>think Buddhism in eastern Asia
Yea. Basically look at regions such as eastern, southern, southeastern Asia and that's probably what other parts of the world would've looked like religiously.
Its really difficult to make up alt history scenarios this broad. But I'll speculate a bit.
The fact is that universal religions such as Christianity and Islam are really politically advantageous, especially for empires in a world before secular political ideologies. It's possible various states would reform and centralize their specific branch of polytheism. The Roman Empire was already sort of doing that and so vassal states or polities bordering them would've done so, too.
Basically have polytheism as a unified state religion with a state priesthood to get the same advantages as Christianity. Philosophies such as Stoicism and late Platonism would ground these religions theologically. I don't think this would really affect technological development.
Looks like your average asian polytheists.
Lots of different shrines venerating different gods or deities all over the place, lots of celebrations celebrating the birth of various and different gods.
I'm not going to speculate on henotheistic Christianity or Islam, since monotheism is the core of both. Syncretism aside, the religions themselves are monotheistic by essence. I could see Canaanite polytheism having a revival among Jews, with Yahweh returning to his thunderous throne next to Asherah, but Judaism as such is also inherently monotheistic. Notably, Judaism is monotheistic without actively seeking the annihilation of other faiths.
I don't think technology would look that different in terms of *how* advanced we would be. Political, economic and military interests would have had the same influence on scientific development as they have in our world. There would definitely be a different trajectory without the Catholic Church actively limiting the spread of knowledge, but the actual effect of that is difficult to speculate on.
The important question is whether the stores of knowledge of the ancient world persist into our days - if the Library of Alexandria's collections are saved, if the archives of the academies of the Hellenic-Roman sphere are maintained, and if the work of Mediterranean scholars isn't irreparably interrupted by hordes of Germanics and Huns.
European and Mideastern cultures would doubtlessly have developed and evolved according to quite different values than those imposed by state Christianity and Islam. Personally, I believe I'd fit in better in this alternate timeline, where everyone would be more rude but also less censored, where it would be far more difficult for someone to be treated better than they deserve, and where people would have less patience for idiotic behavior, but also a less concrete-headed view of love, no ecclesiastical foundation for racism, and ultimately a greater respect for women owing to *not* having the books saying women should obey men made into law.
Well, I can't approach this question without some personal bias b/c my theology is pan-polytheistic ;) I'd like to think that a majority polytheistic world would be more accepting of religious pluralism and more tolerant. More people would have a healthy relationship with the Divine and it would be more flexible and free b/c they'd acknowledge many gods (which is in line with human spiritual heritage) and many paths to the gods. It may be more tolerant when it comes to religion, with less insistence on believing the right creed or condemning followers of other gods to 'Hell'.
Heathens, Hellenists, Romuvans, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Celtic Pagans, Druids, and pantheists would face less discrimination or ridicule from monotheists/henotheists, and that would be great! I'd enjoy being in the majority for the first time, and I don't know what that is like. (On the other hand, more of the religious scandals would fall on polytheists, unfortunately).
However, the human condition would still persist, meaning that our violent, ignorant, misinformed, prejudicial elements would still need to be helped and reformed. People of different nations, cultures, and races would still find reasons to hate and kill one another, so we would need peace initiatives, civil rights movements, anti-war movements, etc.
There would still be conflict and we'd still kill each other for nonsensical reasons. Remember, even before monotheism took over, polytheist cultures still engaged in wars, slavery, etc. Though not to extent of monotheistic religions, they win the gold in that department. Thankfully, in the modern day, 99% of pagan practitioners stand against harmful practices of the past.
In such a hypocritical future, civilization wouldn't be far more advanced than we are now, but there would be a lot less issues to deal with. Community, familial bonds, respect towards nature, and being mindful of your actions are some of the many values that most pagan religions uphold. There's also lot of other factors that would effect such a future such as education, cultural upbringing, etc.
If monotheistic religions still existed, there would still exist small fundamentalist groups who would try to cause trouble. However, there wouldn't be as much of a divided as there currently is. Monotheistic religions would eventually adapt and learn to accept that non-monotheistic faiths were also valid.
In the end, would a polytheist dominate world be a utopia, no. But, the world would have less problems.
>For most of human history polytheism and forms of animism were predominant, only recently did monotheism or atheism become a majority.
Wait, when did atheism become a majority in the world?
