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Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. [1] [2] [3] According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese Folk Religions, is really so, or whether the apparent different objects of worship are to be thought of as manifestations of a singular divinity. [1]
Even for some religious people the two are different and separable; they may hold that religion should be moral and morality should be, but they agree that they may not be. [ 5 ] : 400 Richard Paula and Linda Elder of the Foundation for Critical Thinking assert that, "Most people confuse ethics with behaving in accordance with social ...
In most polytheistic religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles, and can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or emanations of a creator God or transcendental absolute principle (monistic theologies), which manifests immanently in nature. [49]
The Greek pantheon is a metaphor for a pragmatic view of life that values art, beauty, and the power of the individual, and that is somewhat skeptical about human nature. [2] In the modern vernacular, most historical polytheistic religions are referred to as "mythology". [3]
Early Hittite religion bore traits descended from Proto-Indo-European religion, but the later Hittite religions became more and more assimilated to Mesopotamian religion. Persian Zoroastrianism is a reformed form of the hypothesized ancient Iranian religion , which shares a common Proto-Aryan root with the Indian Vedic religion .
Marquard calls it the second end of polymythical thinking; the first was the end of religious polytheism. Although the Christian Trinity may be polytheistic, the salvation story is monotheistic and ends in nominalistic "storylessness". [20] The emancipation story, writes Marquard, emerged as a failed attempt to secularise the salvation story.
"Those trend lines are continuing and in such a way that it's a very good possibility in 30 or 40 years there will be more non-religious Americans than there will be Christians in the United ...
The best candidates for religious conversion are those who are members of or have been associated with religious groups (thereby showing an interest or openness to religion), yet exist on the fringe of these groups, without strong social ties to prevent them from joining a new group. Potential converts vary in their level of social connection.