An Introduction to Single God Religions (Monotheism)

Different religions have different numbers and types of gods.

• No Gods: Buddhism, Taoism and Humanism. These are atheist religions.

• Many Gods: Hinduism, Roman Religions, Wicca, most types of Paganism and old Semite religions. These are polytheist religions.

• One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. These are monotheistic religions.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam are called "Abrahamic" religions because they share the same set of Hebrew stories featuring Abraham.

Most monotheistic religions have a god that has certain common characteristics, and it is this type of religion and this type of god that this website is largely about. The typical monotheistic god is:

• Omnipotent - infinitely powerful.
• Omniscient - all-knowing.
• The supreme creator and first cause.
• Benevolent - purely good-natured.
• Personal - it cares about, and communicates with, individual people.

More about the assumed character-traits of the monotheistic god: "The Assumptions about God and Creation, of Both Theists and Atheists" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)

Monotheism is Ancient

Monotheism is an ancient idea, and it appears in various religions and cultures for thousands of years before the apperance of modern-day monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“Five hundred years before Christ, Xenophanes had already written: 'There is one God, always still and at rest, who moves all things with the thoughts of his mind.' The legendary Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus is credited with teaching: 'Do you think there are many Gods? That's absurd - God is one.' [...] The Pagan sage Maximus of Tyre declared: 'The one doctrine upon which all the world is united is that one God is king of all and father.'”

"Jesus Mysteries" by Freke & Gandy [Book Review] (1999)₁

Pythagorus, the famous mathematician and leader of a pagan religion, preached single-god pantheism as part of a mystery religion. Jewish monotheism arose. Christianity started out diverse, with a various number of Gods, but from the 4th century the idea of the Trinity was made prominent. The confusion and battles between polytheistic Christians and Trinitarian ones led to an opening into which a new religion quickly spread. This new religion was clear, unambiguous and stern about how many Gods there were: exactly one. Islam converted nearly half the Roman Empire, and the Qu'ran specifically condemns the Trinity as non-monotheistic.

What is a religion?

“It is frequently difficult to say if a religion is the beliefs of most of its followers or if a religion is what is preached by its scholars. Frequently the formal doctrine of a religion contradicts what the popular beliefs are of most of its adherents. The mean grassroots of a religion is nearly always watered-down, mixed-up, confused and ignorant. It is often pick-and-mixed from multiple sources, cultural traditions and folklore all blended haphazardly with the scholarly portion of the religion. Formal and developed scholarly religion, such as Christian philosophy or Muslim Sufi philosophy, is often complex, more complete, demanding to study and frequently convoluted as the religions' scholars debate its weakspots and difficult spots. The more difficult the area of study of a religion, the more maze-making its scholars will do in attempts to explain away irrationality. The more complex and difficult the intellectual aspect of a religion, the more the lowly masses will fail to comprehend or implement it.

You will need to engage the grassroots religion or the scholarly religion in different circumstances. Frequently you will need to address the cultural beliefs to the religions' followers, who are less intelligent, and address more scholarly and political concerns to the religions' leaders. A "religion" is a contradictory mix of both what the leaders say the religion is, plus what the mass of the actual followers believe.”

"Cultural Religion Versus Scholarly Religion" by Vexen Crabtree (2008)