Is monotheism progress? This question has been asked many times throughout the years by anthropologists, religious studies professors, and other academics. Progress is the act of "moving forward (as toward a goal)." Monotheism is not progress. It is not a backwards step either; both monotheism and animism are good religions. Christianity spread very quickly in part because it took over the infrastructure of the Roman Empire. It also simplified religion for some people, in the sense that all you need to do is go to church. I will prove that monotheism is not progress by comparing the core beliefs of monotheism and animism, and explaining the spread of monotheism in the form of Christianity. The core beliefs section will explain why animism is a good religion.
The main difference between animism and monotheism, besides the fact that there is one god in monotheism - the difference that all the other differences stem from - is the idea in monotheism, that humans have dominion over all other creatures on earth as is stated in Genesis lines 26, 27, and 28 " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (26). So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (27). And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (28)." This belief is central to all three major monotheistic religions. The animists have a very different central belief. The core tenet of animism is, according to Jacob Forbes, this belief: "I can lose my hands, and still live. I can lose my legs and still live. I can lose my eyes and still live. I can lose my hair, eyebrows, nose, arms, and many other things and still live. But if I lose the air I die. If I lose the Sun I die. If I lose the Earth I die. If I lose the water I die. If I lose the plants and animals I die. All of these things are more a part of me, more essential to my every breath, than is my so-called body. We are not autonomous, self-sufficient beings as European mythology teaches.... We are rooted just like the trees. But our roots come out of our nose and mouth, like an umbilical cord, forever connected to the rest of the world.... Nothing that we do, do we do by ourselves. We do not see by ourselves. We do not hear by ourselves.... That which the tree exhales, I inhale. That which I exhale, the trees inhales. Together we form a circle." This belief is very different from monotheism, and allows for very different societies to be built. In a monotheistic society, such as ours, it would be okay to chop down entire forests to mass produce houses. Whereas in an animistic society, you would only build a modest house for yourself and only cut down a small part of the forest and let it grow back. The building blocks of society are completely different. While the monotheistic view may seem harsh it can be interpreted in many different ways, as can almost everything in the bible.
Christianity became a real religion when, in 313 CE Constantine made Christianity an official religion, rather than a cult. Christianity was shaped forever by the Nicene Creed, because it superseded Christianity becoming widely practiced, and most forms of Christianity evolved out of this Catholicism. The Creed stated: "The First Council of Nicaea, which took place during the reign of Emperor Constantine in 325 CE, was the first ecumenical (from Greek oikumene, "worldwide") conference of bishops of the Christian Church. The purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements over whether the second person of the Trinity (the Son) was like or unlike the first (the Father). Bishop Alexander of Alexandria took the first position; the popular preacher Arius, from whom the term Arian comes, took the second. The council decided against the Arians. The Council of Nicaea was historically significant because it was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all Christians. We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father, through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. Those who say: There was a time when He (the Son) was not, and He was not before He was begotten; and that He was made out of nothing; or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance than the Father, or that the Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to change, them the Catholic Church anathematizes." In 476 the Roman Empire fell and one of the uniting forces after the collapse was Christianity.Most of the states that sprung up in the Empire's wake were Christian and this helped Europe stay together. However, many different sects of Christianity started popping up at this point and everyone wanted their sect to be the ruling one. This forced Justinian I of Byzantium (what was the ‘Western Roman Empire') to implement the Justinian code in 546, stating that " We desire that all peoples subject to Our benign Empire shall live under the same religion that the Divine Peter, the Apostle, gave to the Romans, and which the said religion declares was introduced by himself, and which it is well known that the Pontiff Damascus, and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, embraced; that is to say, in accordance with the rules of apostolic discipline and the evangelical doctrine, we should believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constitute a single Deity, endowed with equal majesty, and united in the Holy Trinity. | We order all those who follow this law to assume the name of Catholic Christians, and considering others as demented and insane, We order that they shall bear the infamy of heresy; and when the Divine vengeance which they merit has been appeased, they shall afterwards be punished in accordance with Our resentment, which we have acquired from the judgment of Heaven." Eventually, once most of Europe followed Catholicism the Christians started working on killing and driving out Muslims and Jews. After this was all said and done, new forms of Christianity started to develop and they fought amongst themselves and the original unity of Christianity was lost. If you look at a religious map today you can see many of the dominant sects of Christianity and where they are most predominant.