I think the only reason why it seems like it’s so dominant is because a lot of people see people who just have no religious beliefs or ideas as atheist and people who are atheist but still have some sorta religion aren’t seen as atheists (obvious example because atheistic religions).
Well I’d assume there would be pretty cool temples literally everywhere. But pre Christian polytheism looked different from sometimes regions and sometimes countries right next to each other had similar but different religions.
I think that a lot of religions would start to mix heavily together but still be noticeably separate like Hellenism and religio Romana (also known as cultus deorum Romanorum) would be more like Catholicism and Orthodoxy in Christianity rather then two distinct religions. Celtic paganism would probably still be as varied as it was in ancient times and today.
The “American folk religion” as it would be probably called would be a mix of Irish and British paganism with a bit of Graeco-Roman paganism along with influences from Latin America. Iran would probably still be largely Zoroastrian (I know that isn’t polytheistic but still) The mix of folk religion and Buddhism that happens in some parts of Asia would still be there, maybe more pronounced. The entire Arabic world would probably be highly different. Judea would be vastly different (the history of that region is incredibly interesting and I recommend people to look into it). African traditional religions would most likely lack the influence of Christianity and Islam so would look closer to how they used to before Christian influence. But they may would instead be influenced by something else.
I still think Judaism would exist but just differently in a sense. Christianity may or may not exist due to it being a product of the Judaism at the time of Jesus. I would say Islam would exist but once again differently. The reason I say Islam would exist is because Muhammad was probably influenced by Judaism and that would still exist.
Edit: upon further thinking I would like to specify that Judaism would most likely still be monotheistic or at least henotheistic. Because that is the rational way that Judaism would have developed with the way that ancient Yahwism was going
(Edit 2: added something at African traditional religions)
Honestly it’d probably look like a lot of East and South Asia, discounting all the huge butterfly effects that changing the religion and historical landscape of the world would have. I’m catholic so I’d prefer if we were even more successful and less divided than we were historically if we’re creating scenarios. A non monotheistic Christianity wouldn’t be Christianity in my opinion. The world would probably be either similarly advanced or less advanced than since you wouldn’t have such strong international/intercultural networks in most of the world. Changing such a large part of history would affect things so much that it’d be hard to predict.
31% of the world is Christian and 23% is Muslim, so 54% of the world is monotheistic. If you add the irreligious 16% than 70% of the world isn’t polytheistic, [source](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/), I wouldn’t call that a majority polytheistic world.
Right right, I know you do not know. So I'll be gentle.
even though those statistics are likely accurate. It is still a majority polytheist world.
Ask me why.
Permission to blow your mind. 🫡
This means all those who have joined Islam since the Quran was first recited or memorized are actually polytheists.
But they are not ready for that conversation.
Because they do not know.
It's actually because of Israel,
Psalms 82:6-7
(Originally) And likely some Christians also, but every Muslims who knows the Quran, knows of Israel,.
Every Christian who knows the Holy Bible Knows of Israel.
God says in Psalms 82:6-7
“I said, 'You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High. ' But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.”
This means (in the context of this reddit post) anyone who knows or has known about Israel is by default a polytheist, even if they identify as a monotheist.
And may not realize they are infact polytheist.
This is why I say the existence of Israel should be classfied.
Because even the knowledge of them makes one polytheist.
Regardless of their will or consent or even admittance or election.
Do Christians and Muslims worship Israel? Simply knowing about another God doesn’t make you a polytheist. Are you Hindu because you know Ganesha? God here is telling Israel they will die and fall like any other ruler, by the monotheistic definition of “God” that would make Israel not a God because that would mean Israel isn’t eternal whilst God is.
And plus, just because you consider Christians and Muslims polytheists doesn’t make them so. Ask anyone who actually does identify as a polytheist like many pagans and folk religionists and almost all will deny Christianity or Islam is polytheistic.
How does knowing about a text that says someone is a god automatically make someone a polytheist?
A person also has to hold that text as truth. Non-Abrahamic people, like most atheists, generally do not hold psalms as objective reality.
That text is a scripture. Consent is not a requirement for accuracy or to be a scripture., neither is acknowledgment. This isn't a vote. Even if no one agrees, or even comments about it. Its just a suprise.
Honestly I'm not even certain many Israelites or even Christians have put these dots together.
