Remember all those Bible readings we did on ancient Egypt, Babylon, all the stories about how YHWH was a jelous God and all the other gods were false? Jehovah demands exclusive devotion. Well since Ive been occasionally reading Without JW glasses anymore I read the Bible as a story a mythical book, and it makes SO much more sense. Have you ever noticed how the Hebrew Scrptures mention false gods all the time ...yet rarely seems to call them "fake". Why is that?
We have the "gods of the nations", gods of Laban,Gods of Egypt,gods of the Amorites,gods of the Canaanites,, high places and altars of the different Baals, Gods of the Philis, DAGON; BAALZEBUB, gods of Damascus,gods in Syria,Solomon's many wives worshipped their own gods,CHEMOSH; MOLECH,Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech, gods of Seir, Hamoth, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivvah,gods conquered by Sennacherib's fathers, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, Eden or Telassar,Gods of Moab,Gods of Babylon,Nineveh's gods , ect ect...
SO after you read the Bible in this fashion, the question begs answering...IS CHRISTIANITY AN "EVOLVED FORM OF POLYTHEISM ?"(worship of many gods)
YHWH never said there werent other gods..he said "thou shalt have no other gods before me" but SO many gods are mentioned by NAME that it very "story" like.
Over at rationalresponders.com ..an intresting comment was made i will post here:
It is correct that in the Old Testament that there is no monotheism - the concept was put to rest actually by the discover of Ugarit. Ugarit not only showed the archaeological community that the Hebrews during the persian period and before worshipped one God out of a Pantheon of them (called the Ugaritic Pantheon), but that Yahweh was the son of El'yon - Professor Mark Smith has written many books on Ugarit.
When the Hebrew scriptures were written (probably during the late Persian period - early Hellenistic age), the Hebrews were already immersed in cultures outside of their own in the Diaspora, and seems unlikely that they would have been solely monotheistic throughout the early stages of this period. Throughout their time in the Diaspora, it is certain that the fondness for this singular God, Yahweh, would have been a beakon, much like Zeus, the all powerful. But even during the Hellenistic and Roman periods the Jews did partake in worshipping other Gods and joining mystery religions - likes the Pythagoreans, the Orphics, the Dionysiacs, etc...
The concept of monotheism really didn't take until after Constantine abolished all other religions making Christianity the official Roman religion - this is simply because the previous religions were based on polytheism, where as Christianity in the 4th century was monotheistic - as in only one God (three parts) - and that is where our concept of mootheism comes from today.
any opinions?