Is Christianity Polytheistic?

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.

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.

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?

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? If you think about it you will realise that you are committing the no true Scotsman fallacy. No? 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.

Are Hindus atheists?

So then you accept the Hindu concept of god as meeting your requirement of that which you would call god?

They don't have to be the same to both qualify as god concepts do they.Given that you accept that the Hindu god Lakshmi qualifies as meeting your requirement to be called a "god" can you tell me in what way Satan does not also qualify as a god?What are the criteria for being accepted as worthy of the term "god"?

If what you say is true Christians would consider Muslims, Hindus et al to be atheists. As the Christians would consider all those others as not believing in god(s).No?

I didn't say it was. Of course they do. But if Hindus qualify as theists they must believe in gods. If Hindu gods qualify as gods then in what sense does satan not? Without some serious equivocation? If I define pencils as being "gods" and choose to worship pencils does that make me a theist?Is a theist just someone who defiines X as god and then worships it regardless of what X is where X can be anything at all?Or does X have criteria to qualify as "god" and if so what are these criteria?

No. It means atheists think people believe in lots of different gods. But what does this term "god" mean and why doesn't satan or the archangel Gabriel qualify? If I define pencils as gods and believe that pencils exist do I become a theist?What is it one has to believe in to be a theist?

When I asked Dr Sing (a Christian) if Hindus believed in gods (s) said yes.So if Dr Sing thinks Hindu gods qualify as gods in what sense does Satan not also qualify?

OK. So what is it that is common to all concepts that are labeled as "god" and how is Satan not included in that?If Christians want to restrict the term "god" to what they mean by their version of god alone then how can they also say that vast swathes of humanity throughout history have believed in gods?

But includes Satan. I suspect the Christian definition discludes Hindu gods. Which means Christians think that Hindus are not theists? So each religion can provide it's own definition of god and exclude all others? But simultaneously they can say that believers of other religions are theists?Explain to me how that works unless there are equivocating.

How many times have you seen believers here at EvC cite widespread belief in gods as some sort of evidence for the actual existence of gods?It seems to me that Christians want to be able to say that the majority of humanity believes in god whilst simultaneously defining god such that it excludes everyone but them.This is blatantly inconsistent.

Precisely.Yet I expect the Christians here will say that believing in pencils does not make me a theist because pencils aren't gods. Whilst simultaneously saying that Hindus are theists despite the fact that by any Christian definition the things Hindus believe in aren't gods either.It is this contradiction I am attempting to highlight and to see if anyone has any answers to.Simply saying "but all religions define god differently" (whilst true) isn't very illuminating as it fails to get round this contradiction.