Talk:Monotheism

Nearly the entire article is heavily biased toward the aim of glorifying the Abrahamic branch of religions, to the point of nonsensical self-contradiction. Notably, there is a clearly concerted effort to claim Judaism was the first monotheistic religion in history. The dismissal of Zoroastrianism as supposedly not being truly monotheistic due to a dualistic cosmology, but Christianity is also dualistic. Nevertheless, Christianity is explicitly cited by the article as supposedly being monotheistic. The monotheism of Zoroastrianism is further called into question on account of Zoroastrians worshiping "lesser divinities" but this is also found in Christianity, if not also Judaism and Islam. The article needs to be reworked to apply consistent standards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:4040:B078:6C00:99A9:7F8A:D244:C8D5 (talk) 03:08, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

{u| 2600:4040:B078:6C00:99A9:7F8A:D244:C8D5}} Zoroastrianism has at least thirty gods, which aren't seen as extensions of the primary monarchic god I'm not sure that counts.. Tiggy The Terrible (talk) 16:57, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

According to scientists, Judaism started as a Monolatry. And the mention of Judaism not considering Christians as monotheistic is irrelevant: or should we include, that Islam doesn't recognise Judaism and Christianity as monotheistic and that Christianity doesn't recognise Judaism as monotheistic? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.207.62.121 (talk) 17:28, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Scientists don't study history. I'm also very sceptical of the claims about Jewdaism. Them slipping away from the practice into idolotry isn't the same thing. Tiggy The Terrible (talk) 16:59, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

"Israel’s god, further, was never the only god, not even in his own book. Jewish scriptures teem with other deities. In situations of war, they contest with YHWH. But they also converse with him. They attend his heavenly court. They bow down to him. They serve as the gods of the nations. Eventually, ancient Jews generated myths domesticating these other superhuman powers as errant angels or as rather dim political subordinates. Those Jews (and, later, gentile Christians) of sufficient (pagan) philosophical education might argue for these powers’ ontological contingency on the One God. In biblical narrative, however, these other divine forces are often simply there."

Fredriksen, Paula. “Philo, Herod, Paul, and the Many Gods of Ancient Jewish ‘Monotheism.’” Harvard Theological Review 115, no. 1 (2022): 4-5. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816022000049. TrevorBR (talk) 20:16, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

The section of this article on Monotheism entitled "The Chinese View" is completely misleading and mischaracterizes the whole of Chinese civilization. The one reference the writer referred to in claiming that Chinese culture has had a monotheistic view was from 1959. Since then more accurate cross-cultural studies of the traditional Chinese worldview by Chinese scholars both East and West have made it abundantly clear that China never had anything resembling monotheism - that the claim of Chinese monotheism was made by Western scholars who knew little of the Chinese language, worldview, translation issues, and the like. Thus they took Chinese words out of context and attached them to the closest words in Western languages they thought they referred to, such as the term "Tian" in Chinese, translated as "Heaven" in English. Any sampling of the literature on Chinese studies will verify this. A very short list of books that would put this claim to rest are:

The series by Chinese scholars David Hall and Roger Ames: 1. Thinking Through Confucius (SUNY Series in Systematic Philosophy), 1993; 2. Anticipating China: Thinking through the Narratives of Chinese and Western Culture, 1995; 3. Thinking from the Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture, 1998.

Other Books by Chinese scholars: 1. Ziporyn, Brook: Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and Its Antecedents (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)Jul 2, 2014; 2. Ziporyn, Brook: Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)Jul 2, 2013; 3. Angle, Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy 1st Edition, 2012; 4. Graham, A.C; Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China April, 1989.

I suspect this section of the Wikipedia Monotheism article has made a such an unwarranted claim of Chinese monotheism for global political purposes, to make monotheism appear as some universal cultural standard and thereby raise the credibility of the Western monotheistic view of religion, or it is just plainly out of touch with current cross-cultural scholarship on the nature of the Chinese worldview. Integraldude (talk) 21:27, 19 September 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Integraldude (talk • contribs) 21:22, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

There is no conspiracy it is simply the nature of mythology that it is interpreted in differing ways. This isn't science, you cannot assert as a fact that it is or isn't monotheistic. There are arguments here that it is, there are other arguments in wikipedia Chinese folk religion that it isn't. It's exactly the same with Christianity, some believe it to be monotheistic others don't. Unibond (talk) 11:29, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

You absolutely *can* claim that a religion is monotheistic or that it is not, without any subjectivity at all. A monotheistic religion is any religion in which there is exactly one god (with one or more mainfestations). If a religion has more than one god, it is plainly not a monotheistic religion. It doesn't matter if people only worship one god or if they worhship no gods or an infinite many number of gods. The existance of exactly one god is what matters. This is the definition that this article starts with and it leaves no room for interpretation. If any argument exists that more than one god exists, at all, then that settles that a religion is _not_ monotheistic. The only hope to restore the idea that a religion is actually monotheistic means disproving those arguments, not bringing up new arguments to the contrary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.239.195.102 (talk) 05:19, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

It is biased-filled and why the heck you keep it by beginning with "Why the Jews and moslems do not aknowledge Christian Trinity Monotheistic."?

It is biased due because the same "Jewish and Moslem rejection" is being repeated in "Judaism" Section and "Islam" section within this Article.

Call it 'mass-removal of POV-filled sources' but I improved it by making the "Abrahamic Religions" Section free from Apologetics and Missionary-motivated editing. Royalistandlegitimist (talk) 05:50, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

What you say seems like WP:RGW/WP:BATTLEGROUND. Tgeorgescu (talk) 10:21, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

E.g. the existence of hell isn't acceptable to all Christian denominations. Stating it in the voice of Wikipedia violates WP:RNPOV. Tgeorgescu (talk) 06:38, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

(i'm too shy and uninformed to edit myself but) this statement "Gathered statistics shows the number of adherents at as many as 3.5 million" in ^[1]'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism#Zoroastrianism' contradicts this statement "According to a study in 2012 by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America, the number of Zoroastrians worldwide was estimated to be between 111,691 and 121,962." in 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism#Demographics'. while the latter source at 'http://fezana.org/downloads/ZoroastrianWorldPopTable_FEZANA_Journal_Fall_2013.pdf' is not exactly a renowned source, at least it seems an honest effort, whereas the source for the former seems to link to a payday website (https://www.adherents.com/payday-loans/#Zoroastrianism), and the poster should probably be ashamed of themselves.

Wow - adherents.com domain must have lapsed. You can look up the archived versions of the cite on the wayback machine - the link was very likely added before the site changed. I'm pretty sure adherents.com has been used on several other wp articles. Even then, it was still a slightly questionable source. Still, we should be using the most up-to-date reliable sources we can find. History.com - Zoroastrianism (2019) puts the estimate at around 200,000 adherents, so I'm guessing it's somewhere in-between. --FyzixFighter (talk) 21:26, 30 April 2021 (UTC)