From: spinner@euler.udel.edu (Stuart Spinner)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism.moderated
Subject: Is theism so widespread? (was Re: Why is theism so widespread?)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 19:51:33 GMT
Reply-To: spinner@euler (Stuart Spinner)
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Delaware

>> Why is belief in God almost universal among societies (not individuals)?

Is belief in God universal among societies?  I think this premise is very
questionable, however, I am neither an anthropologist nor an historian.  I
have my own bias (being an atheist) that this premise is false, but worth
something like a careful study before it is thrown out as a given.

My very sketchy knowledge of chinese history and philosophy suggests that
China is now and always has been a good counterexample to this premise. Among
peasants in China and throughout southeast Asia, ancestor worship seems to
have been and continues to be the primary part of religious ceremony and
belief.  In good Judeo-Christian terms, the chinese seem more than anything
to be "idolators"; this is evinced by a recent article in the New York Times
that reported that Mao has become something of demigod and that his picture
was beginning to appear in the little altars that Beijing cab drivers keep in
their cabs.  This type of practice in China (and Rome for that matter) of
deifying dead "emperors" is thousands of years old.  It is important to note
that this is not theism (belief in God) but a form of "polytheism" (belief in
gods or spirits of the dead) which, as Abraham well knew, is a very different
thing.

If one were to look for a "universal" type of religious belief or behavior, I
think that this type of thing is a better candidate then "theism."  Look
into, Japanese Shintoism, for example, or the relationship that many working
class and peasant catholics have with their saints.  

Some ideas, then, which seem "universal" in human culture are:
   - that people don't really die, but live on in some other
     form and, perhaps, are able to intercede for us in times of need.  

   - that places, objects, plants and animals have "spirits" associated with
     them with which we can have commerce.

Perhaps, then, I would say that belief in gods (in the broadest sense) is
universal, but that belief in one God certainly is not.  My final argument in
favor of this is that many historians seem to agree that monotheism, at least
as far as the west is concerned, developed out of Ancient Egyptian
polytheistic religion during the time of the great pharoahs.  Thus,
monotheism seems to be a relatively recent invention as far as human culture
is concerned (it postdates agriculture).  It's invention of course is usually
ascribed to the Jews.

Now, it certainly can be said that monotheism was one of the great ideas of
human civilization.  Logically speaking, it is a good simple theory which is
an abstraction of those things which came before.  I think this is one of the
reasons that it has been successful; it really does provide a common ground
for people of different cultures and backgrounds.  It allows one to argue
that no matter what your particular theology, we're all talking about the
same thing.  This logical economy, however, comes at the expense of
substance; in order to argue that God is universal, we abstract away those
parts of our own particular theology that are not universal.  What tends to
be left is Aristotle's "unmoved Mover" the beginning of everything or, if you
don't believe in a beginning, then the "great mystery of life," that is, the
answer to all those questions that no one can answer.  

The crux of my own atheism is twofold.  Firstly, that notions of gods and God
just serve to make the universe seem human (anthropomorphism).  Although
comforting, this seems to me to be the darkest glass through which we see the
universe.  Secondly, for those who assert that God is not an
anthropomorphism, I agree that the concept can be abstracted this far, but I
assert that at just this point the concept becomes entirely uncontroversial;
and I prefer to discard a word for it that has become so loaded with mythic
attributes.

Respectfully Submitted,
Stuart Spinner