Neptune's Dolphins

In “Spirituality Without Structure,” Nimue Brown, Druid author, writes “Atheist humanism shows us that we do in our lives ought to make sense in compassionate, human terms, ideally. It’s like the only measuring tool we have and should replace any ideas about what Gods allegedly want us to do.”

 

John Michael Greer, occult writer, in “A World Full of Gods,” discusses why people think of religion in this manner. “To the classical monotheist (Note 1), divinity is infinite, humanity is finite, and the only possible relationship between them is the absolute submission of the worshipper to the god.”

 

Greer responds to that thinking by describing Polytheisms. “While the greatest of Pagan gods and goddesses are superlative in their might and majesty, they and their worshippers exist in the common world and share a common measure. What the gods ask of humanity, in turn, is not object submission but respect, love and cooperation.” He continues that the Polytheistic faiths “affirm that humans to flourish in relationship with the gods and in harmony with their purposes, and that this can and will be pursued in every aspect of human life, but they also recognize that human existence as such has it own value, its own place in the broader pattern of the cosmos.” (Note 2)

 

Like many others, Brown regard revealed religions as the standard for religion. Revealed religions have an historical founder and incorporate teachings revealed by that founder. Examples are Buddhism and Christianity. In discussing the differences between spirituality and religion, many Neo-Pagans default to Christianity as “religion.”

 

Meanwhile natural religions such as Shinto are more confusing to many people. These religions are often regarded as spiritual but not religious. However, natural religions are formed by the response to something beyond humans, usually Gods or other Sacred Beings. They are orthopraxic with proper practices, but do not have orthodox beliefs.

 

Polytheism is a natural religion. However, people who are “spiritual but not religious (SBNR)” (including Neo-Pagans) focus on the doctrine of the Gods as they perceive it. This causes problems since there is no doctrine concerning the Gods. What replaces doctrine are rules on how to relate to what is holy. This becomes confused in the thinking of SBNR people that Polytheism is the same as Christianity. Therefore, its practices seem to be doctrine to SBNR people.

 

To change this thinking, Polytheism must challenge the central claims of atheism and classical monotheism. The most natural way for humans to live is to experience multiple Gods, according to Edward Butler, Polytheistic philosopher. These experiences could be considered “spiritual and religious.” Then the practices of Polytheism becomes a way of experiencing these Gods.

 

To explain religion as a function of the human brain as Atheism does is reductionistic. It denies both the reality of the Gods and human experience. As someone with a brain injury, I question the theory of Gods as rooted in the human brain. Think of music. A person can measure the hearing of the notes, but they cannot explain why the personal response to Brahms differs from Mozart. As for me, I experience the Gods outside of myself.

 

Meanwhile, Monotheism has bankrupted religious thinking in the West. That is one reason why people are “spiritual, not religious.” They have despaired of the barren, polluted world of rationality where everything is explained as the Will of God. They want a religion that encompasses all of life. Polytheism offers that.

 

Notes:

 

Note 1. Defined by John Michael Greer in “A World Full of Gods.” Classical Monotheism is “The belief in one and only one god, who is the unique eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni benevolent creator of the universe.” Classical monotheism emphasizes that this god is the depenser of morality.

 

Note 2. Greer defines cosmos as “The vision of the universe as a beautifully ordered whole, in which anything that affects one part affects all parts, in which everything has a place and nothing every goes ‘away.’”

 

Further Reading:

 

Alain de Botton, “Religion for Atheists.”

Nimue Brown, “Spirituality Without Structure.”

Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods”

John Michael Greer, “A World Full of Gods.”

Dr. Linda Mercadante, “Belief Without Borders.”

Since most of us live in Monotheistic-dominant cultures, the concepts of Gods can be a thorny issue. The usual presentation in the culture about Polytheism is as follows: “Your Gods are merely stories and therefore your faith is based on lies.” The logic of Monotheism is that the Gods are imaginary beings. The proposition that there is only the One True God is asserted as the only truth concerning Deities. Moreover, this God is the all-powerful Creator, Who watches over all. Yahweh (Note 1) is greater than all the silly Gods of ancient myths.

