Was monotheism the beginning of human oppression?

I was just watching a documentary on you tube about the Hittites because I have been trying to learn more about the Near East lately since there is so much history there. They were mentioning how the Hittites were called the people of 1000 gods because when they would take over a territory they would add their gods to their own religion in order to try to have as much divine favor as possible. They also mentioned how they were a just people with a modern legal system, invented peace treaties, etc.

This lead me to a revelation that when you allow mutliple religions/deities people have some freedom of worship and thought. However, once you institute a single god, then it becomes easy to control how people believe and ultimately think by controlling the religion of that one god.

Ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic and they could be extremely oppressive. The belief in one or more gods does not have an effect, the religion as a whole and who runs the religion does.

reply to post by CB328


Oppression has nothing to do directly with religions, it is society structure that oppress people, religion is only a part of society.

If you are after a time date for the start of oppression in general my best guess would put it on the advent of agriculture, this locked tribes to the land, required man power for labor and moved people from a state of near equality to a ranking system as it needed better management and coordination and so an administrative class was needed.

With the excess production trade was taken to another level this permitted even greater ease of access to food. Food security meant free time (for those that need not work) as so a technologist/clerics were added to the administrative class...

reply to post by Rectorate


Your generalizing an entire population.

While the leaders were going to war and saying they were supported by one Egyptian God there would be those who stayed hidden worshiping another.

With many Gods you can even worship the opposite of one of the gods...


In monotheistic societies, people were forced to believe in one god and any other gods were the enemy satan and they killed that person.

CB328
I was just watching a documentary on you tube about the Hittites because I have been trying to learn more about the Near East lately since there is so much history there. They were mentioning how the Hittites were called the people of 1000 gods because when they would take over a territory they would add their gods to their own religion in order to try to have as much divine favor as possible. They also mentioned how they were a just people with a modern legal system, invented peace treaties, etc.

This lead me to a revelation that when you allow mutliple religions/deities people have some freedom of worship and thought. However, once you institute a single god, then it becomes easy to control how people believe and ultimately think by controlling the religion of that one god.

edit on 2-11-2013 by CB328 because: (no reason given)

I think you may have a point. Rome did well, arguably, until the Christianazation by Constanteen (I truly can't spell)

And for the ignorami who equate the Hittities with Egyptians - not even close.

history-world.org...

reply to post by FyreByrd

Obviously I wasn't comparing Egyptians and Hittites. My comment was focusing on his question, does a monotheistic religion oppress people and control them?

You and arpgme seem to be focused on religion in general, not the leaders that used these religions to oppress. I'll say, while it is easier to oppress with one god, it is still possible to oppress with many gods.

In the universe I inhabit ---

Anything less than everything is not a god.
All that is -- is God.

Man-made gods, like Jehovah, Jupiter, Allah and Baal are a good measure of Man's foolishness as well as his piety.

Living in ignorance of our divine nature is a self-imposed oppression which renders us prey to more oppression from external sources.

Recognising God all around us renders the entire universe sacred.

You can live down an ecclesiastical sewer if you prefer.
It's your universe.

mistersmith.

Moses stumbles down the mountain to Aaron, tablets 9 & 10 of the commandments under his arm. "There's thousands of these bloody things up there, but this'll do to be going on with."

There is motion and rest together as one.
Only knowing the 'motion' can be like sea sickness.
The 'rest' is at the depth of the ocean watching the waving.

Rectorate
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

Obviously I wasn't comparing Egyptians and Hittites. My comment was focusing on his question, does a monotheistic religion oppress people and control them?

You and arpgme seem to be focused on religion in general, not the leaders that used these religions to oppress. I'll say, while it is easier to oppress with one god, it is still possible to oppress with many gods.

You are quite correct - the focus is on RELIGION not specific leaders of the same. It's the System. A Monothestic System.

I guess it depends on your definition of oppression. I was on e not oppressed by religion, and I used women, abused drugs, fought in bars, drove recklessly, took what I wanted, and generally lied, cheated, and stole my way to adulthood. I feel more freedom believing and dealing with a single God than I did without one. The human mind is deep, and a framework for navigation really helps.

apydomis
I guess it depends on your definition of oppression. I was on e not oppressed by religion, and I used women, abused drugs, fought in bars, drove recklessly, took what I wanted, and generally lied, cheated, and stole my way to adulthood. I feel more freedom believing and dealing with a single God than I did without one. The human mind is deep, and a framework for navigation really helps.

You are missing the point. It is the introduction of a Single God and/or a single religion that may have caused the problems the OP is presenting.

reply to post by CB328


Any time you have a religion, government, or any type of human
system, which enforces 'my way or the highway' you crush
the innate goodness of humans and destroy their entire
inner sense of self.

Anything which turns humans into trash and gives them no way
to escape, except obedience to the 'masters of the land' is
pure and unadulterated evil of the kind only found in the
movie "Time Bandits".

I'm also interested in the exact moment in history when the
human psyche was destroyed & shattered.

Monotheism in and of itself wouldn't be the answer I don't
think. There was functionally a female monotheistic period;
the first concept of the divine was "the mother". For the
longest time, men didn't even know that their 'seed'
did anything. But they were in awe of women giving
birth. That's why women were the first Divine concept.

But once the Divine was turned into a Man, then the
male concepts infected the concept of God, and
the raping, pillaging and killing of everything "in
the way of men" commenced wholesale.

(note: I'm a guy, a guy who believes in strong men, and
hates to see men emasculated.. but on the other hand
a 'real man' is not a dick head abuser of the innocent).

KPB

reply to post by CB328


Are you an atheist?
Because its typical of that frame of mind to reach conclusions like this..
I am just trying to point that the starting point/assumption very much influences interpretations about anything.
Do you completely ignore that if there was a God, its much more likely to be One? And that understanding would have started monotheism? It may have been abused to control and oppress but it may not hav been started for those ends. A fine distinction if you can see it.

Monotheism could not possibly have been the beginning of human oppression, so the answer to the op's query is a resounding "No!"
The idea that we were all peaceable prior to the time when Jehovah was cobbled together from various aspects of several Canaanite tribal war-gods is simply risible.

Mono and poly theism both share the same iniquitous feature, in that they establish a god which is separate from mankind.
Mankind is part of God, and any attempt to force a wedge of dogma between the two is a form of oppression.

Give a child an unbreakable toy and it will use it to smash all his other toys.
Give a zealot an Almighty God ..........

mistersmith.