Why did monotheism, the most boring of all paradigms of divinity, have to become dominant? Pagan stories and myths are still appealing to us today, whereas the tales of some hairy-assed hebrew getting chastised by a voice from the sky bore us to tears. Even the Christians brought back the equivalent of local gods in the form of saints, starved as they were the spice of life in their conception of the divine. Why the hell did anyone make the switch in the first place?
Just worship money and power 2bh, more practical, fun, and everyone will admire and respect you.
>>1409601
Monotheism is better at creating a unified, coherent community, and thus at dehumanizing disgusting nonbelievers allowing them to be slaughtered and dominated. Polytheism tends to be more tolerant, and thus does not provide the same urge to conquest
>>1409603
Chaim is that you?
Paganism is culturally satisfying, monotheism is philosophically satisfying. Catholicism was a perfect blend of both until people started taking it too seriously.
>>1409609
But the Romans had one of the largest, longest-lived empires ever. The Christians could barely keep together kingdoms larger than France without falling apart.
What I thought exactly in religion classes as a child/teenager. As I've grown older I have learned that it is one of the basic principles of the universe that boring things prevail and the most boring answer is almost always the correct one. Not that boring monotheistic religions are true, however atheism without afterlife is true and that is arguably even more boring.
>>1409601
Because non-monotheistic deities are usually just people with freaky powers and the monotheistic gods are benevolent and transcendentally superior than man. That's a deity you fall to your knees in awe towards, not some immortal wizard.
>>1409601
Easier to remember and can explain away everything you don't know easily.
>>1409620
Their Roman-ness was their ingroup
Charles V ruled over most of Europe and America, a territory much larger than the Roman Ampire at its height
>>1409636
>YHWH
>benevolent
>transcendent
YWWH always seemed vaguely autistic desu
>>1409620
Might have had more to do with their writing system than religion
>>1409662
Hey, Christianity says God loves you unconditionally and grants your prayers because you're his child. That's a better sell than anything the pagan gods can bring to the table. Christianity, Sikhism, Islam, these deities are just grander..
>>1409688
>Christianity
>monotheistic
>>1409688
Vishnu and Shiva blow them all out of water on their own.
>>1409601
power
Because monotheism is more transparent as to the nature of god: it's the father figure, created in childhood, made into an all-mighty creator and carer in order to dispel the angst of a chaotic reality.
Ancient gods were these mysterious characters with which you, as a believer, made alliances. This modern single god is none other than your father, all obstacles to this identification now removed.
Of course god is dead, which means modern “religion” is pretty funereal.
>>1409857
Enjoy hell
>>1409892
Good point, the concept of being saved from hell is a better sales pitch than an all purpose underworld where everyone is doomed.
>>1409601
Because their followers were not only willing but felt compelled to impose their beliefs violently on others.
>>1409601
Because monotheism conditions people to more easily accept unified/centralized power structures, and vice versa.
>>1409920
Hell is a shitty sales pitch. You have to believe in it for it to be worth anything. The idea of Hell is to keep the believers in line, not to get people in the door.
>>1409601
>Pagan stories and myths are still appealing to us today, whereas the tales of some hairy-assed hebrew getting chastised by a voice from the sky bore us to tears
What are you talking about? The Old Testament is full of wars and heroes.
>>1409699
Some branches of Hinduism, such as Vaishnavism, are also monotheistic (depending on your definition of monotheism).
If paganism had won out you'd all be bitching about there being no monotheists in the west
>>1410256
Most of which are boring except for a few that are totally divorced from their actual meaning.
Ie, David and Goliath is about the plucky underdog winning against the forces of evil, not about prelude to the reign of a genocidal super hero king killing the champion of another tribe in the Jewish conquest of Israel.
>>1410332
Not true, I'd be complaining about getting raped by Maenads.
>tfw no yandere dionysian gf
>>1409601
The Bible's more exciting than most... I mean, the only ones that might be slightly more exciting are the Greco-Roman, Nordic, and the Hindu's... Most of the rest are just confusing as fuck. (Well, okay, and the Babylonians.)
I mean, if you wanna talk boring, imagine if Buddhism was the dominant religion where you lived?
Plus the Bible has some of the best fan-fiction around.
Though it's true, the Vedas really need to be made into a blockbuster action sci-fi adventure.
