Yield of the Field

March 19, 2021 - Nisan 6, 5781

Just as one polytheistic system was tolerant of a multiplicity of gods within its own framework, polytheistic systems tended towards tolerance of other polytheistic systems. Polytheism's fundamental assumption was the complex and variegated manifestation of the cosmos, which led it to permit and tolerate other peoples' deities on principle alone. This tolerance wasn't simply a matter of expanding a pantheon, it was the essential view that all deities were equally valid manifestations, even if different, and were therefore theologically agreeable and inoffensive.

Monotheism was the exact opposite to the point where it achieved a "theological singularity." Beyond rejecting the natural and perpetual expansion of the total set of mutually compatible gods, it rejected the underlying proposition that powered the entire process in the first place. In other words, it didn't just reject the quantity produced through expansion (although it certainly did), it rejected the quality of a continuum that permitted classifiable and independent powers. It understood the assumption of shared multiplicity of creative forces powering reality as a gross and even repulsive error. It fathomed that the observable complexity of the environment owed itself to a singular consciousness that could not be expressed at all, and certainly not with any degree of accuracy, within the environment that it created.

Therefore, it would be totally inaccurate to describe monotheism as "the belief in one god," and not even as the non-existence of any of the gods of polytheism, but that one "centrally located" administrative and completely integrated force is responsible for the creation and functioning of every aspect of existence at all times in every way. This position on principle alone does not allow for any fundamental "theological activity" of any perceivable independent forces or beings, all explained as necessary aberrations observed by entities occupying the environment, known as "human beings." Grossly put, if the continuum of reality is a film running through a projector, any independent beings perceived by viewers are smudges on the film.

Check back for more at a later date or time... This is a work-in-progress...