Magus55

The trinity is 3 distinct persons, but only one God. An analogy: Past, Present, Future. Three distinct time periods, yet are they all not "time"? Solid, Liquid, Gas - 3 different forms of matter, yet are they not all equal matter? A cube of ice is still water, and water vapor is still water.

Valdemar

Uhhh...yeah. My brother, my sister, and myself. Three different organisms, but still "people."

But NOT the same person. So your analogy fails.

sharon45

But you can't have a solid, liquid, and gas at the exact same time from the same exact sample of water.

With your 'idea', all the different Greek gods were all part of one god: Zeus, so there really was only a Greek god instead.

An example that was given in another thread:

In the NT, god kept secrets from jesus and jesus prayed to god, not quite two 'beings' into the same one 'being'.

Matrioshka_Brain

Further regarding Xiantiy and polytheism, and the trinity: Yaweh states once "...we are pleased...", and possibly some other stuff with "we" in it (don't know where).

This is inconsistent with a 1 minded being (hive mind){and you woldn't call siameese twins "1 person, would you?}. It is consistant with Dagon and Co., along with the 3 god triad concept.

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And Postcard:

I think the concept of Xianity being monotheistic likely drived from one or two things, with some profound implicaitons:

1.) Commandment 1 interpretation:

Someone, somewhere, must have taken it as indicitve of no other gods existing. Or, in their furvor, declared all other gods as non-existant. Or another bible passage contradicts it, and the monotheism supporting one won over in the public's eye.

2.) Overbolwn tribal religion, ethnocentrism, and inconsistency:

Really, the bible's god charicter seems to be just interested in it's "chosen people", the Heberew tribes. Many of it's charicteristics (circumcision, severe punishments, sacrifices, magic {The real reason "Yaweh" was not to be mentioned was because it was thought to call down stuff, like an incantation or something [maybe]}, "chosen people", ect.) are found in other tribal religions. Polytheism is one of those charicteristics.

*The messiah the heberew were looking for, was meant to save them specifically and bring them to rule the world or something. Jesus, whom would rise to popularity, either didn't sell this, or his followers from other races/tribes interpreted it as a saviour for everyone, so they could be included.*

***That could have also extended to the missionaries later. By denying the existance of other gods ("the one true god" reflex), they could win more converts.***

Not to mention the possibility that they saw polytheistic religions as associated with less advanced peoples, and sought to distance themselves from them.

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It's mostly speculation, but it's the best I could come up with. You might also want to look into the book "Who Wrote the Bible" (didn't read it, but it might provide some insights).

wade-w

To me, it looks like Polytheism.

- R. A. Heinlein