Why do some people believe polytheism is more primitive than monotheism?

Question

I consider polytheism to be more complex and therefore more advanced.

Answer 1

what proofs indicate the presence of many Gods?  

Answer 2

I don't know either. Maybe it was what was taught most in school.  

Answer 3

they're all primitive in my opinion

Answer 4

because they liken it to paganism, which predates all organised religions where people worshipped hundred's of various idols

(many of them simple statues and figurines they crafted and suddenly proclaimed gods, hence the primitive nature of it)

Answer 5

Probably because anthropological evidence suggests that polytheism existed before monotheism.

Answer 6

depends on how you were brought up iguess.

im monotheistic.

your religion.

you believe in what you believe in.

Answer 7

I have no idea.

If one god, why not two?  If two, why not many...

Answer 8

And they do not take their "logic" to its conclusion:

Many gods --> One god --> No gods!!

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Answer 9

Yes, but perhaps polytheistic religions predate monotheistic ones. Hence, the primitive thing.

Answer 10

Polytheism explains scientific things more abstractly due to the lack of technology and modern intellect common in the ancient times. Like the Greeks and Romans who believed in hundreds of divinities, there was little explanation for them on the unknown

Answer 11

Believing in one god or lots of gods is all the same. A load of old gobbledegook. However many you believe in, you are demonstrating a lack of intelligent thought.

Your question is a bit like saying "who is nicest, Santa or the Tooth Fairy?"

Answer 12

It is most likely because polytheism came about in society before monotheism did and people are correlating the earlier appearance with being more primitive.

It seems that the reduction in the number of gods being worshiped is an indication of the advancement of the civilization. Following that, society will be the most advanced and educated when they finally worship no gods.

Answer 13

Complexity is not always an advancement. Simplicity can also be advancement. Is not Windows simplification of the DOS program that preceded it. You no longer have to write run codes. The code is written with a click. Is this not advancement. Advancement usually has to do with time on earth. The later the year the more advancement. Mono- came after poly was already here.

Answer 14

This  has been a long and drawn-out controversy in the study of religions: was it one to many or from many to one.  I don't know what you mean by polytheism being more complex, is it because it involves the belief in many gods? A further investigation, however,into how polytheists worshiped their gods will show that most pagan societies worshiped only one god at a time. The ancient Mesopotamians for example has their own city-gods, which they worshiped exclusively in the belief that this god is more powerful than those worshiped in other cities.  It is usually as a result of war that multiple deities get worshiped together.  Thus, if city A worshiped Wind and city B worshiped Fire, and city A conquers city B, their fire god is taken as part of the loot to city A and placed alongside the wind god as among the conquered.T hus, in a warlike society like ancient Rome, temples  tended  to becoming overcrowded, with smaller shrines. As Romes conquered more of the world, its pantheons truly expanded with more and more conquered gods.  In primitive societies, there is always, in the face of their many gods a tacit recognition of the existence of a higher more primordial god, like Zeus of the ancient Greeks.  This has lead sholars to conclude   that monotheism may have started as the first religion of mankind.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  e                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Answer 15

I agree with you about the more complicated nature of polytheism. Isn't it ironic that with the invention of the conundrum called the "Holy Trinity," Christianity complicated their monotheistic religion by the establishment of very real polytheistic underpinnings? Of course Christians will vehemently protest such a blasphemous remark, but hey, "facts is facts."