10-30-2021, 11:30 PM
A fine read, nice imagery and some deep thinking.
I'd amend that the God of Abraham parted the Red Sea (and, equally important, closed it again) to humiliate the gods of Egypt in addition to Pharaoh (who was, of course, one of them). The God of Abraham was the all-highest and supreme, but He was not a monotheist: the gods of other tribes and races were not nonexistent, and He delighted in subduing them by embarrassing their followers. He was a jealous [g]od, but only required that His people have no other gods before Him; other gods after Him were fine so long as they were subordinate.
I suppose it was the Greeks, with their passion for Big Ideas, that gave Christianity near-Islamic absolute monotheism; poly- then crept back almost immediately in the form of the Trinity, archangels, and of course the indispensable Satan. Easy to understand why Muslims see Christians as polytheists... though they, too, have archangels.
I'd amend that the God of Abraham parted the Red Sea (and, equally important, closed it again) to humiliate the gods of Egypt in addition to Pharaoh (who was, of course, one of them). The God of Abraham was the all-highest and supreme, but He was not a monotheist: the gods of other tribes and races were not nonexistent, and He delighted in subduing them by embarrassing their followers. He was a jealous [g]od, but only required that His people have no other gods before Him; other gods after Him were fine so long as they were subordinate.
I suppose it was the Greeks, with their passion for Big Ideas, that gave Christianity near-Islamic absolute monotheism; poly- then crept back almost immediately in the form of the Trinity, archangels, and of course the indispensable Satan. Easy to understand why Muslims see Christians as polytheists... though they, too, have archangels.
Non-practicing atheist