Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Just about as long as we’ve been around as a species, large portions of humanity have
followed some sort of religion.
These have come in many forms, but most involve some sort of creator.
In recent years, the monotheistic Abrahamic religions have become far more prevalent,
to the point where most religious people believe in just one God.
However, in centuries past, civilizations like the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well
as the ancient Chinese, were polytheistic, believing in a pantheon of Gods.
Today we’ll be discussing what the world would be like if it was, truly, ruled by a
number of gods.
It’s time to ask the question: What if there was more than one God?
There are many kinds of polytheistic religions.
For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans both worshiped a pantheon of Gods, each with
their own specialty and powers.
Buddhism, on the other hand, involves many higher beings called Devas, who were people
who obtained great amounts of positive karma and were reborn as god-like beings.
For the sake of clarity, this video will be focusing on the Greek and Roman pantheon-style
Gods.
Because they’re fairly well known, and of course, they’re cool.
Is there any better reason?
So how would the world be different if there really was a pantheon of Gods?
Well, for starters, there’s a pretty good chance that the polytheistic religions would
still be around in full force today.
The Greeks and Romans worshipped very similar gods, and it’s possible that both mythologies
would have lived on.
It’s also possible that, if the gods truly were real, they would reveal themselves more
fully and create one true religion that all could agree on.
Another implication of this is that the Abrahamic religions would be proven to be incorrect,
since they claim that a single God exists.
This means that many of the things that occurred either wholly or partially due to these religions
would not have happened.
On the bright side, the terrible things done in the name of religion, like the Crusades,
The Spanish Inquisition, and more recently Islamic Terrorism, may not have taken place.
But it isn’t all good news.
The Abrahamic religions have done a great deal of good in the world.
They increased literacy, improved the quality of life in many areas, brought about incredible
literature and architecture, and have had a huge impact on the arts in general.
Without their contributions, it’s possible that certain areas of our society would lag
somewhat behind, particularly if the Gods had the affinity for war found in the Roman
mythology.
But, you may be thinking, if there really were many gods, couldn’t they have done
the same things as the Abrahamic religions?
Well, it’s certainly possible.
However, the Greek and Roman religions and mythologies had very different values from
the Abrahamic religions that came later.
There was much more interest in making sacrifices and worshipping the clearly egotistical Gods,
often causing war and strife just to settle differences between them.
That said, it could be that very similar things would have occurred.
There was often fighting between those who worshipped one God and those who worshipped
another.
This could potentially lead to holy wars similar to those done in the name of Abrahamic religion.
Furthermore, while many of the ancient gods were rather warlike, that doesn’t mean there
was no love of culture in them as well.
Gods like Apollo, the god of Music and Poetry, and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, would
likely be largely focused on developing science and the arts, and would likely provide support
to the great scientific and artistic minds of the world.
One rather intriguing implication is that the existence of more than one God would explain
a lot about the world.
One issue that many critics have with monotheistic religion is that it doesn’t sufficiently
explain suffering in the world.
If there was one God who is all powerful and all loving, why would he allow so many innocent
people to live such terrible lives?
On the other hand, the various quarrels and rivalries between the many gods of polytheistic
religions go a long way to explain why people do suffer.
Evil makes more sense in a world ruled be narcissistic, egotistical beings with far
too much power.
Read into that as you will.
(Maybe show a pic of Trump?)
Finally, we really ought to deal with the fact that this would be a world with actual
gods that exist and involve themselves in human affairs.
The world would be a significantly less predictable place, because you never know when the laws
of physics will suddenly be turned on their head, or when you will suddenly be smote by
a lightning bolt.
If the incredible events described in the mythology continued to occur throughout history,
the story of humanity would be very different, with supernatural events being much more commonplace.
You probably wouldn’t skip church if it meant you’d be turned into a spider.
So now we return to our question: What if there was more than one God?
In a world with actual gods, making predictions is more or less impossible, since their supernatural
abilities could change the world in any number of ways.
However, there are certain things we can take from this.
Philosophically, the existence of many gods would go quite a long way to explaining why
suffering and evil exist, something that monotheistic religions struggle to sufficiently explain.
Furthermore, the religions that worshipped the pantheon of gods would likely still be
the predominant ideologies to this day, since if the Gods existed they would probably squash
out any competing false Gods.
The elimination of the monotheistic religions would also likely change the world in both
positive and negative ways, although the polytheistic religions could fall victim to similar events
themselves.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into the topic further.
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While you’re down there, tell us about your favourite Greek or Roman God.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.