Original monotheism and the decline into polytheism and idolatry
I have two aims in this thread. Firstly, to challenge those who argue that monotheism emerged as part of an evolutionary process, whereby animism or shamanism developed into polytheism, which in turn later evolved into monotheism. Secondly, I want to show that the opposite is in fact true - that religions typically degenerate from monotheistic origins into ever growing polytheistic pantheons, and that in the earliest stages of recorded history, it is evident that monotheism was the norm right across the globe.
Of course, I am coming at this from a specifically Christian perspective, and thus, I believe that monotheism is natural to mankind, according to the scripture, where it speaks of humankind's decline from an original monotheism into polytheism and idolatry:
In this passage, Paul says that all people know of the one true God by nature, and only came to worship false gods through a process of degeneration and idol worship. Furthermore, from my Christian perspective, I believe that it makes sense than in the earliest times all peoples across the world would have worshipped one God, because they were dispersed from Babel where they had all worshipped one God, and such was the earliest practice as recorded in the Bible, through Noah and back to Adam.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1: 18-25)
I say this just so people know where I am coming from, and not as an argument in and of itself. My argument below is based on many societies and religions, which show that from the earliest recorded times, mankind worshipped one God, and that religions have over time degenerated from these roots. Hopefully, the evidence will speak for itself.
Sumeria:
The cradle of civilization seems an appropriate place to start, and indeed, this is the land of the Babel story, whether you view it literally or not. Although well known for their large pantheon, that is in fact something that developed relatively late in the period of Sumerian civilization, and was borrowed heavily from by the later Babylonians and various powers of the region. Indeed, the earliest records we have show just two Sumerian gods, from which the rest of the pantheon was spawned. The text below sums up the findings of Assyriologist Stephen Langdon on the development of the Sumerian pantheon:
So, having had two gods in 3500-4000 BC, they had 750 gods around 3000-2000 BC, and around 5,000 gods by the time that the civilization has entered its twilight years. Our understanding of Sumerian religion hasn't developed hugely since Langdon's time, but what has been discovered has tended to corroborate his findings. For example, the Sumerian pantheon clearly developed from the two earliest documented gods. In accordance with Langdon's observation that An was one of these earliest two gods, it is now noted that the "majority of Sumerian deities belonged to a classification called the Anunna", which means the "offspring of An". With somewhat modified versions of Langdon's dates, modern research observed the same pattern, noting that from four primary deities recorded in Sumerian literature of around 3000 BC, by 2000 BC there are thought to have been around 3,600. So with all this in mind, ancient Sumeria clearly shows a pattern where a pantheon grew exponentially to include thousands of gods, and all this from just two shown in the earliest findings.The Sumerian religion in its latest development before the people disappeared as an entity swallowed up by the later Babylonians, seemed to have involved about 5000 gods. The inscriptions of circa 3000 B.C. or perhaps a millennium earlier show only 750. The 300 tablets or so known from Jamdet Nasr in 1928 when Langdon published these texts, contained only. three gods; the sky god Enlil, the earth god Enki, and the sun god Babbar. The 575 tablets from Uruk translated in 1936, which Langdon dated about 4000 B.C. but are now believed to be more accurately dated 3500 B.C., contain the names of only two deities: the sky god An and the mother goddess Innina.