>>1409611
>Catholicism was a perfect blend of both until people started taking it too seriously.
I know a few thousand Saxons that might disagree.
>>1409609
>and thus does not provide the same urge to conquest
All of history minus 2k years says hi.
>>1410870
>(Well, okay, and the Babylonians.)
This is my trigger. It wasn't fucking religion of Babylonians, it was religion of the whole fucking Mesopotamia for thousands of years before Amorites, who founded Babylon, even came to that area.
> entry level bullshit somehow popular with plebs
Does your question even need an answer?
>>1409601
>most boring
>by far the most mysterious
hmm...
>>1411952
Think that was about the time Marduk gave Tiamat the boot, so I suppose they're at least as separated as Judaism and Christianity.
>Why did monotheism, the most boring of all paradigms of divinity, have to become dominant?
For the same reason that Burgerking and McDonalds became the most popular places to get food, because monotheism offers a simplistic worldview and easy solutions for an extremely complex world with equally complex problems. It's no surprise that the fastest growing versions of monotheism are also the most literalist and often most violent versions.
Polytheism requires patience, a sense of ambiguity and doesn't offer the simplistic black and white good-evil worldview that monotheism offers. Polytheism views the world as much more complex, and asks people to accept all aspects of it, not just the good and happy aspects of it. This is why intellectuals are generally more drawn to exotic religions such as the ones found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece, Rome, etc. and yokels like the people who browse /pol/ or who live in shitty banlieus are often drawn into DOOS FULT Christianity or Wahabist Islam
>>1409601
Well OP doesn't even know that there are loads of fun to read monotheist folklore stories. Read Midrash or "Tales of the Hasidim" by Martin Buber for instance. You'll be surprised in a good way.
Also you obviously don't know that all of Hindu religious are form of Monotheism and all Hindu gods are just facets of Absolute.
>>1409601
Constantine adopted Christianity essentially because he saw how easily controllable Christians were and how fanatical and dedicated they were (because they were idiots). He then decided to adopt that religion into the Empire and have a much more controllable malleable population. Or maybe he just fell for the snakeoil scam too. Years later Arabs saw the meme and they copied it too but made it a little better and more effective. Years later the cucked softened Roman society collapsed. Years later the Arabs with their more up to date meme crushed the cucked softened European kingdoms and held them pretty much besieged for hundreds of years. Years later the Europeans had enough shit and told the Church to fuck off and thus you have European national dominance and the great facade of effective Christian morality and societal equilibrium.
tldr Constantine made it into a meme and it's all his fucking fault
ITT: Failed high school RE
Pretty much the accepted theory is monotheistic religions have the charisma trifecta, they have traditional, charismatic and authentic leadership.
>Why did monotheism, the most boring of all paradigms of divinity, have to become dominant?
Because Constantine decided to convert to Christianity, which was then enforced in the rest of Europe.
Contrary to popular belief, Christianization did not occur in a free marketplace of ideas, but on the weight of political authority almost exclusively.
>>1413629
>which was then enforced in the rest of Europe.
And by that, I mean over several hundreds of years through institutional power, rather than to imply that Constantine converted all of Europe in his own reign.
>>1410256
This. And the Apocalypse is objectively better and funnier than the ragnashit.
>>1409601
Monotheism is not boring.
I assume when you say that they've become dominant that you are referring to their prevalence as a percentage of the global population, or the political dominance of Christian nations. In either case I remind you that history is not over.
Pagan does not mean polytheistic, it refers to non-Christians and pre-Christians.
Your reading of the Old Testament is not even skin deep. The Hebrew Bible and New Testament are a never-ending feast of curious and complex ideas.
More to the point, there seems to have been a tendency in the Ancient Near East towards the eventual supremacy of one particular god over the rest of the pantheon, and the dominant perspective of contemporary Biblical scholarship reads the Hebrew Bible as a catalog of the transition from polytheistic to monotheistic practice characterized by YHWH worship.
But I think this historical pattern is distinct from the theological idea of monotheism, which is very sophisticated and convincing.
>>1413196
>I'm totally ignorant of Christian theology
Monotheism is not boring, when it first emerged it was downright revolutionary, the idea of a single all powerful being is terrifying and amazing, unlike stories of some heroic dude cheating his local toilet spirit.
>>1413956
You think somebody who describes monotheism as boring has read the old testament?
