was a sect of Judaism that had grown to be fairly popular among the lower classes of the Roman Empire. Perhaps if Nero was a little less thorough in his persecution of that sect, it may have spread further?

It might be easier to somehow lessen or remove the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Romans. No idea how to go about that though...
 
Humanity is just not equipped to consider that the whole of the universe could be governed by just one almighty god. No deity could be that powerful, realistically.
 
If memory serves, there was a sect of Judaism that had grown to be fairly popular among the lower classes of the Roman Empire. Perhaps if Nero was a little less thorough in his persecution of that sect, it may have spread further?

It might be easier to somehow lessen or remove the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Romans. No idea how to go about that though...

Peh; they're barely Jews at all. They can never make sacrifices at the Temple, there're barely any Cohenim around, and I understand they've started to rely on this weird system of interpreting the Tanakh through personal debate rather than relying on the Sanhedrin for judgments. Might as well be Saturnists.
 
The Gods themselves all emanate from The One, as are all forms of life. The Persians believe ultimately in one God, whom is himself represented by a host of lesser divine anthromorphic beings known as "Yazata", one Mithra (or Mithras as he is known in the west) being the most notable after Ahura Mazda. Even hardline Monotheists like the Jews acknowledge that Yahweh is served by ranks of Ophanim, Cherubim and Seraphim.

All the Gods are all-powerful, but people tend to have a habit of assigning anthromorphic traits, and inevitably, human flaws to them, so they appear to fall short of their true divine nature. Thats why the tales of Homer are not considered canonical by religious authorities today.
 
The Gods themselves all emanate from The One, as are all forms of life. The Persians believe ultimately in one God, whom is himself represented by a host of lesser divine anthromorphic beings known as "Yazata", one Mithra (or Mithras as he is known in the west) being the most notable after Ahura Mazda. Even hardline Monotheists like the Jews acknowledge that Yahweh is served by ranks of Ophanim, Cherubim and Seraphim.

All the Gods are all-powerful, but people tend to have a habit of assigning anthromorphic traits, and inevitably, human flaws to them, so they appear to fall short of their true divine nature. Thats why the tales of Homer are not considered canonical by religious authorities today.

You realise that this has nothing to do with kosmology, though, right? The nature of religion is ultimately one of politology. A polity makes itself the deities it requires to function. That is the main problem with monotheism inall the historical and current forms. Platonism, for all its truth, lacks the moral force that distinguishes religion from philosophy. Judaism, while it has that moral force in spades - what other nation could have gone through what the Judaeans have suffered and still remain? - is more exclusive than the Spartiates. How can you have a successful polity if you cannot integrate foreigners? And how can any religion that worships but one God hope to do that? A state based on this principle would be a terrible thing, dedicated to but one aspect of the divine to the exclusion of all others. That kind of society can come into being, but it cannot last. Either it will turn in on itself and be submerged in the waves of the world around it, or it will turn to fanatical imbalance, dedicating all its powers to a single goal like the Egyptians did when they built the great pyramids.

I shudder to contemplate the fate of the Romania under such circumstances.
 
You realise that this has nothing to do with kosmology, though, right? The nature of religion is ultimately one of politology. A polity makes itself the deities it requires to function. That is the main problem with monotheism inall the historical and current forms. Platonism, for all its truth, lacks the moral force that distinguishes religion from philosophy. Judaism, while it has that moral force in spades - what other nation could have gone through what the Judaeans have suffered and still remain? - is more exclusive than the Spartiates. How can you have a successful polity if you cannot integrate foreigners? And how can any religion that worships but one God hope to do that? A state based on this principle would be a terrible thing, dedicated to but one aspect of the divine to the exclusion of all others. That kind of society can come into being, but it cannot last. Either it will turn in on itself and be submerged in the waves of the world around it, or it will turn to fanatical imbalance, dedicating all its powers to a single goal like the Egyptians did when they built the great pyramids.

I shudder to contemplate the fate of the Romania under such circumstances.

