Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cmu-cs-k.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!rochester!cmu-cs-pt!cmu-cs-k!tim From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: A Call to Religious Unity - The Baha'i Faith Message-ID: <20980015@cmu-cs-k.ARPA> Date: Thu, 6-Dec-84 03:52:50 EST Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.20980015 Posted: Thu Dec 6 03:52:50 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 9-Dec-84 03:35:08 EST References: <248@mhuxh.UUCP> <20980004@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>, <1417@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 32 > >Fine, I'm glad you want religious unity. You can start by throwing off the > >explicitly monotheistic paradigm. It is a very strong barrier to any sort > >of authentic eclecticism. > > How do you propose to fit explicitly monotheistic religions into a > polytheistic framework? In comparison, it's simple to resolve polytheisms > into a single deity through a number of different methods (e.g. the way > Christianity deals with the Trinity). > > Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe Monotheistic religions tend to be more superstitious than polytheistic, in that they tend to consider their absurd models as literal fact, whereas polytheistic religions often have a far more symbolic approach to their absurd models. It is perfectly easy to reconcile the two in a variety of ways: (1) Monotheism is a variant of polytheism in which the ruler god (Zeus, etc.) has come to dominate the religion and drive out other symbols. (2) Polytheism is a variant of monotheism in which the various aspects of divinity are given independent existence. (3) "God" is a symbol of the underlying unity and motive force of the universe, whereas polytheistic deities are symbols for other parts of experience. Others may be devised at will, including the Baha'i: but to insist that a religion must serve a monotheistic, polytheistic, or atheistic underlying model (as the Baha'is do) is not real eclecticism. -=- Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim CompuServe: 74176,1360 audio: shout "Hey, Tim!" "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." Liber AL, II:9.