Is God personal or impersonal? Why do some religions authorize polygamy and some don't?

Answer 1

Marriage is a good way to personalize your relationship with God. Men settle down, women settle in. That should settle it...

Answer 2

God is personal -- prayer is a form of communicating with Him. We think of our problems or perhaps something that we're thankful for, and He responds. Not the same sort of response where one person talks back and forth, but more like a self-realization that God is listening to you and trusts that you will find a way to solve your problems.

Polygamy is an old practice, so I think that some religions that are more primitive allow it due to tradition, while others (most fundamentalist Mormons) allow polygamy because the men are typically self-absorbed and obsessed with male-over-female dominance.

With most Christians (minus the aforementioned fundamentalist Mormons), polygamy is considered sinful, because marriage is recognized as the unity between only *two* people. A man is meant for a woman, not women.

Answer 3

Polygamy, is an old traditional concept carried down through time, when it was actually acceptable to society and its laws and men and women. Well its still acceptable in some cities and some laws and some men and women. Its amazing what can happen when people fight for what they believe in .
But the larger issue here is that: many laws, traditions and belief systems were carried down through time. Circumcision is another one. The reason for circumcision was for people do be accepted and pleasing to God. As stupid as it sounds to us today at one time thats how it was, now how and why do some people still practice these things ?
Well the main reason is because most people and customs never accepted as a whole that Jesus Christ, was the son of God.
Now listen, when he was walking the earth he said from now on I am the law and I have come so that the power of the law might be broken.
Now people, (yes, even within the christian circle) dont understand this fully or they wouldnt be doing these things as a way to impress God. some of them do it for this reason !

Answer 4

God is personal to those who petition him in his sons name. Didn't his son tell his deciples that the rain fell on the Bad as well as the Good? Polygamy is not authorized by most religions because we have been told to treat women as equals, not as property and the basis of polygamy is to have women serve one man rather than loving a man and serving God. Polygamy also makes women into breeders only and creates individual kingdoms rather than honoring Democracy.

Answer 5

God is very personal because He wants us to get to know Him and have a close relationship with him, but His judgement has to be impersonal. While that may seem contradictory, think of it like this:

You're sitting in court observing one day and the Judge's son is brought in for robbing a bank. Assuming that the judge can't remove himself from the case... he can love his son, but it would be unfair to give his son special treatment... he (the judge) must follow the laws and execute judgements that are lawful, otherwise, the laws are pretty much useless in the eyes of the people. You wouldn't think very much of a judge who bent the rules just for his son, would you?

I can't speak for religions that authorize polygamy, except to say that they gaurd the practice carefully, and there are (in many cases) very strict rules and laws governing it.

For Christianity, polygamy is "not authorized" because marriage is to be a sacred bond between a husband and wife. Multiplicity brings with it the possibility of jealousy and therewith violence. And who wants that??? It's simpler just to say... One and one and no others allowed.

Answer 6

These seem like two different questions. God is personal to those who accept him. And some religions say polygamy is OK and some don't because of social pressure. If social pressure had not been around, LDS practitioners would still be heavily involved in polygamy (as it is, there are over 30,000 polygamous relationships in Utah).

Answer 7

Most religions see God as personal, since they believe that the human person is the most valuable and wonderful thing in the universe. This is especially true of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but also the old Greek and Roman religions. Buddhism, secular humanism, and some other religions see the desire to be an individual person as a source of suffering and an accidental, not important attribute of being. Therefore, one should give up one's individuality and personhood, understanding that the reality is really material or based on Nothing, and God is this Nothingness or materiality without any individuality or personality.
As for polygamy, it is usually based on the role of women as dependent on men for survival and the idea that many wives guaranteed that there would be many children and the family would continue and survive. Men were encouraged to have as many wives as they could support, both wives and concubines in several societies. Islam, Biblical Judaism, and hence some Mormons, other groups have accepted this cultural tradition and allow or encourage men to have many wives to support women and their child and to have many children to continue their family. Christianity encouraged monogamy or one wife for life following the statements of St. Paul in the Bible. The Catholic and Orthodox encouraged this through late Roman and medieval times as a means to limit promiscuity and raise the value of women. This was also encouraged by Caesar Augustus and the Stoic philosophers that developed the idea of friendship in marriage and the equality of women wherein married couples were see as soulmates joined for life spiritually as well as physically. Married couples were supposed to care for one another and focus on raising their children to the glory of God and the State. See Plutarch's On the Family and Artemidorus Interpretation of Dreams. So, polygamy was encouraged by those that put an emphasis on many children and the continuance of the family and monogamy was encouraged by those that saw women and men entering a spiritual union through sex and marriage. It is a question of whether sex is just a biological thing making more people or a spiritual thing and is very much related to whether you think of people as animals or persons and whether the role of sex is important in determining the kind of person you are or just a good biological feeling. The idea of person and sex interact with each other.

Answer 8

GOD has to be impersonal--at least, not personal in the human sense. Would you want some All-Powerful Superhumanoid running the Cosmos, subject to human capriciousness?

--I think you can't ask two questions at once, to save 5 points, so no comment about polygamy, sorry.--

Answer 9

God is a personal God. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, were all friends of God. You can not get much more personal then that! Polygamy? Look, God only made ONE Adam and ONE Eve, not One Adam and Two Eves, or Adam and Steve, or Amanda and Eve. He Made A Man And A Woman!

Answer 10

Religion is man made. Religions that authorize some practices that others do not, are based on a mans opinion, or supposed interpretation of scripture. The discrepancies between one denomination or another are because of man, changing, breaking and splitting off from one prior religion or another. This is the main reason I do not subscribe to a denomination or church. Man has his hands in it WAY too much.

Answer 11

He is personal. He allows us to pray to Him and wishes all to know Him. and the polygamy questions is for the religions themselves. As a JW, "a man must be of one wife".