U.H.S. Mythology @ The Modyland Institute

                As world religions go, those that have become the most influential in modern times are predominantly monotheistic.  In fact, with the exception from Hinduism—which is relatively exclusive location wise—the worship of multiple gods has seemingly gone out of fashion, much like denim jackets.  Why this swing in popularity occurred is a topic about which I’m sure many books have been written; any number of reasons could be cited to account for the lack of polytheism in modern belief systems.  However, the way I see it, these reasons are unimportant.  Religion, like fashion, caters to those affected by it, changed by the slightest whim in public opinion.  Certain ideas become popular and then die out; others never get off the ground at all. 

                The smash hits Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are in many ways the blue-jeans of religion, whereas the corduroys that are paganism are simply no longer in style.  Who can tell why suddenly every girl in school is wearing tan suede booties?  Somewhere along the road it just caught on—in Christianity’s case, the Roman emperor Constantine I had a conniption and made Christianity the state religion out of nowhere.  Before this it was no more than an obscure cult, and would have remained so.  Similarly, had the Allies lost World War II, there would certainly be no more Judaism today, we would simply learn about it in mythology class as we do the Greek or Norse beliefs.  Religion is not a product of the evolution of society, society merely plays off of whatever beliefs happen to be present.  The only way religion has even been able to continually appeal to modern societies is by diluting and remodeling even the most fundamental of beliefs.  Most Americans would probably go insane if forced to practice Christianity in its original form.

                This is probably as good a time as any to admit that (if you haven’t already noticed) I’m not a huge fan of monotheistic religions.  And aside from the aforementioned points, a lot of this has to do simply with the classification of “monotheistic”.  Society tends to regard the polytheistic religions of the past with a dismissive attitude, labeling them “myth” which even in its least degrading meaning suggests falseness.  “Monotheistic” is a term that is assigned to a mythology to give it a level of plausibility, often regardless of whether or not only one god is truly worshipped.  In Christianity, for instance, God is three separate beings, who can act and interact independently, and several important angels are also featured prominently.  Yet society feels the need to differentiate, simply because the concept of a single, mysteriously powerful being is more popular.  In reality, all of the modern “monotheistic” faiths are somewhat polytheistic, simply because they—like every other religion—adhere to certain principals of mythology that are no different than those of the ancient pagans.  The opposite is also true: Greek city-states more often than not worshipped a single deity—the pantheon that we learn about is simply the conglomeration of all the major gods and goddesses in the culture as a whole.  The classification of “monotheistic” or “polytheistic” is therefore not really useful in discerning the nature of a religion. 

                Now to tie all these various thoughts together somehow.  In short, religions, monotheistic or otherwise, rise and fall due to chance as much as anything else, conforming to what people will accept, and thus cannot be ordered in relevance based on classifications.

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EFFECT

When looking at mythology as a religion, I do believe there is a difference between the way older polytheistic mythology affected people compared to the role modern monotheistic mythology plays in contemporary society. First of all, in America we have separation of Church and State which gives everyone the freedom to choose if they even want to believe in a mythology without any detrimental effects. This is an idea that most ancient cultures and even some cultures today never embraced and an idea that would have had a major effect had it been popular in those times where polytheism was the prominent mythology/religion.

Secondly, as everyone has mentioned, science now dominates faith when it comes to how we perceive and explain the world around us. Almost every natural phenomena can now be explained through modern science. The role that monotheistic mythology now plays in peoples is more spiritual than physical. Whereas ancient cultures would pray to a god for a good harvest, people today are much more likely to appeal to a monotheistic god when in spiritual or emotional peril. Not to say that ancient cultures did not do this, it is just that in contemporary times people no longer ask for material things, rather they ask for spiritual guidance or safety. As humans we tend to appeal to a higher authority when we believe that things are beyond our control. I suppose that in the 21st century, with all our science and technology, the amount of things that we perceive as beyond our control is a constantly decreasing number.

Judaism 4.0

I am going to go along with the science theme and say that Evolutionism is the next major religion. Natural selection and many of the principles of Darwinism are so widely accepted nowadays that I believe it’s really only a matter of time before people start altering their lives to accommodate them. People could genetically select children with favorable traits and abort them if they aren’t good enough, because hey, they probably wouldn’t have survived anyway and they certainly aren’t contributing to the evolution of the human race. Or perhaps they could just bypass the middleman and alter their embryos and select the favorable traits that way. Then the whole world will be like Gattaca and eugenics will be widely accepted and everyone will be Aryan and Hitler will resurrect rise to power again. DOOMSDAY I TELL YOU. Doomsday….

P.S. I’m just curious what would those who argued that monotheism was more widely accepted because it was simpler and less strict have to say about Judaism or Islam, which have no shortage of rituals and a much stricter belief system. I can’t imagine having to pray 5 times a day being much of a selling point when trying to convert a pagan. The focus was mostly on Christianity which is frankly pretty lax as far as religions go.

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The Structure

In many contemporary religions such as Christianity, there is a blury line to as whether it should be classified as monotheistic. The trinity, the father the son and the holy spirit, can be compared to the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, which is considered to be a polytheistic religion. However, all parts of the trinities are actually only one in the same of the all mighty being…which is a little confusing. In my eyes, it is very difficult to find a true monotheistic religion because there are so many different parts and so many prophets who aren’t supposed to be seen as gods, but are often worshipped and loved the same way as the one god.

