A Problem with Monotheism, or just one branch of it?

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), May 16, 2015 at 14:40

Michael,

Thanks for your comments. I agree with you that 'Abraham', or whoever came up with this powerful story about the "one true God of all", opened the door to centuries of unending sectarian rivalries and wars. One has to wonder if a wise God (and I admit my own complete absence of belief) would ever have proclaimed this idea to mankind since, if truly wise, he would understand what the nature and psychology of his creation would predictably do with the idea of 'one true God'?

Because of centuries of earlier conflicts which ended over 400 years ago, the West has conquered the urge to mass murder those who do not share either the belief in one God or the meaning of His message. It certainly appears that we have mastered the dreadful problem of lethal sectarian rivalries, probably permanently. But it flares brighter than ever in the Muslim world, endangering hundreds of millions of human beings, most of them Muslims. (Perhaps I'm being too quick and kind to the West here. Certainly the insane Nazi killings of millions, espcecially Jews, involved religion as well as 'race')

Your message gets more obscure when you say, "if he is truly God, then these (sectarian) issues are important." I must dissent. if anyone is willing and eager to kill purely on grounds of a difference of belief in the existence or nature of God, that proves for me that anything about that particular belief is wrong, and therefore that the belief itself is unworthy of respect.

Although it might cause discomfort to all those who peacefully and non-lethally share a belief in the 'one true God of all', I would like to see some group of reasonably dispassionate scholars and independent researchers answer the following question: Has the three-thousand-year belief, in many forms, of 'one true God', been on balance a Net Plus or a Net Minus in human affairs?

Many factors would have to be considered, certainly including estimates of the number, in the scores or hundreds of millions, of those killed in the name of any of the Monotheisms. I confess that I have no clear sense of what the answer to that question might be. But if the impulse to kill all unbelievers continues to grow and be proclaimed worldwide throughout the social media by devout Muslims, and to be practiced as we see in the news every day, I think I see a trend in what the answer might become.

Indeed, your other wise comment might become prophetic: "Pagans and Atheists do not fight over these things because they do not believe in the uniqueness of God". And who knows, perhaps God himself, if he exists, would agree that this observation points to the wisest message for a humanity who can collectively agree on so little.

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