Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, emerged from a polytheistic religious environment. As you see it, what are the ethical, ritual and theological implications of the shift from polytheism to monotheism?
1) When worshipping multiple different deities, confusion and contradiction is a near guaranteed outcome. If there is a god of love, there is a counterbalancing god of war. If there is a god of virginity, there is a god of fertility. If you live to please the god of love, you are inversely affecting your relationship with the god of war. The key to polytheistic religions becomes moderation in your actions. In monotheism, a cornucopia of complications has to be covered under one single authoritative deity, thus …show more content…
When you rid the term “Jewish” of its religious connotations and regard it purely as a race or ethnicity, then you are free to choose your religious beliefs as you are not previously assigned to any. It is possible to be an atheist Semite.
What are some religious explanations for the existence of evil in the world? What are some of the non-religious explanations? What do you find more satisfying, and why?
3) A common religious explanation of evil’s existence is rebellion against God. Rebellion instigates sinful behaviour which results in evil. Due to the belief in Adam and Eve’s original sin, many Christians believe that humans are naturally born in a sinful mind state and that there is a breach between God and his creations that needs to be bridged. Many religious people believe that god is testing us with temptation and evil.
However, once religion is stripped from the equation, we can step back and see that the logic may be flawed. If God is entirely good and pure, he would want nothing but good to come for his creations. Instead, what we see is that evil does in fact exist. So either the fault is in the theory that God is entirely good or there is fault in the fact that God exists at
1) When worshipping multiple different deities, confusion and contradiction is a near guaranteed outcome. If there is a god of love, there is a counterbalancing god of war. If there is a god of virginity, there is a god of fertility. If you live to please the god of love, you are inversely affecting your relationship with the god of war. The key to polytheistic religions becomes moderation in your actions. In monotheism, a cornucopia of complications has to be covered under one single authoritative deity, thus …show more content…
When you rid the term “Jewish” of its religious connotations and regard it purely as a race or ethnicity, then you are free to choose your religious beliefs as you are not previously assigned to any. It is possible to be an atheist Semite.
What are some religious explanations for the existence of evil in the world? What are some of the non-religious explanations? What do you find more satisfying, and why?
3) A common religious explanation of evil’s existence is rebellion against God. Rebellion instigates sinful behaviour which results in evil. Due to the belief in Adam and Eve’s original sin, many Christians believe that humans are naturally born in a sinful mind state and that there is a breach between God and his creations that needs to be bridged. Many religious people believe that god is testing us with temptation and evil.
However, once religion is stripped from the equation, we can step back and see that the logic may be flawed. If God is entirely good and pure, he would want nothing but good to come for his creations. Instead, what we see is that evil does in fact exist. So either the fault is in the theory that God is entirely good or there is fault in the fact that God exists at