Almost sounds as if you thought I was advocating Monotheistic sentiments, there. All Gods follow a supreme moral principle, being free of desire of any kind. Some may consider that a single all-powerful deity, with neither peers nor principles of his or her own, would merely act out of self-interest, creating and destroying on a whim. "God's Plan"? "Chosen People"? I'm not looking to piss anyone off, but a truely divine being would not play favourites. Every part of mankind would have recieved some form of divine favour, not just one ethnic group.
 
Almost sounds as if you thought I was advocating Monotheistic sentiments, there. All Gods follow a supreme moral principle, being free of desire of any kind. Some may consider that a single all-powerful deity, with neither peers nor principles of his or her own, would merely act out of self-interest, creating and destroying on a whim. "God's Plan"? "Chosen People"? I'm not looking to piss anyone off, but a truely divine being would not play favourites. Every part of mankind would have recieved some form of divine favour, not just one ethnic group.

Well yes a "truely divine" being would not play favourites. But that has not been the case historically on most monotheistic cults. In general they have all been about favoritism.

As calton noted Romania (and many other similar states) are based on the absorption and unity of different cultures, beliefs, peoples under one political ideal. If Rome was to turn monotheistic it would end up alienating over half its population.

I guess such a world would be made up of many homogenous "culture-states" each to their own god. Instead of it having large melting pots like Rome.
 
Sorry that I can't contribute to the philosophical discussion, I never could get my head around some of the concepts of theology.

I had a pedagogue at my academy -- I think he was from Samarkand -- he tried to explain some of the one god theories that keep popping up as analogous to a gem, where each god in a pantheon would represent only a facet of one whole divine being. Sorry, but the whole thought of all of these gods being separate, yet at the same time part of one being -- just makes my head spin.

Anyway, as for points of departure: my pedagogue said that this theory keeps popping up in the more mystical traditions of many hunter-gatherer and early agricultural nations. For example, a lot of the indigenous inhabitants of Avalon talk about a "Great Spirit" or "Great Mystery" - that's actually the translation of some of the Avalonian names for Jupiter, such as Waccantancus (Dakotian) and Gitsimanitus (Odzibvean).

I recall him talking about similar things happening in Antipodes and Australis, and even northeast Asia. I do specifically remember him mentioning the Druids in this lecture, although I don't remember what he said. Of course, the Druids were killed off in the early eighth century AUC, and didn't write anything down, so who knows what they really believed?

Wasn't there also some Egyptian pharaoh who tried to completely erase that pantheon and replace it with a single god?
 

ninebucks

Banned
OOC: Jews came to the position they are in today because they, unlike Christians and Muslims, were permitted by their religion to charge interest on loans, (to infidels, at least). AFAIK, the pre-Christian religions had no restrictions against usury, so there would be no need for Europeans and Arabs to install them as a trans-continental financial caste. This radically changes Jewish culture, as Judaeo-Goyim relations.

The one idea, (monotheism), is just as ridiculous as the other, (polytheism)! There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of gods, one may as well believe that there is an amphora orbiting al-Qahirah.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Doesn't Judaism have angels, some sort of semi-deities who listen to the big guy? I mean, they're not too far apart, minor gods and angels.
 
The one idea, (monotheism), is just as ridiculous as the other, (polytheism)! There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of gods, one may as well believe that there is an amphora orbiting al-Qahirah.

Well, then, how do you explain the complexity of life? You think the complex ecosystems and intricate patterns of DNA of each living creature just popped into being?! :eek:

How ridiculous!

Personally, I think that's just as ridiculous as the idea of one deity that creates and controls everything. THAT'S JUST TOO MUCH FOR ONE INTELLIGENCE TO COMPREHEND AND MAINTAIN! The idea that multiple deities created and continue to maintain the different facets of our universe makes much more sense than any other theological (or non-theological) explanation of the nature of the universe.
 

