Monotheism

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Crux of the matter

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Monotheism is a form of theism, generally defined as the belief in a single deity — though it has also been defined as "the belief that one supreme being exists whose will is sovereign over all other beings".

Similar concepts in practice and somewhat related include:

• monolatry, which is an individual's acceptance that other gods exist but only one Deity is worthy of worship,
• henotheism, which places exclusive devotion on a single Deity, venerated as the unique God for a short period of time, usually for liturgical worship.

Monolatry and henotheism are both forms of monotheism. However, some denominations of Christianity treat monolatry and henotheism as different things from monotheism.

The best known monotheistic religions are the three main Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Other monotheistic religions include Eckankar, Baha'i (itself an Abrahamic religion), and Sikhism, and also some sects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism.

Monism and deism are not religious systems but philosophical schools, and they both revolve around one basic principle (e.g., reason, mind, matter, soul, etc.) that explains the origin of reality (which is not regarded as God, anyway); thus, they are not monotheisms.

Monotheism and absolutist ideas can support one another.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is largely considered the oldest living monotheistic religion, being founded in ancient Iran in the 15th - 16th centuries BCE (roughly 3500 years ago) by the prophet Zoroaster. The Zoroastrian God, Ahura Mazda ("Lord of Wisdom"), is a benevolent creator deity and sky god. Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu ("creative spirit") is often pitted against the Angra Mainyu ("destructive spirit"), giving the faith a strong good vs. evil narrative. It also features a messiah figure, Saoshyant ("one who brings benefit"), who will bring about the final renovation of the universe in which evil will be destroyed.

Many elements of the Zoroastrian religion influenced later monotheistic religions.

Abrahamic religions

Judaism

Judaism is a monotheistic religion and condemns idolatry (the worship of Gods other than the Jewish one) as a sin. However, scholars largely agree that Judaism was initially monolatry, centered around YHWH, the god of Israel, before later becoming the solitary God and blending with El, another god.^{[citation needed]} Remnants of this monolatry can be seen in scripture, regarding things such as Asherah. In the Kabbalah, God is regarded as an infinite, all-encompassing entity (Eyn Sof), but is regarded in numerous emanations (sefirot).

Christianity

Whilst Christianity is usually considered a monotheistic religion, but there are some critics who think that it is a matter of debate how "monotheistic" Christianity really is.

Polytheistic argument

Protestant, Reformed, Restorationist, and Fundamentalist Christian Churches or denominations often accuse Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians of polytheism because of the practice of venerating saints. They especially point to the position of the Virgin Mary — she is the mother of Christ, has (in Roman Catholicism) been assumed into Heaven, and is the recipient of vast numbers of prayers. As a result, these other denominations claim that she is obviously a goddess in all but name, and have been known to bash Catholics as "Mary-worshipers".

Mormons too have been frequently criticized by other Christians (mostly Trinitarians) because they don't accept the Trinity as it was established in the Nicene Creed; Mormons are more prone to define their conception of the Godhead as a "social" interrelation between God the Father (the "Supreme Being" and "Creator"), God the Son and Holy Ghost: they all form the Godhead, but they're also autonomous and distinct Persons; the Father and the Son have physical bodies, whereas the Holy Ghost has a spiritual one (this definition of the Triune God has been accused of "Tritheism"). Thus, Mormons are charged with heresy by some Trinitarian Churches.

Monotheistic argument

However, opponents of this position contend that it is essentially based in a double misunderstanding of the concepts of "god" and of "worship". In particular, saints (and angels) are not worshiped in the same sense as God is, but are rather said to be "venerated". In theological terms, the difference is between latria, or in Latin adoratio, which describes the worship of God, and (hyper-)dulia, or veneratio, which refers to the honoring or veneration of saints and other worthy people. A 2012 article in Free Inquiry magazine revealed how ancient Hebrews attempted to remove polytheistic notions from the original Hebrew scriptures, yet many remain in the Christian Bible.

Furthermore, there is the matter of the henotheistic form of monotheism which it is believed that ancient Jews practiced, and it is well documented that some sects of Christianity were (and are) monolatristic.

Tripartite argument

The "Trinity" concept has many historical precedents, particularly within the Greco-Roman tradition, where tripartite deities such as Hecate are well known. A tripartite deity is essentially one god with three aspects or "faces". The perception of god in the Christian tradition could accurately be described as a tripartite deity, with the aspects of Father, Son and Spirit.

Christians generally reject this description, but within the realms of comparative religious studies and amongst some theologians, the term is widely regarded as an appropriate description of the "Trinity" concept.

Islam

Tawhid is the concept of the indivisible oneness of God, and is one of the most important concepts of Islamic theology. Whilst accepting Jesus as a prophet of the Abrahamic god, Muslims do not accept his divinity, and thus have no concept of "Trinity" present in Christianity. Although technically forbidden by the Qu'ran and several hadith, the veneration of saints in Islam is extremely common, particularly in countries with a strong Amazigh culture, such as Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and also in Egypt, where there there is a strong and long-lasting Coptic tradition of sainthood "inherited" by Egyptian Muslims.

