Like nymphs, ancestors cannot usefully be described in any of the terms used to define the god of classical monotheism. It is not always easy to tell who should be counted as gods and who should not. The boundaries separating gods from ancestors and spirits is sometime very hard to draw. Many cultures make offerings to beings who are not considered to be gods. Pagans revere the presence of nature spirits, land-wights and nymphs, as well as gods and goddesses. What becomes of them? Are they swallowed up in a monothetic night in which all cows are black? Monotheism runs roughshod over competing sacred identities - earth-spirits, ancestor spirits, totems, and nymphs.
Polytheists have respect and reverence for their gods, not worship
For a classical monotheist, the divinity is infinite, humanity is finite, and the only possible relation between them is the absolute submission of the worshipper to the God. God is transcendental, a "holy other". The core of monotheist sacrifice is appeasement and renunciation. But from what we've seen in the last section, there are lesser sacred presences who require attention, offerings, and persuasion, not worship.
In the lives of polytheists there is diversity of levels within a religion as well as cross-cultural differences between religions. This might indicate that the corresponding diversity of divine reality is because of a variety of sacred presences who actually exist. "Wholly other" has no place in traditional polytheism. No god is wholly other. In paganism Greer says a particular culture is given "citizen rights" in the presence of deities. Pagan gods and goddesses are superior in their might and majesty, but they live in a common world. What the gods ask of humanity is not abject submission but reverence or respect. Both exist in a common world defined by mutual relationships. The central concept of polytheist practice is reciprocity, a matter of exchange. The relationship is never one-sided. Some pagans argue that becoming involved in the ecology movement is the ultimate pagan practice. We support nature so that nature continues to support us.
Generosity is thus a central divine characteristic, but it is not limited to the gods. Greer says the pagan habit of competing in tests of strength and skill has its origin as acts of reverence to gods and ancestors. The gods are supremely powerful and skillful and to demonstrate skill in their presence is to do the honor by imitating them. Funeral games celebrated the vitality and strength of ancestral spirits.
Monotheists are too ambitious
Arguments about monotheistic theism require the highest standards of its god. They must be omnipotent, omniscience and omnibenevolent. To claim that a god is omnipotent means that not only is he merely very powerful, but that god is more powerful than anything else in the universe. Greer says that since no human being can independently vouch for the strength of every other entity, the claim can't be justified by any possible experience. Characteristics such as omnipotence, which define a being's relation to the rest of the universe, are harder to verify than characteristics that define the beings' existence or nature. Monotheist worship is a one-way relationship between an otherworldly god and a submissive population. Humanity depends on God, but God does not depend on humanity. This god is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipotent. These qualities cause great problems for monotheists in their debates with atheists.
In polytheism, the gods are powerful but not omnipotent, smart but not omniscient. They are associated with specific virtues but not omnibenevolent. The gods are superhuman, but they are not without limits; They are not supernatural, but exist within a natural order, both shaping its manifestations and bound by some of its laws. Finitism means the gods do not operate within significant limits and have particular areas of concern or rulership. Therefore, they are respected or revered but not worshiped. In fact, Greer points out that the weirder entities of current physics - superstrings, bubble universes, folded dimensions - transcend ordinary matter and energy far more drastically than the average pagan god. Polytheism provides a better rebuttal to atheists because the powers of its sacred presences are less demanding. These gods are not isolated from one another or from the ordinary world. They engage in both conflict and cooperation. Engagement for them is a participatory celebration, not appeasement or renunciation. Pagans start with the world of ordinary humans. The interaction between humans, gods and goddesses does not result in a smooth, singular process. The interactions are messy, unresolved, with some degree of harmony and some degree of continuing conflicts.
Furthermore, the monotheistic teleological argument of design does not just have to battle atheists. It does nothing to exclude polytheism. As. Hume says, there could just as well have been more than one intelligent designer of the cosmos and that the designs clash with each other. This would be unacceptable to monotheists because their deity must be orderly and reassuring. They are running for shelter and security, not for a clash and uncertainty. There is enough of that on earth.
Atheist arguments against biblical claims and the origin of evil do not impact polytheism
The vast majority of atheist philosophers have aimed at Christin and Jewish ideas from the Bible. These include the origins of the earth, the scope of natural disasters and the existence of life after death. They may also argue that monotheists are wishful thinkers and superstitious. They cannot reason quantitatively (statistically), and they have selective perception. Atheists make efforts to make the Bible internally incoherent and show how it is contradicted by modern science. They are right. For monotheists, their God is the origin of everything, and this carries a heavy burden - as we have seen.
Against monotheism, Greer says, the argument about evil is the most effective weapon in the arsenal of atheism. If God is all good and all powerful, how do we explain all the horrendous, pointless suffering? If there exists a God who is omnipotent and omniscient and all-loving, such a God would have both the power and the knowledge necessary to prevent all extreme or unnecessary suffering. An omniscient, omnipotent an omnibenevolent God who created the universe would have known in advance what evils would follow. Greer says this problem is so deep for monotheists that its defenders have created an entire branch of theology called "theodicy" to explain why the universe is not as unfair as it looks. There are three broad types of theodicies that have played a major role in western philosophy of religion:
- Augustine says that suffering is caused by the misuse of free will by created beings, not by divine intervention.
- In 130-122 CE Irenaeus says God has to permit evil because the experience of suffering is the only way for the human species to develop spiritually and morally. The world is a place for soul making. The problem with this defense is that it conflicts with the claim of divine omnipotence. An omnipotent God could just as well have created humanity in such a way that people could achieve spiritual and moral maturity without going through the experience of horrendous suffering.
- God permits and causes evil things to happen to demonstrate his power over the Egyptians. Isn't that a sign of insecurity that would hardly be present in a God who is all knowing, powerful and loving?
Polytheists have no book that claims divine inspiration
Most of this has no relevance to polytheists. Pagans have no holy book that they claim is divinely inspired. From the standpoint of traditional polytheism, gods are not the origin of everything and because of that the work of the gods is less demanding. Polytheistic gods are not seen as the grounds of being. The gods are neither infinite, timeless, spaceless, nor changeless. They have superhuman capacities of power and knowledge, but these powers are limited. This can be seen in Taoism where the Tao is prior to the one, the Yang and the Yin and the elements.
Polytheistic Myths as literary rather than revealed religion
The well-organized pantheons found in classical mythology and German sagas are literary rather than theological creations. Greer points out that the heroic struggles of Achilles and Siegfried gain much of their dramatic power from the literary device that places them at the meeting point of two clearly defined communities. The symbols, rites and myths of polytheism can most usefully be seen as the result of extended processes of interaction between gods, rather than through a revealed religion.
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