Origin of the fish symbol in monotheism.

Originally posted by Produkt
Just one example. What I don't understand about monotheistic religion's, is how they think their's is the one true and only religion/god. The bible looks as if it's teaching that this is how it's alway's been, when in fact it hasn't always been. Polytheism was worshiped well before judaism ever came about. India and china have been around even longer then that, yet neither practiced monotheism until christian's and other 'faiths' brought it to them. The tribal culture's in africa and the native american's, all have been around for thousand's of year's, yet it wasn't untill those of monotheistic faith that these culture's even had the concept of your god. So how is it that given these fact's that those of monotheistic faith can even assume that they and they alone got it right while the rest are all just oh so wrong despite them being thousands of years older?

Well first off even if it was not called Judaism until thousands of years later, that does not mean it did not exist in one form or another. It may not have had a name yet, but it was practiced by the Patriarchs and the line of Seth.

Interestingly enough Polytheism may stem from the event that is alluded to in Genesis 6:

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

This is further expounded upon in several of the Pseudopigraphal texts such as the book of Enoch. Interestingly enough Flavius Josephus makes the same connection that I am stating here in the THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS were he says:

For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.

So you can see here that this same event may have lead to the legends that became your polytheistic religions. Interestingly enough most of those religions have almost the exact same principle characters, even if they have a different name, and most of them include the concept of mating between a deity and a human to make a superhuman being.


Ren
Thanks for the Vote and compliment, it’s much appreciated. I hope you don’t mind me chiming in on your side discussion about polytheism/Monotheism…

Peace



[edit on 2/28/2006 by defcon5]

Interestingly, you've got it half ass backwards. Monotheism stemmed off of polytheism. It's already well known that many aspect's of christianity was borrowed from paganistic belief's that were already in existance prior to christianity. Go back in time and see how many refrences for monotheism exist 6,000 years ago. There are none. Go back furthur, 10000 years ago, still none. Let's go back even furthur 15,000 years ago, damn polytheism isn't even that popular yet. Continuing on towards 20,000 years ago, man hasn't even started any form of meaningful civilization yet, let alone written language or any form of record keeping. look around the pre-modern world, before christianity had a chance to sink it's claw's into other culture's. Those culture's did not hold a monotheistic view! Wow... interesting. Let's look at where monotheism started, in the mesopotamia region alone, by itself. Look at how much it's borrowed from pre-existing culture's. Look at how much it's attacking gaps in scientific knowledge in an atempt to prove it's validity. Even if you believe in a 6,000 year old earth, you still can't find any mention of a monotheistic god 6,000 years ago. None existed as mainstream belief's.

And don't act idiotic. God did not creat my children. Both me and my wife did together. Our genetic trait's and chance alone for which sperm would penetrate the egg dictated how our child would grow, both physically and in some aspects, mentally. Their personality, some genetics, mostly enviromental influence's. As for a soul, none exist's. Scapegoat belief system as a way to exscape death so you can feel better in your happy place.