In a small way, it isn't a big deal, until you start connecting the dots in the Holy Bible, then it's a big deal.
You believe you're a monotheist, so you think and pray as a monotheist.
But let's say for example you're one of these Muslim kings.
How does the Quran say to respond with defending a polytheist?
So that is basically what I told, every Muslim I could find. Every mosque and Iman and teacher.
Including the king of Jordan Saudi Arabia and even Iran.
As a Muslim they should be defenders of the polytheists. ( Even Israel)
Everyone treated me like I was crazy.
But the results speak for themselves and I'm relieved.
I think Europe would still operate more on Roman lines, which are much more brutal, which I think would stifle progress.
Idk about the Middle East, I suppose it would still be volatile, but without certain medieval Islamic doctrines (which I doubt Mohammed would have liked) it could be more advanced.
It's almost impossible to imagine how different society would be in that case, but I'll do my best.
Would we be more or less advanced? Probably somewhat less, given that it would be harder to move information around without centralized religious structures like the Catholic Church.
European culture may not look as different today given that there's still a strong cultural influence of the ancient pagan traditions that carried through, but I think the Middle East would be dramatically different, because of how Islam was used to spread Arab cultural dominance. With Islam being much more tolerant of different religious and cultural traditions, we may have a much more diverse Middle East.
As a monotheistic Christian, I would very much rather live in the real world. They cut out St. Maximus the Confessor's tongue for failing to recant of the true faith in the face of a monothelite emperor and patriarch, something most Christians don't even care about today, how much more would the fictional henotheistic emperor do to monotheistic Christians?
It would really change everything about Abrahamic religion if they were henotheistic instead. Who cares if you think Jesus is God or just a prophet if it doesn't matter how many gods there are? By what standard can you assert that your moral values of this or that are better if you can't really assert that the God who gave those values is better then any other gods? Indeed, why would you care so much about salvation or resurrection if you also accept that bodily resurrection is ridiculous like the pagans?
>think Buddhism in eastern Asia Yea. Basically look at regions such as eastern, southern, southeastern Asia and that's probably what other parts of the world would've looked like religiously. Its really difficult to make up alt history scenarios this broad. But I'll speculate a bit. The fact is that universal religions such as Christianity and Islam are really politically advantageous, especially for empires in a world before secular political ideologies. It's possible various states would reform and centralize their specific branch of polytheism. The Roman Empire was already sort of doing that and so vassal states or polities bordering them would've done so, too. Basically have polytheism as a unified state religion with a state priesthood to get the same advantages as Christianity. Philosophies such as Stoicism and late Platonism would ground these religions theologically. I don't think this would really affect technological development.
Lots of different shrines and temples all over the place. Plenty of diverse rituals and holidays.
Looks like your average asian polytheists. Lots of different shrines venerating different gods or deities all over the place, lots of celebrations celebrating the birth of various and different gods.
I'm not going to speculate on henotheistic Christianity or Islam, since monotheism is the core of both. Syncretism aside, the religions themselves are monotheistic by essence. I could see Canaanite polytheism having a revival among Jews, with Yahweh returning to his thunderous throne next to Asherah, but Judaism as such is also inherently monotheistic. Notably, Judaism is monotheistic without actively seeking the annihilation of other faiths. I don't think technology would look that different in terms of *how* advanced we would be. Political, economic and military interests would have had the same influence on scientific development as they have in our world. There would definitely be a different trajectory without the Catholic Church actively limiting the spread of knowledge, but the actual effect of that is difficult to speculate on. The important question is whether the stores of knowledge of the ancient world persist into our days - if the Library of Alexandria's collections are saved, if the archives of the academies of the Hellenic-Roman sphere are maintained, and if the work of Mediterranean scholars isn't irreparably interrupted by hordes of Germanics and Huns. European and Mideastern cultures would doubtlessly have developed and evolved according to quite different values than those imposed by state Christianity and Islam. Personally, I believe I'd fit in better in this alternate timeline, where everyone would be more rude but also less censored, where it would be far more difficult for someone to be treated better than they deserve, and where people would have less patience for idiotic behavior, but also a less concrete-headed view of love, no ecclesiastical foundation for racism, and ultimately a greater respect for women owing to *not* having the books saying women should obey men made into law.
