So why is monotheism seemingly more popular than polytheism, why is that?
I think it's because of our "innate" instincts telling us "there must be only one source for everything".
- One mathematical equation to describe the Universe
- One fundamental force underlyinging reality as we know it
- One simple explanation for our existence
- One god
(I might contend the first 2 or 3 but not the last)
Our brains are lazy, this is a scientific fact, they chose to spend as little energy on thinking as possible because the brain is the most energy intensive organ of our body thus the simplest possible explanation of the most complex questions we have in life will more often be chosen than anything more convoluted than "there is one god and makes all the rules so don't question it" - this is an answer most people will be comfortable with as it gives them just enough of an answer to satiate their basic curiosity and at the same time absolves them from having to seek deeper reasons and spend more time and brain energy looking for more satisfactory answers.
But "there is one god and he makes all the rules" is just as meaningless as saying "the answer to life, universe and everything is 42"
So why not monotheism?
For anybody honestly believing (like me) in a Fractal-Multidimensional-Multiverse of infinite posibilities it's extreemely difficult nar impossible to believe in a "one god", there is just no way any "one" being could occupy an n-dimensional space-time-continuum and make everything and anything in it happen.. and at that being conciously involved it it's happenings.
If there was a dreaming-god who would unconciously "dream up" realities and universes at random and never care or even know of their existence I might buy that, but a god that conciously creates a Universe "programmes" it and watches over it micomanaging a single species on one single planet out of countless gazillions possibilities??? could not be a universal god but mearly a local demiurge.
So why polytheism?
Maybe just because my brain has the intellectual capacity for it..
..or maybe because it's a more holistic and complete view of the Universe that sorrounds us?
I think all polytheistic religions have a chief deity a chief god that is the prime mover for everything else and the other gods are mearly his subordinates that he/she outsources specific task fields to that they specialize in. You could almost say that the additional gods are aspects of the chief deity or for simplicity "his/her children". Now I am not saying they are just imaginary but consider that a god does not need to limit him/her self to a single "body" in 1 point of space-time, so the multitude of gods might simply be a multitude of incarnations of a "supreme" deitiy who might not even reveal him/her self at any point and why would he or even if he would, could he(?) without destroying the reality he/she possibly created.
So as you see, IMO mono- vs polytheism is almost a cosm/ic -etic choice, ultimately it's up to your brain to determine how involved it wants to be in asking the pertient questions and getting the best possible answers or if it's just going to accept whatever dogma it's born into and hope for the best driving blindly through existence.
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[–] varialus ago
In my opinion monotheism rings true to many because people have only one biological father. God the Father is meant to be the archetype of the perfect parental figure, which is often something that people yearn for. There may be other gods, but the father of my spirit is my Father. He always has my best interest at heart and He is jealous when I pray to other gods who might spitefully use and abuse me, but only because He wants what is best for me. The problem is that that people are sufficiently different, that what is perfect for some is not perfect for others. My Father doesn't genocide people anciently or modernly. The Father of the Jews does, but their father is not my Father. My Father would that all might have their own space that each might prosper or suffer according to their own works. My God and my brethren will conquer all; not through bloodshed and subterfuge, but through industry and integrity. You of my kind are my brethren and my God, our God, loves you regardless of whom you worship. He will manifest himself to you whose souls are His offspring, but He will not manifest Himself to those whose father of their spirits are gods of other natures. To them will their god be manifested, which to them is good and perfect, but which to you is foreign and ofttimes evil.