Egypt:
Along with the Sumerians, the civilization of ancient Egypt was amongst the first of mankind. And although they are well known for their polytheistic beliefs, like the Sumerians, their earliest history paints a different picture. Ra provides an excellent example of early Egyptian monotheism, which would later degenerate into polytheism. Ra was regarded as "the first being and the originator of the Ennead" - the lesser gods such as Osiris, Set, Isis and the like. In contrast to these lesser gods, Ra was regarded as the creator God, who was himself uncreated, and who created all the lesser gods and man. In this sense, he is very similar to An as the creator God of the Sumerian pantheon. While worship of Ra as the uncreated creator God was prevalent at his temple at Heliopolis, it is interesting to note that the peoples of other cities each regarded their own patron deity as the uncreated creator, for example with the followers of Ptah arguing that Ptah was the uncreated creator who had in fact created Ra. It can be seen then that while local peoples each worshipped one God whom they regarded as supremely powerful and the creator of all things, when they came into contact with other peoples, they viewed their gods as rivals, rather than recognizing them as a somewhat anthropomorphised and thus corrupted version of the God they worshipped. It is from this process that local monotheistic gods came to be merged into national, polytheistic pantheons. Indeed, worship surrounding Ra points that even as the Egyptian pantheon developed, he retained an elevated status, to the point where he is hard to distinguish from an Abrahamic concept of monotheism. As one prayer in the Book of the Dead reads:
Furthermore, it should be noted that the worship of only one God as an all-powerful, uncreated creator far precedes the later development of Egyptian polytheism. Ra's temple complex at Heliopolis is one of the oldest in Egypt. As modern scholars have noted, such worship declined as increasing importance was given to the deification of kings, whose funerary monuments came to be given more importance than the old temples, and the pantheon continued to grow as deified humans and gods of conquered peoples were added to it. It is also interesting that such developments led to the abandoning of public worship in favour of festive rituals by a priestly class - again showing that degeneration of religion spoken of by Paul in Romans. Likewise, sporadic experiments in outright monotheism, such as Atenism, challenge the evolutionary theory of religion."A Hymn To Amen-Ra ... president of all the gods ... Lord of the heavens ... Lord of Truth ... maker of men; creator of beasts ... Ra, whose word is truth, the Governor of the world, the mighty one of valour, the chiefs who made the world as he made himself”…” He heareth the prayer of the oppressed one, he is kind of heart to him that calleth upon him, he delivereth the timid man from the oppressor ... He is the Lord of knowledge, and Wisdom is the utterance of his mouth”
Hinduism:
Although it has survived until the modern day, Hinduism is, much like the religions of Sumeria or Egypt, a very ancient religion. And although it has come to have perhaps the most vibrant and colourful of any pantheon, much as with the earliest examples of Sumeria and Egypt, it can be demonstrated that even polytheistic Hinduism developed from monotheistic roots. For example, one of the most ancient texts in Hinduism, the Rig Veda, states that:
Although being very much anti-Christian himself, this led to philologist and Orientalist Max Müller noting that "There is a monotheism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda; and even in the invocation of the innumerable gods the remembrance of a God one and infinite, breaks through the mist of idolatrous phraseology like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds." Indeed, the Rig Veda potrays all gods are merely being manifestations of different aspects of the one true God's character, observing that they call him by the names of their many gods:"In the beginning, who was born the Lord the sole Lord of all that is who made the earth, and formed the sky, who giveth life Who giveth strength, whose bidding gods revere the only God."
It seems that from this corruption of having personified aspects of God's character, they later came to view these minor gods as having been created by the one God, with the Atharva Veda proclaiming that "Great indeed are the devas who have sprung out of Brahman". And it is from this position as shown in the very ancient Vedas, that Hinduism eventually degenerated into full-blown polytheism, with an ever-expanding pantheon fuelled by the multitudes of Roman, Persian and Hellenic gods introduced by Aryan immigration."They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmān.
To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan".
China:
Some people might be surprised at this example, since China is generally regarded as having a more philosophical than a religious tradition. Still, as with the cases examined so far, a look at the earliest chapters of Chinese history tells a very different story. The ancient Chinese worshipped a supreme sky deity called Shangdi or Shang Ti, to whom yearly sacrifices were made, and who was regarded as transcending all creation, and being too distant for humans to worship. In the Oracle Bone Script, which contains the earliest known form of Chinese, Shang Ti alone is mentioned as a God, and details a communication between the King and Shang Ti which is conducted through a priest. This indicates that the idea of the Celestial Bureaucracy developed later, and with it the idea that Shang Ti was too distant to be reached, and required minor gods as intermediaries. It is also worth noting that the symbol of God in these ancient scripts is free from the corruption of anthromorphism, which later developed with the concept of Tian. Thus, from having worshipped one true God, the Chinese came to be alienated from him as they corrupted him with mortal forms, to the point where he became so distant to them they created a pantheon to act as intermediaries. Nonetheless, the monotheistic tradition continued in China, with the prominent philosopher Mozi stating belief in an all-powerful creator and sustainer God:
