Even if you don't believe in carbon dating, how do monotheists explain...?

Question

the findings of goddess related artifacts that are older than anything found supporting a monotheistic religious thought?
My understanding is there is evidence of goddess worship (based on earthly/nature-related) events, then, as humans became aware of the universe, masculine figures appeared...Male & female gods/goddesses were worshipped-then some religions resorted to entirely male dominated religions. Aren't Baal and/or Beezlebub names for gods that existed before and in the same area as where Judaism/Christianity/Islam started?

The point of the question is, if there was only a single, male deity that was very concerned about his creation worshipping him, how did these other religions start? 'In the beginning', there would only be a few people and what to eat was the only 'sin' talked about. Graven images and such weren't mentioned until later. Even Abraham didn't deny the existance of other gods/goddesses to the Pharoah of his time.

Answer 1

You are correct: Baal is an older god. Some of the early Jews weren't even strict monotheists. With the commandment of not having other gods before YHWH, some interpreted this as it was okay to have other gods, but they were viewed as lesser. Some research even indicates that originally, the Abrahamic god even had a female consort!

Answer 2

Well almost all pagan civilizations creation story starts with a woman because women are the giver of life. So it would be almost logical to these early people that if a woman gives life than a woman created all life.

Masculine figures appeared at the same time as these feminine ones though. There was always a male counterpart, who usually controlled the oceans or the sky.

Baal and Beezlebub are names for the devil!

Answer 3

Yes, and goddess worship was around long before the Jews.

Your idea that deities became male as well as female as humans became aware of the universe is interesting. I never thought of that. i know the earth needs to be considered female because it accepts seed, but the idea of the universe being male, i need to ruminate over this.

Answer 4

Whether one believes in carbon dating or not does NOT negate the fact that there is evidence of goddess worship in MANY cultures. FAR before the Christian or Jewish, or Muslim, or even egyptian culture... trippy huh? However, if the christians say that God walked with Adam in his creation... they will have a tough time finding circumstantial evidence for such a claim.

Answer 5

There are and have been so many religions, each one saying that THEY'RE right. I do not discount the existence of Goddess worship. I like them better and I think they make more sense, rather than the patriarchal religions of today, but what's your point? They did exist, and now they don't.

Answer 6

You are confusing two different things. I believe in the Judeo/Christian God, which makes me monotheistic. Just because I personally am monotheistic doesn't mean that I don't think that people worshipped goddesses and multiple gods before Christianity. In fact, if you study, very early Jewish belief was polytheistic.

Answer 7

If you study Judaism you will find that the creation of statues/symbols representing God were forbidden (due to the fact that idol worship was prevalent). Therefore, its not surprising that there are no ancient artifacts that represent God. God is a spirit. Any depiction of God would be considered sacrilegious to ancient Hebrews...

Answer 8

The first answer one arrives at is not necessary the correct answer nor even the best answer.

Whether goddess worship predates Christianity or not is completely irrelevant to the question of whether one or the other is correct.

Answer 9

Yes, people worshipped idols for 2000 years until Abraham discovered the existance of G-d. What's wrong?

Answer 10

You lock yourself out of an answer with the premise " Even if you don't believe in carbon dating". Today everything is carbon dated