from The Meaning of Life: Ascending Jacob’s Ladder by Hazy Notion
If cultural evolution is the mass migration of human identity up the Spectrum then religion is the vehicle of mass transportation. But there are two different kinds of transporters. To get an idea of their essential differences they can be likened to the two different transportation modes commonly found in department stores. Here a choice is sometimes available between an elevator and an escalator.
A group of people who step into an elevator together on the ground floor arrive together upstairs. But a group of people who start together on an escalator are likely to be spread further and further apart as they go up. An escalator offers more freedom for individuals to set their own pace, but it is slower if there is a large number of people travelling a long distance. An elevator provides more group cohesion, and is faster once everyone is on-board, but it tends to be more crowded and uncomfortable than an escalator.
The monotheistic, or ‘one god’ religious system, is like a elevator; the polytheistic, or ‘many god’ system, is like an escalator.
Both monotheistic and polytheistic systems have basically the same functions — they define the purpose of life. Monotheism does this by specifying a single point on the Spectrum and declaring that the values inherent in the identity associated with that point are absolutely good. In English, the word ‘god’ has been conveniently formed by contracting the word ‘good’. A monotheistic god, then, is a role model for a ‘good’ identity. Monotheistic culture evolves as the religion continually redefines the concept of ‘good’ by nominating successively higher points on the Spectrum.
Polytheism, the escalator, follows a different principle. Instead of declaring a single point on the Spectrum as being good for everyone polytheistic religions provide a pantheon of gods by nominating a range of points on the Spectrum. This range of alternative role models for ‘the good’ allows individuals to choose identity Themes and Sub-Themes that most suit their personal inclinations.
Polytheism is by far the older of the two systems. Fertility cultures generally favoured religious systems which featured a range of deities representing various aspects of the Themes of Fertility and Survival. Early Status cultures, up until the Romans, carried on with this polytheistic tradition, recognising most of the Sub-Themes of Status under a variety of names. There were gods of war (Warriorship), goddesses of beauty (Style), gods of money (Number), gods of Wisdom, and so on. In the Roman system there was also an odd assortment of remnants of Fertility and Survival religions imported from throughout the empire.
But the Roman system eventually became too unwieldy and divisive. The large range of choice encouraged people to spread further and further out on the steps of the escalator. As time went on physical force had to be increasingly used to maintain cultural cohesion.
The main attraction of the polytheistic system is the freedom of identity offered to individuals. Each individual can choose the identity level that is most personally satisfying from a range of culturally compatible role models. However, in non-monotheistic systems the degree of individual freedom of identity has an inverse relationship to the degree of physical force that is required to maintain collective cohesion.
Polytheism was well suited to group identities that were basically tribal in nature, where the grouped individuals were mostly of the same mind stream type. However, when more complex societies began to develop — like nations and empires — comprising vast tribal amalgamations where people of both mind streams were represented in balanced proportions, a need arose to develop a more disciplined religious system. About 1500 years ago Europeans were moved off their various pagan escalators and crammed into a monotheistic Christian elevator.