Stephen

Banned
That neoplatonic nonsense about all gods being aspects of the one is almost as bad as pure monotheism. How could the world be seen as so orderly and designed it is obviously formed from the battles of opposing forces. This POD requires that people abandon there ancestral gods for a strange semitic theology. How could a nation stay together under such conditions, it would just become meek herd of direction less slaves. The Italics should be thankful that the Allemnani wiped out the Jews present when they conquered Rome on its 5th centenary so there isn't more such nonsense around.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
That neoplatonic nonsense about all gods being aspects of the one is almost as bad as pure monotheism. How could the world be seen as so orderly and designed it is obviously formed from the battles of opposing forces. This POD requires that people abandon there ancestral gods for a strange semitic theology. How could a nation stay together under such conditions, it would just become meek herd of direction less slaves. The Italics should be thankful that the Allemnani wiped out the Jews present when they conquered Rome on its 5th centenary so there isn't more such nonsense around.

OOC: Dude you'll have to retcon the wiping out the Jews part, we've already established there are Jews in TTL.
 

Skokie

Banned
as a Jew I know all too well that most of the World is polytheistic, In fact I believe Zoroastrian Persia is the only nation that has a monotheist majority, any ways I've thought long and hard about how monotheism could become a majority of religions in the world ( thats not meant to offend ) and I haven't found a POD, so any ideas how this idea might be done or am I barking up the ASB tree?

ASB. Monotheism is dead, just face it. And it was meant to be this way, as ordained by history.

Although I do have a begrudging respect for the few, remaining monotheist Jews. They are at least maintaining an ancient tradition, however crude and untenable.

Most NeoMonotheists these days are a laughingstock. I saw someone the other day at the forum dressed up as a monotheist priest. He was presiding over a ritual to his dying-and-rising god and his followers were all dressed in archaic, flowy robes and babbling some nonsense about the coming of his kingdom. So ridiculous. (A king? In ROMANIA?) We had a good laugh and thanked the gods our people had recovered from that nonsense long ago. The desire to revive monotheism represents a kind of Romantic folly, with dubious political undertones (if I can be frank). In truth, the monotheists were savage and immoral. You would never, truly, want to relive monotheist times, no matter what your high school Dungeon and Dragons friends who go up to hilltops and make sacrifices to Jaweh may think.

I should introduce you to the Jews and Jewesses at the local gymnasium where we brunch on Saturdays. They are mostly Epicurean agnostic-atheists, part of the Sangha, or otherwise seem perfectly willing to admit that their Jaweh is a local manifestation of the Romans' Jove. We orgy at two thirty, btw.
 
Wait a minute, are we talking about monotheism today or monotheism during the ancient times. Your wordings state 'most of the world is polytheistic.' Which is confusing because the opposite is pretty much the fact. Not to mention a few of the reply talked about ancient times and the others talked about present times. In the meantimes, they were also philosophically talking about deity figures in general:confused:. I think we're getting off topic.

I'm guessing we were talking about what kind of POD would cause monotheism to be dominant in the ancient world, say 300 BC, No?

Waiting for your Reply:)
 
Wait a minute, are we talking about monotheism today or monotheism during the ancient times. Your wordings state 'most of the world is polytheistic.' Which is confusing because the opposite is pretty much the fact. Not to mention a few of the reply talked about ancient times and the others talked about present times. In the meantimes, they were also philosophically talking about deity figures in general:confused:. I think we're getting off topic.

I'm guessing we were talking about what kind of POD would cause monotheism to be dominant in the ancient world, say 300 BC, No?

Waiting for your Reply:)

OCC: you been on this site how long and you don't know what a DBWI is?

ok, a DBWI is a Double Blind What If, in a DBWI some one ask a question as if they are from a different Time Line, In this case one where most of the world is polytheistic to this very day, when used right the question for a DBWI is more or less "what if the world is the way it is in our time line" so the point is to try and come up with our time line from the view of a different time line/history.
 

Nikephoros

Banned
The gods aren't a subset of one god. Nor are they all-powerful. In effect, they are though.

The gods work in their ways, whether good or evil. This revolving circle of power seems like a single god, but isn't.
 
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