Is Polytheism really a choice....?

Question

any longer if your threatend to be stoned to death for having such beliefs?

Answer 1

Here's why a belief in polytheism is untenable:

Our science has discovered many universal laws that, as far as our observations have been able to discern, have never been broken.

The law of universal gravitation applies everywhere. Apples fall down. Water never runs uphill.

The three angles of a triangle always add up to 180 degrees.

Nothing can go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy principle, always operates. No one has ever seen 52 playing cards, scattered randomly over the floor, pick themselves up into an ordered deck.

I'm sure you can name many more.

This phenomenon is consistent with ONE all-powerful god, who sets the universe in motion and then allows his creation to run without interference. Or it could be explained by the proposition that there is no god at all.

What this phenomenon will not permit is that there could be plural or multiple gods, each a free agent and able to interfere in the other's creation. If there were more than one god, we would surely find cases where one god's power conflicted with the doings of another's in ways that would be physically impossible. For instance, the second god might choose to exercise his power of creation in ways inconsistent with established physical laws.

Since no one has ever observed such a thing happening, we can confidently infer that there are not plural or multiple gods.

Answer 2

It is very sad to hear of such intolerance. It is a fact that many religious (and a-religious) minorities are still not able to freely profess or practice their religion (or a-religion) without being in real danger.

How many millions (billions?) have had to hide their faith (or lack thereof) over the centuries, to protect themselves, or open otherwise closed doors?

I live in a highly progressive and open-minded area of the US, but I often have to avoid religious discussions to avoid offending employers, colleagues, neighbors, and even friends and family. I appreciate that the dangers I face are nothing compared to a fatal stoning.

For many (most?) people, their particular religion (or lack thereof) is not so much a choice as it is a result of a life of learning and influences. Pascal said (Pascal's Wager) that even atheists should worship god, just in case there is one. But (as Dawkins correctly observes) this would obviously be insincere, and therefore not really worship or belief. For most of us, we cannot simply wish to believe in something and thereby make it happen. I actually tried this when I was child and I nearly went nuts!

It may be an undesirable alternative, but one could chose to be a secret polytheist, just as many homosexuals and other minorities have to live partially in a closet, and just as the apostle peter supposedly denied being a jesus-follower just after jesus was arrested.

Answer 3

There is a big difference between the politics of religion and religion itself.

If you are a religious person, noone can take that away from you, no matter what your belief. The Jews in the Holocaust are certainly examples of that.

Polytheism, in the deepest sense, exists most certainly, even if there's the threat of being stoned.

My question to you is "Who's throwing the stones? The one who is blamed, or the one who points the blame on others?"

Isn't it maybe better to go do what you have to become a religious person yourself?

I wish you peace.

Answer 4

Nope. But if they want to stone me to death, they're in for a fight for their lives.

Answer 5

Nobdy's ever threatened to stone me to death for it.

Answer 6

No a choice you make for yourself but what someone makes for you