Hi! I've been reading about religion for some years now, and I find the *general* proposition of theism reasonable, and I've dabbled with Edward Butler, but I'm curious, what are the best arguments for one or the other? I believe there's peobably a supreme formless God that's the ground of reality, but why should od shouldn't I find the notion of lesser gods also existing compelling? I am intrigued by Proclus' and later writer's hendad model of divinity
>>18522388*henad
>>18522388*should or shouldn't
>>18522388Monotheism is true because God is the One without a second, so all gods you see are actually God. All animals, all plants, all minerals, all humans, all beings, all objects of the senses are God, the One without a second. So, if you choose polytheism, you'll be deluding yourself.
>>18522388The gods worship by men are 72, Lucifer the dunce, his wife the white, and their 70 degenerate children. They live in the sky above our heads.There are gods in the heavens above who are the sons of the Eloah of Israel who is The Sovereign of all things.
>>18522466This sounds like a less refined Monism, not monotheism.
>>18522528This guy here is extremely mentally ill
>>18522533This guy here worships one of these degenerate spirits.
>>18522528>his wife the white,Meant to say the whore but basically the same thing.
>>18522532>not monotheismLearn how to reason if you want to become a spiritual seeker.
>>18522539Spirits don't exist, you're just a mentally ill
>>18522676You're unripe.
>>18522713You're mentally ill.
>>18522466>One without a secondthis doesn't exist
>>18522388It's easier to cope with the findings of philosophy and science with monotheism, you can move the deity further and further back from reality. All the way to being a prime mover who then fucked off. It's easier to defend intellectually than Thor being responsible for thunder and lightning in the sky.
>>18522746I never spoke of the characters men have worshipped, but the proposition of polytheism. If there us one gods or two or many, I still see no reason to view a set of man made myths as true
>>18522388>shouldn't I find the notion of lesser gods also existing compelling?You could. You just shouldn't consider them "gods" in any real sense. Early Christians (and still some today) didn't necessarily deny the existence of Zeus, Jupiter, Hermes etc., the argument was that these beings are demons. Impressive demons? Perhaps. But minor spirits nevertheless and rebellious spirits at that because they accepted people's devotion for themselves instead of keeping it for the one God. There is quite an unfortunate semantic trap associated with all this because today's scholarship calls this setup "henotheism" and distinguishes it from monotheism. This creates an impression that it's a departure from the original claims of the great monotheistic religions, but it's actually the Western scholarly tradition that (under the influence of protestantism and its oversimplifications) defined monotheism in a misleading way, to the point of excluding many early Christian texts from this set altogether.
>>18522998I agree the gods wouldn't be equal to God, but why assume they're evil? The finger is not the hand, but it is not evil
>>18522998>necessarily deny the existence of Zeus, Jupiter, Hermes etc., the argument was that these beings are demonsAnd they were wrong. The only demon here is Yahweh-Typhon whom all Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship
>>18523746There are two types of God's, demons, which are the ones in OPs pic, and the Benei Elohim, who rule over the elements of the universe and are under the command of the Most High.
There are philosophical arguments defending paganism. Paganism tends to have the strongest arguments aganist metaphysical monisms like Advaita Vedanta but also some models of classical theism. Keep in mind we are talking the model of God/god.
There is also Platonic pagan philosophy too. It tends to rely even more so on rationalism and essences. This means that it's weakness more so than other theisms is process philosophies and relational ontologies.
For an account that is more focused on African and Indigenous religions try the following.
>>18524035>>18524039>>18524052TYSM for the reading material! I find it sad how little attention polytheism gets in westerm circles, philosophically speaking.
>>18522466That doesn't contradict polytheism at all, plenty of advaita vedantans think the lesser gods are just apparent reflections of different aspects of the one true god
>>18524031The Benei Elohim some of them came to earth and mated with women and those women then gave birth to the other type of gods, who God eventually turned into demons.
>>18523746Because they accepted worship that belongs to God, hence leading people astray. >>18524013Nah.
>>18522388>lesser godsContradiction. God is the perfect Being. An imperfect being would not be a god.
