|
Register | Sign In |
|
QuickSearch
Thread ▼ Details |
Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
|
Thread Info
|
|
|
Author | Topic: Is Christianity Polytheistic? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Straggler Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
Biblical Christianity is monotheistic. Right? One single god?
I say not. For example in what sense is Satan less of a god than Apollo or Thor? In what sense is archangel Gabriel any less of a god than Mercury or Dionysius? The bible contains a whole host of angels, demons and supernatural characters that are gods in all but name and which in other mythologies would be given that title. I know many Biblical Christians will insist that theirs is a monotheistic religion. I know they will insist that theirs is superior in some sense to those more "primitive" polytheistic religions that went before because of this. But they are just being inconsistent in their use of the term "god". To accept Apollo as an example of a god concept in a polytheistic belief system but to deny that the concept of Satan in biblical Christianity is anything other than the same is just equivocation. Isn't it? Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AdminPD Inactive Administrator
|
Thread copied here from the Is Christianity Polytheistic? thread in the Proposed New Topics forum.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dr Jack Member Posts: 3514 From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch Joined: Member Rating: 8.3 |
Christianity is quite clearly polytheistic: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all separate entities, with separate powers and personalities. Going "but, but, they're a trinity" doesn't cut it.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Straggler Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
Christianity is quite clearly polytheistic: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all separate entities, with separate powers and personalities. Going "but, but, they're a trinity" doesn't cut it. OK. Throw in Lucifer/Satan, various angels, demons and even things like the Virgin Mary making the occasional appearance and I think the case for polytheism is definitely there. Denial of this seems to me to be nothing more than equivocation and the application of the no true Scotsman fallacy.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taz Member (Idle past 3320 days) Posts: 5069 From: Zerus Joined: |
Personally, I think that if the gods are real they would be known universally by many names. For instance, just about every culture has a deity that loved mankind so much that he sacrificed himself for the salvation of mankind. To the Greek, Prometheus gave man fire, the spark of all technology and knowledge. To the Egyptian, Osirus slayed the serpent and taught man how to farm. To the Asians, Buddha sliced off his flesh to save mankind and taught them now to achieve enlightenment. To the Narn, G'quan united his people and fought off the dark forces that were occupying their homeworld. And to the Minbari, Valen led the Minbari to victory over the Shadow forces. To the gentiles, Jesus gave them homosexuality by teaching them how to fish for men.
And then there are all these divine figureheads who kept trying force the people to believe that they were the one true god. There are just too many coincidences to ignore. So, surely the gods must be real, and man has known them throughout the ages by many different names. Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coragyps Member (Idle past 763 days) Posts: 5553 From: Snyder, Texas, USA Joined: |
Christianity is very obviously, except to many of its followers, polytheistic. Moslems even object to christianity largely because of that.
Many Christians I've argued this with say, "well, Satan ans archangels and angels ane seraphim and cherubim and demons are all created beings, so they can't be gods, so there!!" That's a pretty thin argument, it seems, and these same folks will also tell you the Son and Holy Ghost have always been around - "uncreate," as one of those Creeds says.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
slevesque Member (Idle past 4669 days) Posts: 1456 Joined: |
You take the, for example, Greek concept of what constitutes a God, and apply it to Satan in the christian worldview to declare that he should be considered a God as well.
But I could just as well apply the christian concept of what constitutes a God, and then apply it to greek mythology, and declare that (since none pass the 'test) that it is therefore a non-theistic (atheist?) belief. I think if you think about it, you will realize that you are in fact equivocating the word 'god', and this is why your conclusion is false. AbE To explain clearly the equivocation, you are equivocating the greek 'pagan' definition of God with the christian definition of God, in order to claim christianity should view satan is a god Edited by slevesque, : No reason given.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
dwise1 Member Posts: 5952 Joined: Member Rating: 5.2 |
Far enough back in its Judaic roots, it would be henotheistic: many gods exist, but our allegiance is to only one. I don't know whether modern Judaism or even Judaism just before the Diaspora (c. 70 CE) is/was still henotheistic, but it certain comes out in the Old Testament.