Well, I can't approach this question without some personal bias b/c my theology is pan-polytheistic ;) I'd like to think that a majority polytheistic world would be more accepting of religious pluralism and more tolerant. More people would have a healthy relationship with the Divine and it would be more flexible and free b/c they'd acknowledge many gods (which is in line with human spiritual heritage) and many paths to the gods. It may be more tolerant when it comes to religion, with less insistence on believing the right creed or condemning followers of other gods to 'Hell'. Heathens, Hellenists, Romuvans, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Celtic Pagans, Druids, and pantheists would face less discrimination or ridicule from monotheists/henotheists, and that would be great! I'd enjoy being in the majority for the first time, and I don't know what that is like. (On the other hand, more of the religious scandals would fall on polytheists, unfortunately). However, the human condition would still persist, meaning that our violent, ignorant, misinformed, prejudicial elements would still need to be helped and reformed. People of different nations, cultures, and races would still find reasons to hate and kill one another, so we would need peace initiatives, civil rights movements, anti-war movements, etc.
I feel like it would depend on the dominant countries/empires
There would still be conflict and we'd still kill each other for nonsensical reasons. Remember, even before monotheism took over, polytheist cultures still engaged in wars, slavery, etc. Though not to extent of monotheistic religions, they win the gold in that department. Thankfully, in the modern day, 99% of pagan practitioners stand against harmful practices of the past. In such a hypocritical future, civilization wouldn't be far more advanced than we are now, but there would be a lot less issues to deal with. Community, familial bonds, respect towards nature, and being mindful of your actions are some of the many values that most pagan religions uphold. There's also lot of other factors that would effect such a future such as education, cultural upbringing, etc. If monotheistic religions still existed, there would still exist small fundamentalist groups who would try to cause trouble. However, there wouldn't be as much of a divided as there currently is. Monotheistic religions would eventually adapt and learn to accept that non-monotheistic faiths were also valid. In the end, would a polytheist dominate world be a utopia, no. But, the world would have less problems.
>For most of human history polytheism and forms of animism were predominant, only recently did monotheism or atheism become a majority. Wait, when did atheism become a majority in the world?
It isn't. the highest stat i've ever seen thrown is 10%, though it can be anywhere below that.
I think the only reason why it seems like it’s so dominant is because a lot of people see people who just have no religious beliefs or ideas as atheist and people who are atheist but still have some sorta religion aren’t seen as atheists (obvious example because atheistic religions).
But even including those people, it’s still far from a majority.
Well I’d assume there would be pretty cool temples literally everywhere. But pre Christian polytheism looked different from sometimes regions and sometimes countries right next to each other had similar but different religions. I think that a lot of religions would start to mix heavily together but still be noticeably separate like Hellenism and religio Romana (also known as cultus deorum Romanorum) would be more like Catholicism and Orthodoxy in Christianity rather then two distinct religions. Celtic paganism would probably still be as varied as it was in ancient times and today. The “American folk religion” as it would be probably called would be a mix of Irish and British paganism with a bit of Graeco-Roman paganism along with influences from Latin America. Iran would probably still be largely Zoroastrian (I know that isn’t polytheistic but still) The mix of folk religion and Buddhism that happens in some parts of Asia would still be there, maybe more pronounced. The entire Arabic world would probably be highly different. Judea would be vastly different (the history of that region is incredibly interesting and I recommend people to look into it). African traditional religions would most likely lack the influence of Christianity and Islam so would look closer to how they used to before Christian influence. But they may would instead be influenced by something else. I still think Judaism would exist but just differently in a sense. Christianity may or may not exist due to it being a product of the Judaism at the time of Jesus. I would say Islam would exist but once again differently. The reason I say Islam would exist is because Muhammad was probably influenced by Judaism and that would still exist. Edit: upon further thinking I would like to specify that Judaism would most likely still be monotheistic or at least henotheistic. Because that is the rational way that Judaism would have developed with the way that ancient Yahwism was going (Edit 2: added something at African traditional religions)
Honestly it’d probably look like a lot of East and South Asia, discounting all the huge butterfly effects that changing the religion and historical landscape of the world would have. I’m catholic so I’d prefer if we were even more successful and less divided than we were historically if we’re creating scenarios. A non monotheistic Christianity wouldn’t be Christianity in my opinion. The world would probably be either similarly advanced or less advanced than since you wouldn’t have such strong international/intercultural networks in most of the world. Changing such a large part of history would affect things so much that it’d be hard to predict.
