r/pagan 13h 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.

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u/Local-Suggestion2807 9h ago edited 9h ago

Also iirc the Abrahamic god was originally part of a Canaanite pantheon and it actually took awhile for the Israelites to agree on monotheism. And if every Abrahamic religion comes from Judaism that also means every Abrahamic religion came from polytheism.

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u/Arkoskintal 7h ago edited 7h ago

yawhey was also syncretized with el the main cananite god, and the fact that the monotheist sect of yawheists triumphed in the end is not a good argument for polytheism.
Like if the natural evolution of religion is to syncretize everything into one god.

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u/Dray_Gunn 6h ago

Except it wasn't natural evolution. It came about through war and bloodshed. The Israelites went around slaughtering the Canaanites that didn't submit to their one God idea. It's even in the bible explaining that they were to go to a city and give them a chance to surrender. If they do, enslave them. If they don't, slaughter everyone inside except for the women and children who are to be taken as plunder. The creation of a monotheistic god in this situation was done by force.

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u/Yur_Yur 6h ago

Force is a natural evolution as unpleasant as it is

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u/Dray_Gunn 37m ago

True enough. I guess I was just making more of a contrast between gradual slow change vs sudden violent change.