I would agree that in most theologies that host of supernatural entities would indeed be considered as gods.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pauline Member (Idle past 3764 days) Posts: 283 Joined: |
Straggler writes: Biblical Christianity is monotheistic. Right? One single god? I say not. For example in what sense is Satan less of a god than Apollo or Thor? In what sense is archangel Gabriel any less of a god than Mercury or Dionysius? The bible contains a whole host of angels, demons and supernatural characters that are gods in all but name and which in other mythologies would be given that title. The argument is flawed because you're applying one religion's standard of God to another religion's. Let me illustrate. I, as a Christian, could argue that the majority of greek deities do not qualify for God because by my defintion God does not marry or procreate...I could go on. Someone who believes in the 12 Olympian Gods would write my argument off because he disagrees with me on the definition of God.
The bible contains a whole host of angels, demons and supernatural characters that are gods in all but name and which in other mythologies would be given that title. Greek style gods, maybe. But that hardly is an argument for their deity as the Bible defines deity.
To accept Apollo as an example of a god concept in a polytheistic belief system but to deny that the concept of Satan in biblical Christianity is anything other than the same is just equivocation. Isn't it? Christianity does not define God with the same qualifiers as other religions do. The qualifier that is my case in point is, Holy. Holy meaning, of a single, unreproducible, unique essence. God is one category whose entirety is occupied by YHWH alone. Does God create superhuman beings like satan? Sure. Do they qualify for God? No. There lacks the perfection that we expect of God as the Bible defines Him, in satan or Michael or Gabriel or Paul or Barnabas or anyone.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Straggler Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
The argument is flawed because you're applying one religion's standard of God to another religion's. Christianity does not define God with the same qualifiers as other religions do. So actually there was no religion or even concept of god until Chrsitianity? Humanity was devoid of theism of any sort until Chrsitianity emerged? According to you religion, god and theism didn't even exist until Christianity emerged. Is that your position?
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taz Member (Idle past 3320 days) Posts: 5069 From: Zerus Joined: |
Dr.Sing writes:
So, the christian god is impotent?
I, as a Christian, could argue that the majority of greek deities do not qualify for God because by my defintion God does not marry or procreate...
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Straggler Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
But I could just as well apply the christian concept of what constitutes a God, and then apply it to greek mythology, and declare that (since none pass the 'test) that it is therefore a non-theistic (atheist?) belief. This means that there were no gods, religions or forms of theism (poly or otherwise) prior to Christianity doesn't it? Is that really what you mean?
I think if you think about it, you will realize that you are in fact equivocating the word 'god', and this is why your conclusion is false. If you think about it you will realise that you are committing the no true Scotsman fallacy. No?
AbE To explain clearly the equivocation, you are equivocating the greek 'pagan' definition of God with the christian definition of God, in order to claim christianity should view satan is a god So what is this definition of god that I should be using and how does it do anything but limit theism in it's entirety to Judeo-Christian concepts of god. Thus meaning theism of any sort didn't exist until Chrsitianity and terms like polytheism to be utterly meaningless by very definition.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Larni Member Posts: 4000 From: Liverpool Joined: |
What you seem to be saying is that Yahweh is a 'bigger' god than Apollo and this means that 'smaller' gods are not actually god.
I can't see how you can claim that Apollo is not a god because he is not as 'big' as Yahweh.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pauline Member (Idle past 3764 days) Posts: 283 Joined: |
No. Which definition of God came first or which is more intrinsically superior is not the question. Whether we can apply one religion's definitions to another successfully is the question, yes?
And Larni....
What you seem to be saying is that Yahweh is a 'bigger' god than Apollo and this means that 'smaller' gods are not actually god. I can't see how you can claim that Apollo is not a god because he is not as 'big' as Yahweh. You can't see because I never claimed anything about big or small Gods. What I was trying to put across was, in Christianity, the totality of everything perfect is termed as God and the commonly held belief is that only one Being is written about who claims to have all said perfect qualities. God is not an adjective with degrees of comparison, good-better-best, powerful-more powerful-most powerful etc, in Christianity that is. What we think incomporable to anything known or unknown, that we call God....not just about any supernatural creature Edited by Dr. Sing, : No reason given. Edited by Dr. Sing, : No reason given.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Straggler Member (Idle past 94 days) Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
Are Hindus atheists?
|
|
|
Do Nothing Button
Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved
Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024