Monotheism since the beginning?

[catholic1seeks]

It is a truth of our Catholic faith that religion was a divinely revealed monotheism. From the very beginning, “we” have known there is ONE GOD. Is there any evidence OUTSIDE of revelation (the Bible/Sacred Tradition) that this is true?

In English class, we’re reading the book Mythology. Currently, the chapters are discussing Greek (and Roman) gods. While reading all of this, I don’t understand how monotheism–a belief in ONE GOD–was consistent from the beginning of man to now.

I understand people were sinful and, we are taught, branched away from the fact that there’s one God. We know of this stuff from the Old Testament. What about the many, many years between Adam and those recent Old Testament events?

Besides what’s within the Old Testament, is there anything else that shows us monotheism EXISTED since the beginning of man?

 

[Usagi]

Abram/Abraham was called out of a pagan (polytheistic) culture, remember.

Even according to Genesis, the vast majority of humanity lost the truth of monotheism until it was reintroduced via the calling of the Hebrew people.

In history outside the Bible, Akhenaten of Egypt was a monotheist of a sort, worshipping Aten the sun disc in place of the larger Egyptian pantheon. His religion was rejected and suppressed after his death, though.

Various Greek philosophers and other thinkers believed that there was ultimately a single divine principle underlying the universe, though they would not have described it in the same way as the Judeo-Christian God.

All that the Church teaches is that it is possible to reason one’s way to generic monotheism, not that most humans throughout history have successfully done so. The divine revelation of the One God was given to our first parents, according to Scripture, but was subsequently lost among the majority of their descendants until Abram’s time.

S.

 

[Usagi]

Abram/Abraham was called out of a pagan (polytheistic) culture, remember.

Even according to Genesis, the vast majority of humanity lost the truth of monotheism until it was reintroduced via the calling of the Hebrew people.

In history outside the Bible, Akhenaten of Egypt was a monotheist of a sort, worshipping Aten the sun disc in place of the larger Egyptian pantheon. His religion was rejected and suppressed after his death, though.

Various Greek philosophers and other thinkers believed that there was ultimately a single divine principle underlying the universe, though they would not have described it in the same way as the Judeo-Christian God.

All that the Church teaches is that it is possible to reason one’s way to generic monotheism, not that most humans throughout history have successfully done so. The divine revelation of the One God was given to our first parents, according to Scripture, but was subsequently lost among the majority of their descendants until Abram’s time.

S.

 

[Contarini]

It is a truth of our Catholic faith that religion was a divinely revealed monotheism. From the very beginning, “we” have known there is ONE GOD. Is there any evidence OUTSIDE of revelation (the Bible/Sacred Tradition) that this is true?

In English class, we’re reading the book Mythology. Currently, the chapters are discussing Greek (and Roman) gods. While reading all of this, I don’t understand how monotheism–a belief in ONE GOD–was consistent from the beginning of man to now.

I understand people were sinful and, we are taught, branched away from the fact that there’s one God. We know of this stuff from the Old Testament. What about the many, many years between Adam and those recent Old Testament events?

Besides what’s within the Old Testament, is there anything else that shows us monotheism EXISTED since the beginning of man?

Well, it’s certainly possible that humans completely forgot about monotheism for a long time.

However, some would argue that polytheistic religions show signs of having “degenerated” from an original monotheism. In Africa, for instance, most traditional religions believe in one supreme God who was once closer to the world than He is now, but withdrew because of some fault by human beings. Spirits and lesser gods are worshiped/venerated, but are clearly distinguished from the supreme God.

The ancient Mediterranean and European polytheistic religions we tend to be more familiar with generally have a sky god at the center. One could argue that this is a corruption of an original monotheism, with other gods added over time as the sky god’s “family.” There is no way to be sure.

Edwin