Christianity isn't monotheistic

[connorkimbro]

Christianity isn't monotheistic in the sense that while christians only WORSHIP one god, the bible clearly talks about other gods existing. It's even right there in the 10 commandments:
Exodus 20:3 (also, Deuteronomy 5:7)"You shall have no other gods before me."

That of course is not the ONLY example, here are some others:

Exodus 18:11 "Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly."

Deuteronomy 6:14 "Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;"

Judges 10:13 "But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you."

These are just a few examples.

If Yahweh was the ONLY god, why didn't he just say "Look guys, it's only me up here, all those other gods are IMAGINARY" But he didn't say that. He said "Hey, I'm really sort of the jealous type, so please don't worship all those other gods, just worship me!"


So clearly, the bible supports the idea that other gods exist.

I know I'm sort of preaching to the choir here, but it just popped into my head a few moments ago and I thought it might make for an interesting discussion. Anyone interested in playing devil's advocate?

 

[mandangalo18]

be ready for a can o' worms of biblical proportions arguing that one. Arguments about bible interpretations are very...very... tedious.

 

[Homunclus]

Not that it matters but I disagree. Haven't you ever told anyone something in the lines of: "Your God sucks"? Or: "The Christian god is a..."

By your logic every time one of us says something like that, we would be admitting god exists. However we do say these things without admitting anything of the like.

Those passages you mention make perfect sense even if we assume only the Christian god exists. You know why? Because you can worship something that doesn't exist. The only thing those passages admit is that people believe in other gods

 

[connorkimbro]

By your logic every time one of us says something like that, we would be admitting god exists.

No, because we can concieve of something that doesn't exist, and then discuss it hypothetically without making any such admission. It's quite clear from the language we use what our beliefs are, even if we NEVER ultimately used our conclusion - "I don't believe God exists." As it turns out, we do in fact explicitly state that quite often.

The bible, to my knowledge, never makes such a conclusion, when it would have been quite easy to do so. It is not apparent from the language in the bible that Yahweh (the alleged author of the bible) concludes that other gods don't exist, there is nothing to suggest he speaks of other gods hypothetically. He simply doesn't want his people to follow those other gods. If Yahweh was in FACT the only god that existed, and if he did in fact author the bible through divine inspiration, why wouldn't the bible contain language indicating that fact? i.e. "I am the only God!" vs. "I am the LORD, your God"


My point is that the people who actually DID author the bible lived at a time when it was "common knowledge" that other gods existed, and that influenced their writing.

 

[Giliell]

Well, I'ver heard quite another argument that Christianity, especially roman catholicism is more a polythesitic religion.
First we have the top dog, god himself. His queen, Mary and their heavenly prince Jesus.
Quite like you have in many polytheistic religions like the Greek Pantheon with Zeus, Hera and their offspring.
And then you have a lot of lower gods with special tasks, only that they are called saints, but you can note the many similarities: They have special fields, like Saint Patron of Thingy, they are prayed to and people expect them personally to help.

 

[Grimstad]

While I am intrigued by the deductions of the OP, I find Giliell's observation right in line with my own. Catholicism has replaced the old gods with a pantheon of it's own. Much like they have replaced all the pagan holidays with their own. Personally it wouldn't surprise me if Zeus just changed his name and ran the others out if business.

 

[DTBeast]

While an argument can certainly be made that Christianity is possibly a Dualistic religion, pitting God vs Satan, or that Catholicism is polytheistic based on it's revering of the Saints, I don't think a good case can be made to say that the Bible does not state that there is only one god. An example of this is 1 Corinthians 8:4 "As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. " Paul says in no uncertain terms that his religion only has one god.

 

[Homunclus]

No, because we can concieve of something that doesn't exist, and then discuss it hypothetically without making any such admission.

That was what I was suggesting the authors of the bible did.

If Yahweh was in FACT the only god that existed, and if he did in fact author the bible through divine inspiration, why wouldn't the bible contain language indicating that fact? i.e. "I am the only God!" vs. "I am the LORD, your God"

Because unlike monotheists, polytheists generally believe that all gods exist, not just their own. A Celtic polytheist may have his own set of gods, however if he were to meet an Egyptian that told him about the Egyptian gods, the Celtic would not take the position that the Egyptian gods are false and only the Celtic ones exist. He would believe all of them exist.

In the same sense any polytheist would believe the Christian god exists, therefore the most effective means of conversion is to pamper the polytheist beliefs as much as possible, specifically by convincing them that the Christian god is superior...once you convinced them of that, it's a lot easier to bring out the concept of: "all other gods are fake".

Well, at least that is my guess.

My point is that the people who actually DID author the bible lived at a time when it was "common knowledge" that other gods existed, and that influenced their writing.

Of course, but it doesn't mean they actually believed there were other gods.

 

[asianlife53]

Monotheism- the doctrine that there is only ONE god; so Christianity goes through the mental and verbal gymnastics of pretending to be monotheistic, and yet encompassing the trinity; and as has been pointed out, then also requesting that no other [false] gods be worshipped.

It always strikes me as highly insecure behaviour. ' My dad is bigger than your dad', becomes 'my god is more powerful/nasty/vengeful than yours'.

 

[CVBrassil]

I disagree with the original post. While I believe christianity can be interpreted as a polytheistic religion hiding in the shell of a monotheistic religion, its not because of one of the commandments. That commandement simply states "I am the only God, don't screw with me".

They didn't acknowledge that they believed any other gods existed, they simply acknowledged that they weren't the only religion in existence.

 

[borrofburi]

My point is that the people who actually DID author the bible lived at a time when it was "common knowledge" that other gods existed, and that influenced their writing.

Well according to my anthropology of religion book (not necessarily a good source), this is indeed the case.

 

[whitenerd108]

The common interpretation of these passages is that they are referring to false idols, or other religions'/cultures' false deities. Of course, as you pointed out, we can't know what the original authors really meant or thought. Personally I don't care if they meant REAL additional/alternate gods or just false idols, or if more than one god exists.

 

[DeistPaladin]

If you read the Bible and compare the declarations of monotheism vs. the indications of henotheism* or polytheism, one of the interesting patterns is that most of the heno or polytheistic passages are in the earliest books while the declarations of a monotheistic universe are in the later books of the OT.

In the earliest of the OT books, prior to Isaiah, there is only one passage that supports the idea of monotheism (Deut 4:35) and even this passage is open to interpretation. It isn't until you get to the "prophetic books", such as Isaiah, that there are strong declarations of a monotheistic universe.

In fact, there is a mainstream perception among historians that the ancient Hebrews were not always strictly monotheistic. According to one study I remember seeing on the History Channel, the hypothesis that I heard was that the Jews were monotheistic after the Babylonian Captivity. If true, this would explain the contrary nature of the OT on that subject.

As for Christianity, the earliest forms were divided over whether or not there were multiple gods. The Marcionites believed that Jesus was a separate and superior god to Yahweh and they rejected all things Jewish, including the OT. The Ebionites were strict monotheists who believed Jesus an ordinary man who took in part of the spirit of Yahweh at his baptism. The Trinity, along with the fuzzy notions of 100% man-100% god and "three separate persons but one substance", make more sense if you think of them not so much as a copherent theological doctrine but rather as the ultimate compromise between early Christiantiy's monotheistic and polytheistic factions.

Christianity is the only religion that effectively tries to be monotheistic and polytheistic at the same time.

* Henotheism: "There are multiple gods out there but we worship only one."

 

[buzzausa]

Christianity isn't monotheistic ...

...or original.

Even if you concede that it is monotheistic it was not the first one.