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Does polytheism have any advantages over monotheism?
- Thread starter Polarbear
- Start date
Both. Every aspect of reality has a personification, according to Hindu literal interpretation.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
It provides more profound excuses.
MD
qualiaphile
Let people believe what they want. You're as bad as the fundamentalists.
MD
qualiaphile
Interesting. I've been to dozens of hindu temples throughout my life, but I never really found it interesting. Only recently did I realize that there was something a lot more profound to Hinduism.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
Actually I believe that polytheistic concepts provided more metaphysical concepts of human behavior that monotheism reduces to either a good/evil dichotomy or a concept of that all is good is God and all that is evil is not God simplicity.
Within polytheistic religions the people anthropomorphized concepts they found among human behavior prior to a theological reductionism found within monotheism.
Ergo, people found more excuses of human frailties and superlatives than they did among a stricter and simplistic monotheistic concept.
MD
qualiaphile
Well if you put it that way, it's not so bad...cat man.
gnomon
Well-Known Member
I think what is found at temples is interesting when you already have the back knowledge. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
I think that Hinduism is very complicated but for people who enjoy the challenge, it is very fascinating. Of course I'm biased
MD
qualiaphile
I think what is found at temples is interesting when you already have the back knowledge. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
I think that Hinduism is very complicated but for people who enjoy the challenge, it is very fascinating. Of course I'm biased
Yea trust me as someone who studies consciousness deeply (from a scientific perspective), it seems pretty evident that the eastern faiths have explored the topic extensively for millenia and might provide answers that science cannot as of yet.
When I was a kid I lived in India and the temples were bright and loud and crowded and noisy and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why people were worshipping idols. Now however I see them as personifications of cosmic forces and Hinduism might provide me with some answers into the nature of universal consciousness. Buddhism as well.
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
No. A Hindu priest is called a Brahmin. Just one letter difference but very important difference
Thanks for informing me
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
No. A Hindu priest is called a Brahmin. Just one letter difference but very important difference
Thanks Madhuri.
Is Brahma same as Brahman? Please
Brahman is God (or the impersonal aspect of God) and Brahma is a creator god who exists only in the material universe.
In Hinduism we must always distinguish between God and god as God refers to the One supreme Creator buts gods are created from Him.
So Brahma is a god, not God.
But Brahman is God, or an aspect of God, depending on which Hindu religion you ask.
jasonwill2
Well-Known Member
More gods means more options.
How so?
jasonwill2
Well-Known Member
More things to worship or emulate, more freedom to move between different gods and ideas and lifestyles to try out.
Hinduism has all of the above yet only one God. Since everything is an aspect of God, anything you worship is ultimately a worship to him. But Hinduism is unique that way, a marriage or monotheism and polytheism in a sense.
jasonwill2
Well-Known Member
I don't like monotheism, no epic war of the gods.
edit: wait... isn't that pantheism or soft polytheism?
I don't know. People put so many different labels on it.
Basically, there is One God.
This God is all that exists. From His/Her/Its body, everything in existence emanates.
All things represent some aspect of that one Being. Each 'god' is an aspect. Nothing is independent or separate.
And importantly, while all these things are expansions and manifestations of the One Gog, that God is never changed or divided.
Label it what you will.
iamfact
Eclectic Pantheist
Madhuri has done a marvelous job in explaining Hinduism from her tradition of practice, which is perhaps the most widely followed today, but there is another huge, ancient, and equally as influential interpretation that is missing.
In this interpretation, there is a pantheistic view taken where Brahman is the sole impersonal reality that is identical with all of existence i.e. the universe. Brahman is not really seen as a theistic God (any theistic Gods are seen as the product of illusion and ignorance on our part, but deities such as Krishna, Shakti or Shiva are often used to anthropomorphically represent Brahman as Ishta-Devata which translates to loved deity or chosen deity).
When we're under the influence of avidyā (ignorance) and māyā (illusion) we don't see the unity of existence and we mistakenly maintain the belief that the universe is distinct from Brahman (which it is not). The devas and devis (gods and goddesses) in this view are held as subjectively real in that they are anthropomohic representations of different aspects of the universe, which is ultimately Brahman.
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