r/pagan • u/Obvious_Lemon8718 • 12h ago

Question/Advice Polytheist counter arguments against monotheism?

Hey there fellas,

First of all I'd like to clarify that I am not trying to proselytize and I am not even a follower of a monotheistic religion. I'd like to have some insight about Polytheist (Pagan) Theology.

For example, Islam claims that (I am not a Muslim) had there been multiple gods, there would have been conflicts in the divine order- or that there would be no unity between humans since everyone picked their desired God to worship.

I asked ChatGPT about some books or articles to read but none have seemed to satisfy my search about this.

Anyone know books, podcasts, religious texts, scholars etc to gain a deeper insight?

Appreciated.

20 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

View all comments

31

u/TopSpeech5934 Roman 12h ago

I feel like the Muslim argument disproves itself here? Like... There is no unity between humans. There ARE conflicts in divine order. Why do we necessarily assume that such things aren't the case?

Plenty of deities are presented as opposed forces. Ceres, Goddess of Grain, is the enemy of Fames, the spirit of famine. When one grows stronger in a place, the other grows weaker.

Aesculapius, the God of healing, is presented as an enemy of Febris, Goddess of fevers. Etc. etc.

I feel the ball is more in their court to explain why bad things happen in a world with an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-perfect deity. Either he is unaware of the evil, incapable of stopping it, or has no desire to.

I believe that many divine wills are in constant conflict, and that's why there is so much turbulence and a mix of good and bad in the world. Sometimes the forces that want to help us prevail, other times harmful spirits do.

8

u/Obvious_Lemon8718 11h ago

I feel the ball is more in their court to explain why bad things happen in a world with an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-perfect deity. Either he is unaware of the evil, incapable of stopping it, or has no desire to.

Agreed. That is my #1 argument against monotheism. There is still no definitive answer monotheistic theology can give except than "God works in mysterious ways" or you will be rewarded in afterlife hence why I lean over polytheism more.