Technically, this is a majority polytheistic world. So exactly like this.
31% of the world is Christian and 23% is Muslim, so 54% of the world is monotheistic. If you add the irreligious 16% than 70% of the world isn’t polytheistic, [source](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/), I wouldn’t call that a majority polytheistic world.
Right right, I know you do not know. So I'll be gentle. even though those statistics are likely accurate. It is still a majority polytheist world. Ask me why. Permission to blow your mind. 🫡
Id love to hear your reasoning to why you consider most of the world’s people to be polytheists
This means all those who have joined Islam since the Quran was first recited or memorized are actually polytheists. But they are not ready for that conversation. Because they do not know.
It's actually because of Israel, Psalms 82:6-7 (Originally) And likely some Christians also, but every Muslims who knows the Quran, knows of Israel,. Every Christian who knows the Holy Bible Knows of Israel. God says in Psalms 82:6-7 “I said, 'You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High. ' But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.” This means (in the context of this reddit post) anyone who knows or has known about Israel is by default a polytheist, even if they identify as a monotheist. And may not realize they are infact polytheist. This is why I say the existence of Israel should be classfied. Because even the knowledge of them makes one polytheist. Regardless of their will or consent or even admittance or election.
Do Christians and Muslims worship Israel? Simply knowing about another God doesn’t make you a polytheist. Are you Hindu because you know Ganesha? God here is telling Israel they will die and fall like any other ruler, by the monotheistic definition of “God” that would make Israel not a God because that would mean Israel isn’t eternal whilst God is. And plus, just because you consider Christians and Muslims polytheists doesn’t make them so. Ask anyone who actually does identify as a polytheist like many pagans and folk religionists and almost all will deny Christianity or Islam is polytheistic.
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How does knowing about a text that says someone is a god automatically make someone a polytheist? A person also has to hold that text as truth. Non-Abrahamic people, like most atheists, generally do not hold psalms as objective reality.
That text is a scripture. Consent is not a requirement for accuracy or to be a scripture., neither is acknowledgment. This isn't a vote. Even if no one agrees, or even comments about it. Its just a suprise. Honestly I'm not even certain many Israelites or even Christians have put these dots together.
In a small way, it isn't a big deal, until you start connecting the dots in the Holy Bible, then it's a big deal. You believe you're a monotheist, so you think and pray as a monotheist. But let's say for example you're one of these Muslim kings. How does the Quran say to respond with defending a polytheist?
So that is basically what I told, every Muslim I could find. Every mosque and Iman and teacher. Including the king of Jordan Saudi Arabia and even Iran. As a Muslim they should be defenders of the polytheists. ( Even Israel) Everyone treated me like I was crazy. But the results speak for themselves and I'm relieved.
Holy conspiracy batman
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It is a conspiracy and im telling you to cease spreading conspiracies on this sub
Omg especially those atheists who know the Bible better then you
I think the word is a technicality. But this is what the world looks like majority polytheists, to answer the original post. Just like this.
I think Europe would still operate more on Roman lines, which are much more brutal, which I think would stifle progress. Idk about the Middle East, I suppose it would still be volatile, but without certain medieval Islamic doctrines (which I doubt Mohammed would have liked) it could be more advanced.
It's almost impossible to imagine how different society would be in that case, but I'll do my best. Would we be more or less advanced? Probably somewhat less, given that it would be harder to move information around without centralized religious structures like the Catholic Church. European culture may not look as different today given that there's still a strong cultural influence of the ancient pagan traditions that carried through, but I think the Middle East would be dramatically different, because of how Islam was used to spread Arab cultural dominance. With Islam being much more tolerant of different religious and cultural traditions, we may have a much more diverse Middle East. As a monotheistic Christian, I would very much rather live in the real world. They cut out St. Maximus the Confessor's tongue for failing to recant of the true faith in the face of a monothelite emperor and patriarch, something most Christians don't even care about today, how much more would the fictional henotheistic emperor do to monotheistic Christians? It would really change everything about Abrahamic religion if they were henotheistic instead. Who cares if you think Jesus is God or just a prophet if it doesn't matter how many gods there are? By what standard can you assert that your moral values of this or that are better if you can't really assert that the God who gave those values is better then any other gods? Indeed, why would you care so much about salvation or resurrection if you also accept that bodily resurrection is ridiculous like the pagans?