Thor was a God

I will quote a user who might or might not still be here who shares my frustration:

"It is incredibly difficult to discuss non-monotheistic theology with folks who believe axiomatically that polytheistic gods are simply a multitude of mini Yahwehs, or beings made up to explain things that we now know the scientific explanation of.

It is also nearly impossible to discuss theological models that are based on animism rather than materialism + souls for humans.

The reality of the situation in the western world is that on a cultural level Abrahamic theological models are axiomatic even for atheists. There simply is no other theistic model in the minds of most westerners. Religion is seen largely as a question of wether you believe in Yahweh or not. This leaves way too much work for us to even start the discussion.

If I ask you to throw everything about the way you look at the religion out the window so we can start from the ground up do you really think you can just do that? I guarantee that a few sentences in to any basic exploration of non-monotheistic theology, and you will get lost simply because you won't be able to help but wonder things like " if that's the case what about the afterlife?", "does that mean trees go to heaven?", "couldn't gods be just really powerful aliens then?", "but if the gods aren't all powerful why worship them?", and so on.

We are talking about a completely different paradigm. When I am discussing gods with modern monotheists, or atheists we might as well be speaking entirely different languages. You won't see us explain our theology because we would have to write a book just to get most folks to understand where we are starting from. It is not a lack of ability, or a lack of knowledge, but a lack of most folks to put aside the dichotomy of monotheism, and monotheism light (atheism) in order to hear what we are saying."

/r/DebateReligion Thread Parent