Satanism

Satanism comes in both theistic and atheistic flavours. Theistic Satanists who worship Satan as a divine being, would strictly speaking also be regarded as monotheistic (or henotheistic if they also believe in the Christian God), though it is rarely regarded as such. Since theistic Satanism uses Abrahamic mythology for the basis of aspects of its own beliefs, it could be argued that Satanism is also a cousin of the Abrahamic religions, though both Satanists and Abrahamic adherents tend to reject this view. This situation is further confused by the fact that some Satanists use theistic imagery to personify and interact with an atheistic world-view, such as Setians.

The Satanic Temple, meanwhile, is in fact an atheist organization.

Atenism

Atenism is the belief in the Egyptian solar deity, Aten (Re was actually the sun itself, whilst the Aten was the rays that touch everything and everyone). It was introduced during the reign of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh, Amenhotep III. His son, Akhenaten (his name was originally Amenophis IV) effectively turned Aten into the chief God by (pretty much) outlawing all other deities in the Egyptian pantheon, and making the entire country follow a monotheistic religion (initially, Akhenaten made it a monolatry, but it turned monotheistic in his later years).

In 1939, Sigmund Freud wrote Moses and Monotheism, an essay where he theorized a connection between Akhenaten and Moses: Moses would have been an Egyptian priest of Akhenaten, which escaped from Egypt after the pharaoh's death and subsequent prohibition of Atenism; after that, he would have joined a Semitic tribe, the ancient Hebrews, convert them to Atenism, and finally get killed by them. So, according to Freud, Akhenaten's religion inspired the formation of Judaism. Freud's theory started an interesting debate among other psychoanalysts, as well as criticism and appraisal from Bible scholars, historians and Egyptologists. Various academics suggested that Freud's theory on the rise of Jewish monotheism was based on a psychoanalytic rationalisation of the Exodus (most of it relies on Oedipus complex, father–son conflictual relationship, and parricide), with the insertion of an entirely fictional story that would link the Exodus with Akhenaten's fall; however, there's no archaeological proof that all this has ever happened. For this reason, most biblical scholars and Egyptologists today consider Freud's essay to be "fanciful", no more than a "historical novel", which he championed, together with Moses' murder, "because he needed the fact for his psychoanalysis of Judaism".

Other religions

Among the Andamanese people only one god is recognised, Paluga. However, Paluga is not worshipped, he simply created the universe, then fucked off.

Christian missionaries equated several Aboriginal Australian creator gods with the Christian god, such as Baiame from the Gamilaraay or Bunjil from the Kulin. It remains debatable if this was the case in pre-colonial Australia, especially when you consider that "god" or "deity" as a term to describe Dreaming entities is controversial.

Varieties of monotheism

There is a distinction between inclusive monotheism and exclusive monotheism. Inclusive monotheists believe in one ultimate deity, but they are willing to accept many different gods as being different names, forms, aspects, emanations, representatives, servants, etc., of this one ultimate deity. Inclusive monotheism is compatible with polytheism; worship of many different gods is seen as a way of worshipping the one God indirectly. By contrast, exclusive or strict monotheists believe that no other gods than their preferred deity are real. Thus the deities worshipped by other people are either simply non-existent, demons masquerading as gods, human sorcerers or conmen tricking their believers into worshipping them, and so on and so forth. The worship of other deities is seen as sinful indeed as a cardinal sin. Historically, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have adopted the exclusive monotheist position, though it's clear from the Old Testament that Judaism started out as a henotheist religion. The majority of the followers of these Abrahamic religions remain exclusive monotheists, but some liberal Christians have turned to inclusive monotheism instead.

Monotheism and authoritarianism

Monotheism is often^{[citation needed]} seen as related to political authoritarianism. The idea that we must subjugate ourselves to an all-powerful God is a central part of most monotheistic systems (in contrast, polytheism often allows picking and choosing, and suggests gods will either be in conflict or rule as part of a council or consensus). If God is seen as masculine, this aligns monotheism with patriarchy. Carol Delaney has written about the myth of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac as an exemplar of patriarchal control of society exerting power of life and death.

The Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin saw the existence of a monotheistic God as the greatest enemy to human freedom:

“”For, if God is, he is necessarily the eternal, supreme, absolute master, and, if such a master exists, man is a slave; now, if he is a slave, neither justice, nor equality, nor fraternity, nor prosperity are possible for him. In vain, flying in the face of good sense and all the teachings of history, do they represent their God as animated by the tenderest love of human liberty: a master, whoever he may be and however liberal he may desire to show himself, remains none the less always a master. His existence necessarily implies the slavery of all that is beneath him. Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty - by ceasing to exist. A jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

Monotheism and violence

A single unique god-figure dominating the forefront of human thinking and awareness may lead to an expectation of partisan miracles and to intolerance for the Other. Suspicions have emerged that monotheism may promote or become involved in violence, justifying various crusades, jihads, and other Holy Wars as well as personal brutality.

Possible counter-examples of the monotheism-violence nexus include those provided by polytheists: the Mongol Empire, the Aztecs, and the Zulu Empire.