DBWI: Monotheism Dominant

I was just reading a few books on the history of religion, and i found this interesting excerpt on monotheistic religions. Apparently, there were several small tribes back then that believed there was only -one- god. Interestingly enough, their singular god seems to be universally male, though i may be mistaken.

Question is, what kind of POD would we need to have a monotheistic religion become dominant, and what would be the effects? I'm guessing that removing the male only clause would probably help, but what else is needed?
 
Well, you'd need a really charismatic preacher for a start, and God (I use the capital because it would be something like a proper name in this context) would need to be welcoming to all, high or low, man or woman, pale or dark. The religion would need to be very open to inspection in both doctrine and practice to avoid getting squashed on general suspicion, so probably very simple buildings and sacraments. I have no idea when or where this would likely start up. God would probably be depicted as a man because most top authority figures are men even now, but in the languages with suitable vocabulary would be referred to by non-gendered terms.
 
I was just reading a few books on the history of religion, and i found this interesting excerpt on monotheistic religions. Apparently, there were several small tribes back then that believed there was only -one- god. Interestingly enough, their singular god seems to be universally male, though i may be mistaken.

Question is, what kind of POD would we need to have a monotheistic religion become dominant, and what would be the effects? I'm guessing that removing the male only clause would probably help, but what else is needed?

Well, to be honest with you, my friend, I'm not entirely sure. One interesting thing to consider is that, in the Western World, during the 47th Century of the Common Era, a "True Source" movement became known amongst the people of Kanata, in which these persons do not believe in a particular god, or gods, but they do believe in an afterlife, karma, etc.; Perhaps the Judeans and other monotheistic religions adopt a more egalitarian stance on life, as the "True Source" people did? Also, avoiding as many extremist groups, like that nasty "One True Wodin" cult that sprung up in the Teuton Country during the early 48th Century, who saw the Italiani as basically a "mud race", and tried to destroy them all. Let's just say that this is why Teutons are still viewed with some suspicion even today, by many in the Fourth Roman Confederation(no genocide or anything like that, though).

OOC: Kanata is North America, basically. :D:cool: The 47th and 48th Centuries are also the equivalent of the 19th and 20th Centuries, A.D., in our world.
 
But would women really embrace an all encompassing male diety? Some of those old texts, if you believe the translations were... pretty horrific in their sexism.

Besides, how could one god really be enough for anyone?
 
I'm not one to judge usually, but the whole concept of monotheism is pretty ASBs when you get down too it. Doesn't make much sense for one god fits all religion to try to deal with the diversity of different cultures, and that's not even getting into the inherent sexism of the idea. I suppose maybe it could happen in places of great cultural homogeny, but that seems kind of unlikely.

That being said I did find an interesting article the other day about an ancient sect of Jews, I think they called themselves Christians. Anyway, they kind of but not exactly believed in one god, and this guy named Saul of Tarsus was killing them but then converted and tried to convert other people... And then he fell off his horse, hit his head and died.

It's a stretch, but maybe if Saul lived this Christianity might have become dominate in the Middle East at least instead of eventually fizzing out and dying like in OTL?
 
But would women really embrace an all encompassing male diety? Some of those old texts, if you believe the translations were... pretty horrific in their sexism.

And some of the more recent monotheist cults have been just downright *strange*. Does anyone remember hearing about that one Neu-Anglish group, "Weudan's Fulk" hiding out in Zimbabwe that worshipped an ultra-masculine version of the Germanic god Odin? And believed that humans actually descended directly from apes(and certain ethnic groups fashioned into humans by "Weudan") and that only "white" people were capable of "true" civilization? :)rolleyes:)

OOC: Kinda lampooning this old 20th Century pseudo-scientific "race realism" crap and "Christian Identity" here, in one go.

IC: I mean, come on! It may be true, that apes, monkeys and humans do share a (very) distant common ancestor, but humans actually directly molded from apes? Really? No wonder why Justinian Llewellyn though so poorly of self-important fools like "Weudan's Folks".....they're not even scientifically literate! Honestly makes me feel pretty bad for those monotheist groups who *are* scientifically knowledgeable, and who *aren't* extreme racists, etc.

OOC: Justinian Llewellyn is a rough equivalent of Charles Darwin.
 
But would women really embrace an all encompassing male diety? Some of those old texts, if you believe the translations were... pretty horrific in their sexism.

Just how is that different than OTL? Sexism was pretty prevalent until heavy machinery did all of the really heavy lifting OTL.

OOC: Polytheistic religions were/are no less sexist than monotheistic ones.
 
One God to rule em all? Did the heaven dimension just suffered a very horrific coup d'etat or invasion? We all know that Wodin-Jupiter-Amaterasu pact is quite possibly the strongest alliance of Gods. One god, no matter how strong he is, can never topple them all...
 
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