The Lasting Effect..Affect? Effect.

I think monotheism effects its believers very similarly to older religions. To many people, religion is a major part of their lives, it helps guide them in making good decisions, how to live a “sin-free” life, and even at times, who to marry. This is very similar to older cultures who worshipped many gods. Just like im Christianity, the Mayans didn’t want to piss off their gods, so they would make sacrifices. Cultures all over the world with polytheistic views prayed to their gods for good health and good crops just as how monotheistic believers pray for good fortune in their lives. Both types of religion has major effects on how their followers lived their lives, but the big difference between the two is that in monotheism, believers serve their god based on a loving relationship, or they are supposed to, not just out of fear. However, in polytheism, such as in Greek culture, they served their gods out of fear that Poseidon would creat a flood or send a blood thirsty Minotaur to the shores of their village. But I believe as the overall effect goes, both types of religions effected their followers more similarly than differently.

The Purpose

I believe that monotheism is more appealing to the modern man because it is much more personal and much simplier. As time moves on, everyone is looking for the easiest thing, like self-starting cars and such.  Why pray to 20 gods when someone only has to worry about 1 all powerful god? Monotheism is just easier, therefore more appealing. However, it is also based on a more personal level. In monotheism there is the belief that god created the earth and people for the loving relationship that could be fostered, in gods eyes we are his children and are made indiviually by him with love. However, in other religions, the relationship with humans and gods are not focused on and made into the major part of the reason for worship. Monotheism effects people inside while polytheism is more like, well there are a bunch of gods who will send forth war and floods and lightening if we do not please them. Poseidon was very cruel to man, where as God is kind and forgiving. The easier, more personal religion obviously wins the modern man’s heart.

Judaism 4.0

As of now there isn’t any Judaism 4.0. The only thing i can really think of is momonism, because it is sort of derived from Christianity in that they believe in Jesus and God, but see things a little differently than the Christians do. But, as someone else said in their blog, I have no doubt that a Judaism 4.0 will emerge soon, with all the crazy Scientology religions and such, there is bond to be another formed soon.

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Religion has been a part of human life for many, many years. It’s gone through changes and new forms have evolved to suit the people of the times’ needs and beliefs. The more recent monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all worship the same God, but have their slight differences.

However, when looking at monotheism vs. polytheism things aren’t that different as one would assume. As John and Chris have already pointed out… yes, the number of Gods are different. But only the fact that in monotheism there is one major God and polytheism has many major Gods. Monotheism slips around their title by having other entities that people worship. There is one large overarching God, but He isn’t alone. There are angels, demons, spirits, etc. that are also a large part of the monotheistic religions.

I like to look at monotheistic religions as a sports team. God  is the captain, but you need other members to make the team successful. The captain couldn’t win by himself and nobody would want to join the team if it was just a one-man-show. If monotheistic religions were purely one God, than why wouldn’t we call Islam, Allah instead?

Polytheistic religions were popular in the ancient days when people needed a God or Goddess for every aspect of life. Greece being the major example that we’ve looked at. If they wanted to be successful in battle they would pray to Ares or wanted luck with love they would call upon Aphrodite. Monotheism decided to combine all of these things and make it easier to just be able to pray to one God for many things.

As times change, people change

I think monotheism appeals to the modern man better because it’s simpler. You only have one God to worry about rather than hundreds that are impossible to remember. It wouldn’t make sense that people worshipped the same religion and entities for centuries. Religion will eventually become outdated and need to be revised.

I have no idea what Judaism 4.0 will be. I do think it will come to exist soon because as we know in America, there’s always a better version around the corner.

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Polytheism

Polytheism was found in many of the older societies. By having so many different gods, the religion was used to explain every aspect of life- weather, health, crop success and failure. When crops failed, people worshipped and sacrificed for the god of fertility. This put comfort in people’s mind to know that they were doing what they could to put a positive effect on trends that in fact, are completely out of people’s control. Having several different gods was never a problem; because people tend to not to mind the complexity of something if it helps them to understand what is going on. Without any other explanation, having a god of everything makes sense. How else would the sun come up every morning? Or rain fall from the sky? However, with the monotheistic religions came scientific discoveries. Discovering the Earth was not the center of the universe was a major defining point in many of the religions.

God of Rain

This not only rejected the idea that the sun revolved around the earth, but also showed that a god was not making the sun rise and fall through the sky. Monotheism does the exact same thing that polytheism, however in this time era, we understand many things we did not before- that weather is a natural phenomena, and that our health depends on our lifestyles, we have outside explanations that our religion no longer needs to cover.

As for a Judaism 4.0, I definitely agree with Mike. Science is taking over many things in our life, and it is putting proof behind what people are expected to believe in for religions. Vinegar and baking soda don’t explode from magic. There’s no science-project-volcano god (that I am aware of anyways), it’s science. Everything around us has a logical explanation and we are just beginning to unravel everything that people have been questioning for hundreds of thousands of years. Again, people are looking for answers and they will follow and trust whatever it is that explains life to them.

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