 

What Ben Hunt of Epsilon Theory calls the “Narrative Machine” is at work. He defines this as “Where the translation of ‘reality’ takes place within a large Machine of strategic communication and game playing.” Since the Narrative Machine is an invisible network of social interaction, it shapes and controls how people think about things. Through contextual connections and networks, it creates a body of “Common Knowledge” (Note 2) for modern society to operate under.

 

Monotheism is the de facto standard for understanding religion. Within the Narrative Machine are many logical fallacies to direct people’s thinking about what is “proper religion.” “Missionary language” tells people to see the Gods as imaginary or as demons in disguise. “Interpretive language” turns a fact into an interpretation of what that fact means. (Interpretive language presents an opinion as a fact.) All Gods except for Yahweh are false Gods is an opinion presented as a fact. “Repetition” of one point of view convinces people that is the only truth. Since it has been repeated for so long, that there is only One God, people have no concept of Polytheism.

 

In his book examining the Gods of the Old Testament, “The Scars of Eden,” Paul Wallis (Note 3) describes how he thinks the central proponent of Monotheism came to be. Wallis tells how the Babylonian Captivity scarred the formerly Polytheistic Hebrews. “Many scholars believe that this edit was done during Israel’s painful subjection to Babylonia…Perhaps as a consequence of that unhappy context, there is in the retelling of the old, old stories a palpable undercurrent of rage.” He reflects that this rage is reflected in “Our God is real. Yours is a fake. (Emphasis his) We will be eternally vindicated. You will be eternally shamed.” Wallis explains that this “Us and Them” “narrative undergirds the whole editorial frame work for the Bible as we have it. And it shows.”

 

What Wallis refers to “card stacking.” The original propagandist selected his information to present a one-sided view. Since no one else knew what he was referring to, they could not challenge the propagandist. He had set up a situation that no one could refute.

 

Also, Wallis points to what is known as a “manufactured problem.” First, the propagandist created the dilemma of Yahweh destroying all Polytheists. Then he convinced the other Hebrews of the seriousness of the problem. Finally, he offered his solution: “Either believe only in Yahweh, or suffer the consequences.”

 

A “single all-powerful god in heaven implied the appropriateness of a single all-powerful king on earth” according to Jonathan Kirch. He notes in “God Against the Gods,” the history of Monotheism is tied with autocracy. Egypt, Israel, and Rome all adopted a form of Monotheism and ordered the population to believe only in that particular God. To ensure their power, these God-Emperors enforced Monotheism.

 

For example, King Josiah of Judah (648 to 610 BCE) enforced the singular worship of Yahweh and centered that worship to be only in Jerusalem. His high priest had discovered a “missing” Fifth Book of Moses, which was the Book of Deuteronomy. Known as “a pious fraud,” this book enforced the point of view of radical followers of Yahweh. This allowed Josiah to conduct a bloody purge of the Polytheistic Hebrews.

 

Since Monotheism has been enforced for centuries, Polytheism is little understood. It is often regarded as “proto-monotheism” or a stepping stone to Monotheism. By understanding the logic of Monotheism, Modern Polytheists can begin to purge their thinking of Monotheistic propaganda.

 

Notes:

 

Note 1. Although there are multiple Gods of Monotheism – Yahweh, Allah, God in Three Persons – I refer to Yahweh for all of Them. The Monotheistic Gods are male, with no Consort. (In Jewish tradition, Yahweh did have Shekinah, Goddess of Wisdom, as a Consort.)

 

Note 2. In Game Theory, “Common Knowledge” is the idea that something is not merely known by all the payers in a game, but is also known to be known, and that known is also to be known, and so forth in a chain of logic.

 

Note 3. Paul Wallis, former Archdeacon of the Anglican Church, believes that the “True God is the harmonious source of all things.” Christ came to earth with a “vision of love and justice.” Otherwise, he thinks that the God (Elohim) of the Old Testament is actually plural. Moreover, these Gods (Elohim) are aliens from outer space (that is UFO Gods).

 

Further Reading:

Edward Butler, “The Way of the Gods.”

John Michael Greer, “A World Full of Gods.”

Glenn Holland, “Gods in the Desert.”

Johnathan Kirch, “God Against the Gods.”

Lynn Prickett and Clive Prince, “When God Had a Wife.”