Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Polytheism and America

Img_0565 I was feeling a little philosophical today and thought I might share an observation:



"America is a polytheistic culture."



Sure, we've got a Christian tradition in our history, but as it stands today, we worship an entire pantheon of gods. Different packaging, but basically the same in nature to polytheism.



For example, the phrase "all paths lead to God" sounds very unified and monotheistic. But if I believe God= a, b and c and you believe God does NOT, we've got a problem.



See, if one of us is wrong, that feels icky and intolerant. But if we're BOTH right, and ANY spiritual belief is equally valid, then we have a multitude of equally powerful spiritual realities. Since God can't be both "a" and not "a", we must be talking about two different gods.



We might look back on Greek civilization and make fun of its family tree of gods, but it would seem to me that's the culture we live in today. We don't think of ourselves as polytheistic, but we're closer to it than we realize.



Looks like the Biblical references to "idols" are still relevant after all.



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