The Psychology of Polytheism

It’s that time in the afternoon here in Colorado.  The time when a person’s thoughts naturally turn to the question of what advantages, if any, polytheism has over monotheism.  At least my thoughts naturally do.

Of course, that’s because by three in the afternoon, I typically have so much caffeine in me I’m spinning from one thought to the next and consequently, I’m pretty much poly-everything.  Never discount the power of coffee.  After twelve cups, you’d be fond of the Greek Pantheon, too — not to mention the 11 dimensions of String theory.

I’m of the opinion the single most important reason monotheism won out over polytheism in the West, Middle East, and elsewhere was because the two great monotheistic religions — Islam and Christianity — were both proselytizing religions, while the great polytheistic religions largely did not seek converts.  The monotheisms waxed while the polytheisms waned largely due to proselytizing.

That’s to say, I do not believe monotheistic religions are innately all that superior to polytheistic religions.  That opinion sets me at odds with those theologians who argue one god is naturally better than many gods.  But is that the case?

If we look at the question from a psychological standpoint, there would seem to be certain psychological advantages to believing in several deities, rather than in one deity.

Consider, for instance, the obvious fact that during our lives we play many roles.  At one time we are a child dependent on our parents.  At another time we are a young man or woman learning to live on our own.  At yet another time we are a parent ourselves.  And so on.  Would it not be advantageous to have different gods for the different stages of life?

For instance: When we reach that stage of life — usually in our middle years — when so many of us feel a need to give back to the community something of the good it’s given us,  shouldn’t we be following a different god than the one we had as a child — the god that fit us when we were dependent on our parents and could give little or nothing of our own to our community?

Another reason polytheism might make better psychological sense than monotheism is the fact different people have different natures.  Some people, for instance, are naturally more athletic than others.  Some people are naturally more analytic than others.  And some people are naturally more emotional than others.  Can one god be the best fit for all of them?  Isn’t that a bit like suggesting that one size shoe should fit everyone?

Again, there are many different groups and cliques in any society. Are they all best served by the same god?

We can easily find even more reasons why polytheism might make better psychological sense than monotheism.  We are a genetically diverse species with no ideal type.  The human nose comes in a billion different shapes and no one shape is the perfect nose.  Under monotheism, people might have a tendency to think we should all be alike — just as under monotheism there is only one god and she holds all of us to the same standard.  But under polytheism, people might more easily recognize that humans are naturally diverse and it is an error to try to force them to be all alike.

Even when we look at nature we can see how polytheism suits it better than monotheism.  Suppose nature really was created by deity.  If that were true, then it seems to me it makes much more sense to suppose it were created by a committee of deities than by a single intelligent designer.  There is too much contradiction in nature, too much waste, and too much trial and error, for it to have been designed by a single god.  Look at the eye, for instance: The nerves that gather information from the light receptors are packed in front of the light receptors rather than behind them.  Because of that, the nerves interfere to some extent with our ability to see and the brain has to compensate for that disadvantage.  I ask: Would such a sloppy system most likely have been designed by just one designer, or by a committee of deities arguing over what was the right way to do things and eventually reaching a compromise that suited no one perfectly?

Well, those are some of my thoughts on polytheism this afternoon. I think polytheism is much more psychologically suited to human nature than monotheism.  But that’s just me.  Folks who have not consumed 12 cups of coffee by this time in the day might not be as adamantly poly as I am at this hour.  What’s your opinion?