Polytheism

From RationalWiki

Polytheism is the belief that there is more than one god or goddess. This belief is held mostly by older religions, such as those of ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, and survives to modern times most notably in the Hindu and Shinto faiths as well as neopagan religions such as Wicca and Asatru.

The Abrahamic religions developed largely among polytheistic religions (Canaanite, Roman, and Arab belief systems preceding Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and the initial ancestor of Judaism may have been polytheistic up until the Deutoronomic reforms under King Josiah. Some Christian denominations, most notably Roman Catholicism, preserve a memory of polytheism in the veneration of the Saints (many of whom are almost openly conflated with pre-christian deities), while syncretistic religions with Catholic roots such as Santeria and Vodoun are essentially polytheistic religions (African-derived, in the case of the above two) combined with Christian names and worship forms.

[edit] Polytheism in literature

Numerous writers, many based on questionable historical research, others as part of a science fiction or fantasy storyline, have related the gods of ancient mythology to presumed-real alien life forms or paranormal beings. Such theories, for example, have informed the works of historian/huckster Erich von Däniken, and were the basis for the Star Trek episode Who Mourns for Adonais?, Philip K. Dick's 1954 short story, Strange Eden, and much of the storyline of Stargate.