Jews, Christians, Muslims, and the adherents of numerous less famous religions (like Druze and Baha'i) are monotheists. Monotheism is most clear in Judaism and Islam, since… the most fundamental element of both religions is believing and worshiping just one God. The Christian concept of the Trinity is more divisive of God's nature. (MORE)
Your question is incomplete. Monotheism means belief in only one god (ex: Christianity) while polytheism means belief in more than one god (ex: ancient Greek). ANSWER 2: …Assuming the question to be Where did monotheism begin?... All of the world's major religions began in the East. Hinduism, the oldest known religion (since the written word), began in India and is the first recognized religion to teach of a lone Creator God (Vishnu). (MORE)
It's a matter of opinion and debate. Clearly the ancient Hebrews worshipped only one God, but it's possible that they recognized the existence of other, lesser gods. By the …year 70 CE, they were clearly monotheistic. (MORE)
There is no evidence that monotheism is superior to polytheism. In fact, polytheistic religions appear to be somewhat more tolerant that monotheistic religions. If you are cho…osing a religion, it is better to choose one that you feel meets your spiritual needs than to decide on the basis of monotheism or polytheism. (MORE)
A: Monotheism may have existed in more than one culture, so it is somewhat misleading to speak of monotheism as having been 'born'. For example, some early Bronze Age culture…s in the Mediterranean region may have worshipped the Mother Goddess as a sole deity, although this would have given way to polytheism by the Iron Age. It is popularly thought that the earliest form of monotheism began with the biblical Abraham around four thousand years ago, and that his monotheistic beliefs were passed down through Moses to the Israel nation. However, even if we accept the biblical account as literally true, the Bible at no time attributes monotheistic beliefs to Abraham. In fact, Jewish monotheism did not begin until the Deuteronomistic reforms of King Josiah of Judah, in the seventh century BCE. One respected source on this is Lang, cited by Keel and Uehlinger ( Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel ), " In the four and a half centuries during which there were one or two Israelite monarchies (ca. 1020-586 B.C.), there was a dominant, polytheistic religion that was indistinguishable from that of neighboring peoples. Insofar as there were differences between the Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Tyrian, etc. versions of religion, these beliefs stayed within the framework of Near Eastern polytheism, and each should be interpreted as a local variant of the same basic pattern. The Israelites . . . venerated their own protector god who was there to provide for health and family. But they venerated Yahweh [God] as well, the regional and national god, whose special domain dealt with war and peace issues ." Zoroastrian monotheism began in southern Russia perhaps around 1800 BCE and was carried to eastern Iran, before being transmitted to western Iran (Persia and Media) in the eighth century BCE. Monotheism was also born, at least officially, in Egypt in the mid-fourteenth century BCE, but di not continue after the death of Pharaoh Akhenaten. (MORE)