The Abrahamic religions call themselves by various names but I will, for the sake of simplicity, sometimes borrow the nomenclature of of Islam and refer to them as "the people of the book". Judaism's faith seeks the coming of the Messiah. Christianity asserts that the person known as Jesus (or Joshua bar Joseph) as the Messiah and the son of God. Islam holds that Jesus is a revered prophet, but lesser in stature to Mohammad.
As I understand it, and as always I claim no special knowledge or training in theology or history, this monotheistic faith is somewhat unique to the historical region from where it arose. When you look at the other major civilizations in the region; the Romans, the Greeks, and the Egyptians ... these were all polytheistic societies. To steal a humourous line, they had "... gods by the bushel, gods by the pound, gods for every occasion". These various pantheons all seemed to have their equivalencies. For example the Greeks had Zeus, the Romans had Jove, the Egyptians had Horus ... even the Norse had Odin and the Hindi had Vishnu. All these beliefs had these specialized Gods that had dominion over specific aspects of life & death, harvest and the seasons, and various other aspects of mortal endeavours. The thing is that all these gods were not worshiped equally. Zeus/Jove was considered the father of their pantheon of gods, but depending on the vocation and social station, people would choose among those pantheons to worship the gods they felt would give them the greatest advantage in their everyday lives. The other thing I found interesting is that in each of the aforementioned cultures they may not have worshiped the other deities, and they may not have even acknowleged those other gods as being even remotely equal to their own, there was little or no animosity directed against those who worshiped these "foreign" gods.
Now, what gets me is that these ancient civilizations were more metropolitan and sophisticated than our current culture seems to be in regards to religious faith and practice. It seems to be that depending on the tenets you choose to follow and the level of investiture you have in the practice of that faith, believers in the Abrahamic faiths run the gamut from believing that those who do not share and practice their faith will suffer from as little as exclusion from Heaven to the threat of eternal damnation.
The other thing I find interesting is that, with the limited exception of Judaism, these monotheistic faiths place a heavy emphasis on proselytization, or conversion to their system of belief. Again, as with all things, it is the intensity of the belief and/or adherence of the individual to that faith that dictates the language they will use with those outside of that faith. Various statements used to describe unbelievers have included things as innocuous as "not knowing the true majesty of god's creation" to either deserving of death or extreme punishment for their unbelief. I have also notice that all these faiths firmly believe that they, and they alone will have dominion over the world once they have fulfilled the requirements of their god.
In my opinion (and yes, I am aware that opinions are like ... well, you know) once you strip away the history, philosophy, social and class elements you are left with this bare nugget of truth: My God is bigger than your God. The question I ponder in this is how can this vast, unknowable entity be capable of creating the infinite diversity of our limited understanding of the universe, and still be such a petty, controlling and insecure individual?
No comments:
Post a Comment