DAY 293
CHALLENGE
“If monotheism is true, why have most people historically been polytheists?”
DEFENSE
Several factors play a role in this.
First, the relationship between monotheism and polytheism is more complex than often assumed. As we cover elsewhere (see Day 153), many classical polytheists acknowledged the existence of an ultimate Creator, who was not typically worshipped. Instead, they worshipped lesser supernatural beings (Zeus, Apollos, Hera, and so on.).
The Judeo-Christian view agrees there is a single Creator and a multiplicity of lesser beings (angels). It disagrees where worship should be directed. While angels may be given respect corresponding to their nature as finite creatures (just as we show respect to fellow human beings; Rom. 13:7), the recipient of ultimate worship must be the Creator, not a creature. Consequently, it is harder to set monotheism and polytheism in opposition if polytheists frequently agree with the Judeo-Christian view about what types of supernatural beings exist.
Second, we don’t have a good estimate of the number of people in history who would count as “pure polytheists” (i.e., people believing in multiple gods and denying the existence of a single, ultimate Creator). Indeed, many people lived before recorded history and, although we can tell by their artifacts and by studies of primitive societies that they may well have been polytheistic in worship, we don’t know what they believed about an ultimate Creator.
Third, the tendency to worship created beings rather than the Creator is a product of human sin (cf. Rom. 1:19–25). If there is an infinite, ultimate Creator, then it stands to reason that he should be given respect corresponding to this (i.e., the ultimate form of worship). Re- spect shown to finite, created beings should not be of the same sort.
Fourth, from a Christian point of view, God has placed the religious instinct in the human heart. He has written his law on the hearts of men (cf. Rom. 2:15), but knowledge of this law has been disfigured by sin. This is why men deprived of knowledge of the true God will manufacture gods of their own, seeking to give expression to their natural religious instinct.
Ultimately, if most people in history have been polytheistic in worship, it is because of the universality of sin—a fact that our consciences testify to, for we each find sin in our own hearts.