It's already late at night, but I need to follow through with this whole double post thing. Otherwise, it will be hard to sleep tonight.
The second topic I am interested in is the question of how "concepts of deities evolve in correlation to the advancement of society", inspired by our Mr. Sanderson.
I do not exactly buy the "well of course because more technology calls for simpler solutions" argument (in relation to the idea of society moving from polytheism to monotheism). If that last sentence did not make sense, I will elaborate. The consensus of my classroom seemed to be that society is moving from polytheism to monotheism because of acquired knowledge (ex. there is no need for a rain god if we have already constructed the water cycle). I propose that technology has less to do with the evolution of gods and that societal values play a more crucial role. If you look at monotheistic religions around the world, most are splintered into a multitude of groups, each with different teachings and beliefs. For example, Baptism and Catholicism differ on how one is to achieve salvation but both claim to be under the Christianity banner. These divisions seem to be a result of values not technology.
Of course, the technology argument also does not explain why Hinduism (a polytheistic religion) is still so prominent today. Technology permeates throughout Hindu nations, yet the belief of multiple gods prevails. Rather, it must be the solidity of the Hindu culture that keeps these beliefs intact. Also, a good argument can be made on the change of the Old Testament to the New Testament (Christian bible). Was the change due to technology? No. It was due to the desire of making the bible more universal, a clear change of values (to be more accepting).
I hope I was able to support my argument. I tried as well as I could with this lingering need for sleep.
No need to derive yourself of Sleep Matt! I agree with your argument against technology being the reason for the transition in beliefs, and i offer up the reason behind it to be due to politics and power. Having many gods often times leads to parties of people worshiping one god more then the other which can lead to separation of countries and civilizations. I believe as the world has grown the people inhabiting it have seen that the common folk need to be tied together someway in order to either be swayed or to sway decisions. That is why even though we have so many branches under Catholicism when it comes to major topics most of the religions agree giving politicians something to grasp at. This is why the majority of the catholic vote in America goes to the Republican nominee. India and their use of Hinduism is a perfect example. The country is overly divided and the people are unable to be governed, possibly a change to monotheism would help with the governing forces endeavors to set up a more stable firm. You have to be able to connect with people to get things done and what better to connect with then religion since it has always been most peoples most stead fast belief. It is for these reasons that I believe the majority of the world has moved to monotheism instead of polytheism.
ReplyDeleteMaybe religions evolved from polytheism to monotheism out of a desire for convenience (easier to remember "God" than "Athena, goddess of wisdom; Aphrodite, goddess of love; Zeus, god of the sky yada yada yada). Maybe the people who crafted religions eventually recognized that human desire for convenience and figured people would be easier to control if they were responsible for worshipping only one god instead of an entire pantheon.
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