Although China is better known today by its Confucian and Daoist traditions, these were in fact innovations that replaced an older, monotheistic system of worship, as Mozi's ideology of Mohism was in fact only superceded by these during the Han Dynasty, as noted in the introductory paragraph. Thus, as with Sumeria, Egypt and India, China only came to lose its monotheistic traditions to polytheism and philosophy by a process of degeneration."Moreover, I know Heaven loves men dearly not without reason. Heaven ordered the sun, the moon, and the stars to enlighten and guide them. Heaven ordained the four seasons, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer, to regulate them. Heaven sent down snow, frost, rain, and dew to grow the five grains and flax and silk that so the people could use and enjoy them. Heaven established the hills and rivers, ravines and valleys, and arranged many things to minister to man's good or bring him evil. He appointed the dukes and lords to reward the virtuous and punish the wicked, and to gather metal and wood, birds and beasts, and to engage in cultivating the five grains and flax and silk to provide for the people's food and clothing. This has been so from antiquity to the present." (tr. Mei 1929:145)
Tengrism:
This religion of the Eurasian nomads again shows a decline from original monotheistic principles into polytheism and ancestor worship. Interestingly, the original God Tengri was regarded as a sky father, just as with Sumerian 'An' or Chinese 'Shang Ti'. As is noted in the wikipedia article, despite being originally monotheistic, an 'Earth Mother' was introduced as a contemporary to the Sky Father as part of a duality, from which a pantheon was gradually formed. The same passage also notes that in the Sino-Tibetan and Turco-Mongol traditions, the concept of the Sky Father as an omnipotent God has been eroded by ancestor worship, with increasing powers given to the latter at the expense of the former. Indeed, despite having become a largely polytheistic religion in practice (though the Sky Father's superiority is still maintained), the history of Tengrism shows that it was only monotheistic in nature. Thus, Möngke Khan of the Mongolian Empire stated that “We believe that there is only one God, by whom we live and by whom we die, and for whom we have an upright heart". The fact that such monotheism was embraced by the Eurasian nomads shows that monotheism was not merely a philosophical advance of advanced socities, as some postulate.
Modern Primitive Peoples:
Contrary to the evolutionary origins of religion, a wealth of evidence indicates that many of the most primitive peoples hold to native, monotheistic beliefs, and this challenges the notion that we developed from animism, to polytheism, and eventually monotheism as society and philosophy developed. Indeed, some of the purest monotheistic beliefs can be observed amongst the most primitive peoples. The Cherokee worship an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent 'Great Spirit' who is said to be the "maker of all things". Interestingly, as with the Sumerians, Chinese and Eurasian nomads, the Zulus worship a supreme sky father called 'Umvelinqangi', meaning 'he who was in the very beginning'. The Malagasy believe in an uncreated creator called Zanahary, with their only other worship being diverted to their ancestor's spirits. The Himba of Namibia believe in a single, omnipotent God called Mukuru, again with their ancestors working as intermediaries. Likewise, the Igbo of Nigeria worship Chukwu, an "infinitely powerful, undefinable, supreme deity". So it is clear from these examples across the globe, that monotheism (even if the occasional superstitious trapping) is common even amongst primitive peoples.
**************************************** To sum up ****************************************
Rather than emerging only as a development from more original forms of animism and polytheism, monotheism is clearly the natural religion to mankind, being the original form observed by all those ancient peoples of whom we have record; and lost through a complex mixture of social, demographic, and philosophical trends, working in tandem with fallen nature, whereby mankind corrupts that which is good and pure, according to what the scripture says in Romans 1.
Far from monotheism emerging from polytheism, the reverse is evidently true, and happened by a number of observed trends. As have been noted, these include the incorporation of singular local gods into a national, polytheistic pantheon as in ancient Egypt, or of the gods of conquered peoples as in Sumeria. Another example would be the building of pantheons through trade or immigration with foreigners and their gods, as India. Also, you have the elevation of ancestors or kings to gods, the most extreme example of this being the Egyptian Pharaohs. Then you have the anthropomorphisation of gods, resulting in attributing to them families of wives and children from which pantheons are born, as in Sumeria and Tengrism. Or the creation of a pantheon to fill a gap felt through man's alienation from a distant God, as with ancient China. On top of this, gods have been imagined as personifications of particular aspects of a single God as with Brahman in Hinduism, eventually becoming regarded as gods in and of themselves.
So, in conclusion, humankind was originally monotheistic, and polytheism and all forms of idolatry only emerged through a degeneration of this original state.
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Originally Posted by Aeneas Veneratio
