Monotheism has a certain appeal. However, the Jewish scriptures, taken overall, are not monotheistic. The commandment is, "you shall have no other gods before me." So there is recognition of other gods. Plus in numerous places there is mention of entities such as angels, which Genesis said interbred with humans to create a superhuman race.
Neither is the God of the Old Testament all-powerful. He sent spies to Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate and come back and report to him. Is that an all-knowing, all-powerful God? And what about the way that the God of the Mountain (El Shaddai) was carried in a cart by the Jewish people? Or the way that God lived in the holy of holies in the Jerusalem temple? Was that an omnipresent God?
Neither was the God of the Old Testament kind, loving, or even ethical. Time and time again, that God commands his people to commit atrocities in his name or does them himself. In the Bible, sublime ethics are interspersed with actions worthy of Moloch or Baal.
Neither is the New Testament monotheistic, with all the demons and angels and Satan. (Remember that "lucifer" was created through a misreading of the Bible, as was the "virgin" prophecy. Then there is the problem of the trinity, which we are assured does not keep Christianity from being a monotheistic religion because "the three are one." Ah, that explains that.
The form of Christianity that has survived (among the several different forms that existed in the first century) is Paulinism. And take a look at the logic of the teachings of Paul--
1. God is perfect
2. God established laws for man to follow
3. Which man couldn't
4. So man, or at least some men (the Bible is unclear on this point, but it is claimed that Abraham and maybe Isaac were "saved" whatever that means before the coming of Jesus by believing in Jesus' coming in the future, of which there is no evidence he was told of said coming) being sinners, were condemned by God, which presumably included all those generations of Jews who thought they were following God's laws and got a harsh surprise!
5. And you have to wonder how an all-knowing, all-powerful God would have estalished rules he/she/it knew would be broken and could then blame the thing created for breaking laws that God knew were not going to be complied with in the first place because of the nature of the creature God created
6. But God, being kind and loving (hah! read the Old Testament!) wanted to "save" mankind
7. But God, even though all-powerful, could not back down and revoke the laws God set in place (why? If God is all-powerful, then why can't God amend his/her/its laws and back down a little? Are God's laws more powerful than God? Isn't that a contradiction?
8. Therefore, God is compelled to follow God's own laws (again, why? God made the laws for humans, so why is God bound to follow them?)
9. And by the laws of God the sinner must die
10. But apparently there is a loophole in this perfect law, and it's okay with God or with the so-called "perfect" laws God set in place if another dies in the place of the sinner (how the heck can anyone buy into this nonsense??? I mean if you discipline your kid for misbehaving, is it okay with you to discipline somebody else in your kids place? If someone is a convicted murderer, is it okay with the DA and judge and society that somebody else jump in and take the punishment instead?? What kind of screwy logic is that???)
11. And so God decided to put a piece of himself on earth to live and die as a man in place of all the sinners alive or dead or who shall live and impregnated a human female who was probably between the ages of 14 and 16, without her prior permission (=rape, God is a confessed sex offender under the laws of the 50 states)
12. And so Jesus died but did not really die (!) because being God as well as man he couldn't die, not really, and this is somehow supposed to "save" that portion of human kind who is confused enough to believe in it! I mean, if Jesus was God then Jesus couldn't die except in a sham way -- and a sham way in which Jesus didn't really die somehow satisfies the requiremens of the perfect law?
13. But the law says the SINNER must die. Jesus they say, did not sin. So how in a blue moon is it possible to satisfy the law by Jesus' fake death? This logical chain is nothing but a collection of broken, unconnected, links.
All this is a twisting of reason and a playing with words. But so many of us never follow it through; we get lost in the pseudo-logic of Romans and Hebrews and we go to church and sleepily follow through the rituals because others do and it is expected of us, because it is easier to do so than to resist.
What do I believe in? That as Socrates (or Plato) said, that the unexamined life is not worth living. Christians --and those of other religions-- do not examine themselves and the religions they profess to believe in. Religion is a form of mass insanity.
Think about what you believe in.
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