RE: Hello soulcalm17
July 11, 2024 at 9:28 pm
(This post was last modified: July 12, 2024 at 1:47 pm by arewethereyet.)
(July 11, 2024 at 8:09 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(July 11, 2024 at 7:39 pm)soulcalm17 Wrote: Not always actually. For phyton worshiping I also not believe of course.
Yeah, I don't think anyone here wants to argue that the existence of an ancient ritual proves the existence of the thing they're worshipping. It is strong evidence that religion or religion-like activities are really old, though.
We can acknowledge that religion is ancient without using that as proof of deities.
Quote:Actually previously when I talked to ferrocyanide on youtube, I postulate that first human must worshipping only one God that unseen/monotheist. As time continue, they deviated from monotheism to polytheism/ animism worshipping.
That's why it also difficult to find discoveries, as The God is unseen and not permitted to draw.
The point is, humans always had religious sense for their very first time. I guess that in Botswana was also deviated from the monotheism to kind of animism worshipping.
From the examples I've read about, the movement seems more likely to go from polytheism to monotheism. Not that I've studied every possible case, so you might have counterexamples.
In Greece and around the Aegean it seems pretty clear that there were lots of gods, and that gradually Zeus/Jupiter came to be thought of as dominant -- almost monotheistic in a Christian way. Of course they were comfortable with symbolic or allegorical representations, so there were always variations, but the later Roman religion is pretty monotheistic.
According to Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong, the people of the Arabian peninsula were polytheistic, with Allah being chief among many, until Muhammad declared the other gods to be false. Maybe there is evidence otherwise...?
I know that in Japan Shinto has always been polytheistic, although there were modernization movements in the Meiji Period to posit a chief god over all of the others. This seems to have been a clear reaction to Western influence, and as far as I know has not caught on. Local people still pray to their local shrine god, or the specialty god concerning what they want -- a good rice harvest for example.
I'd be interested to hear of cases where it goes the other way -- monotheism to polytheism.
Sure, Belacqua. I present you some cases.
In Hindu scripture, actually God is depicting as uniquely one and unseen entity. Not many people know about it I guess. But it was mentioned in Upanishad. Hinduism start from about 3000 BCE (some says 8000 BCE and even timeless according to Hindus people) and as time continue, it goes to polytheistic style and had millions of God. Here is the verses:
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About Arabian Peninsula that are pagans, actually that was a proof that their paganism deviated from monotheism. According to history, Arabs were descendant of Ishmael, the son of Abraham who was also practice monotheism. And as time goes by, they deviate to paganism.